CREATING A VIRTUAL RESOURCE PACKAGE

• US 20140208320A1
• Filed: 01/08/2014
• Published: 07/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: WANG, XI NING, HUANG, YAN JUN, TANG, WEI FENG, YUE, BAI
• Granted Patent: US 9,547,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and/or computer program product creates a virtual resource package. Metadata related to a machine is captured, where the machine is a physical machine and/or a virtual machine. A constraint definition describing a configuration constraint of the machine is generated based on the captured metadata. A disk image file of the at least one machine, the captured metadata and the generated constraint definition are packaged to generate the virtual resource package.

Claims

1. A method for creating a virtual resource package, the method comprising:

capturing, by one or more processors, metadata related to at least one machine, wherein said at least one machine includes at least one of a physical machine and a virtual machine;

generating, by one or more processors, a constraint definition describing a configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the captured metadata; and

packaging, by one or more processors, a disk image file of the at least one machine, the captured metadata and the generated constraint definition to generate the virtual resource package.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the at least one machine being a physical machine, the capturing metadata related to at least one machine includes:

capturing, as the metadata, at least one of information related to an operation system of the physical machine and information related to software installed on the physical machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the at least one machine being a virtual machine, the capturing metadata related to at least one machine includes:

capturing, as the metadata, at least one of information related to resources of the virtual machine, information related to an operation system of the virtual machine, and information related to software installed on the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information related to software includes topology information of the software.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

converting, by one or more processors, the captured metadata related to the at least one machine into a data file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the generating a constraint definition describing a configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the captured metadata includes:

aggregating, by one or more processors, the at least one data file into a context model file; and

generating, by one or more processors, the constraint definition describing the configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the context model file.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuration constraint of the at least one machine includes at least one of a configuration constraint of the operation system, a configuration constraint of the software, and a triggered action constraint of the at least one machine.

8. An apparatus for creating a virtual resource package, the apparatus comprising:

a capturing device configured to capture metadata related to at least one machine which includes at least one of a physical machine and a virtual machine;

a generating device configured to generate a constraint definition describing a configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the captured metadata; and

a packaging device configured to package a disk image file of the at least one machine, the captured metadata and the generated constraint definition to generate the virtual resource package.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the capturing device includes a physical machine metadata capturing unit configured to capture, as the metadata, at least one of information related to an operation system of the physical machine and information related to software installed on the physical machine.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the capturing device includes a virtual machine metadata capturing unit configured to capture, as the metadata, at least one of information related to resources of the virtual machine, information related to an operation system of the virtual machine, and information related to software installed on the virtual machine.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the information related to software includes topology information of the software.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the capturing device includes a converting unit configured to convert the captured metadata related to the at least one machine into a data file.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the generating device includes:

an aggregating unit configured to aggregate the at least one data file into a context model file; and

a constraint definition generating unit configured to generate the constraint definition describing the configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the context model file.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the configuration constraint of the at least one machine includes at least one of a configuration constraint of the operation system, a configuration constraint of the software, and a triggered action constraint of the at least one machine.

15. A computer program product for creating a virtual resource package, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code readable and executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:

capturing metadata related to at least one machine, wherein said at least one machine includes at least one of a physical machine and a virtual machine;

generating a constraint definition describing a configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the captured metadata; and

packaging a disk image file of the at least one machine, the captured metadata and the generated constraint definition to generate the virtual resource package.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein in response to the at least one machine being a physical machine, the capturing metadata related to at least one machine includes:

capturing, as the metadata, at least one of information related to an operation system of the physical machine and information related to software installed on the physical machine.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein in response to the at least one machine being a virtual machine, the capturing metadata related to at least one machine includes:

capturing, as the metadata, at least one of information related to resources of the virtual machine, information related to an operation system of the virtual machine, and information related to software installed on the virtual machine.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the information related to software includes topology information of the software.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

converting the captured metadata related to the at least one machine into a data file.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the generating a constraint definition describing a configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the captured metadata includes:

aggregating the at least one data file into a context model file; and

generating the constraint definition describing the configuration constraint of the at least one machine based on the context model file.