APPARATUS, SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CROSS-CLOUD APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT

• US 20150261514A1
• Filed: 03/11/2014
• Published: 09/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CliQr Technologies, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: FU, TIANYING, SRINIVASAN, VENKAT NARAYAN
• Granted Patent: US 9,430,213 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed facilitate obtaining a cloud agnostic representation of a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) on a first cloud; and obtaining a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic representation of the first VMI.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method comprising:

obtaining a cloud agnostic image representation from a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) on a first cloud, the cloud agnostic image representation being obtained, in part, by removing a cloud specific layer in the first VMI; and

obtaining a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second VMI is obtained, in part, by obtaining a cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud, the cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud being obtained by augmenting the cloud agnostic image representation with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining the cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud comprises:

launching a second virtual machine (VM) obtained from the cloud agnostic image representation on the second cloud;

downloading, in a format compatible with the second cloud, a stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data to the second cloud, wherein the cloud agnostic representation of the volume data is associated with cloud agnostic image representation;

creating and attaching a volume comprising the downloaded volume data to the second VM;

augmenting the volume comprising the downloaded volume data with cloud specific configuration settings for the second cloud;

detaching the volume comprising the augmented volume data from the second cloud; and

creating the second VMI based on the volume comprising the augmented volume data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the cloud agnostic image representation comprises:

launching a first virtual machine (VM) on the first cloud based, in part, on the first VMI;

modifying volume data associated with the first VM by removing cloud specific settings for the first VM;

obtaining bundled volume data by bundling the modified volume data; and

storing a cloud agnostic representation of the bundled volume data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the second VMI comprises:

launching a second virtual machine (VM) on the second cloud based, in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation;

obtaining, in a format compatible with the second cloud, volume data for the second VM from the stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data associated with the cloud agnostic image representation;

augmenting the obtained volume data with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud; and

creating the second VMI based on the augmented volume data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data is obtained by removing cloud specific settings for the first VM from volume data associated with the first VM.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the second VM is launched using an operating system that is compatible with but different from an operating system associated with the first VMI.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is invoked using a user interface that permits selection of the first cloud, the first VMI and the second cloud, the first and second clouds being selected from a plurality of available clouds.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deploying the second VMI on the second cloud.

15. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data is obtained by removing cloud specific settings for the first VM from volume data associated with the first VM.

10. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor coupled to at least one cloud, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

obtain a cloud agnostic image representation from a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) on a first cloud, the cloud agnostic image representation being obtained, in part, by removing a cloud specific layer in the first VMI; and

obtain a second VMI for a second cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein to obtain the second VMI, the processor is configured to:

obtain a cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud, the cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud being obtained, in part, by augmenting the cloud agnostic image representation with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus further comprises:

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising the cloud agnostic image representation and a stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data associated with the cloud agnostic image representation; and

wherein, to obtain the cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud, the processor is configured to;

launch a second virtual machine (VM) obtained from the cloud agnostic image representation on the second cloud;

download, in a format compatible with the second cloud, the stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data to the second cloud;

create and attach a volume comprising the downloaded volume data to the second VM;

augment the volume comprising the downloaded volume data with cloud specific configuration settings for the second cloud;

detach the volume comprising the augmented volume data from the second cloud; and

create the second VMI in the memory, the second VMI being created based on the volume comprising the augmented volume data.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a memory coupled to the processor, and

wherein, to obtain the cloud agnostic image representation, the processor is configured to;

launch a first virtual machine (VM) on the first cloud based, in part, on the first VMI;

modify volume data associated with the first VM by removing cloud specific settings for the first VM;

obtain bundled volume data by bundling the modified volume data; and

store, in the memory, a cloud agnostic representation of the bundled volume data.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising the cloud agnostic image representation and a stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data associated with the cloud agnostic image representation; and

wherein, to obtain the second VMI, the processor is configured to;

launch a second virtual machine (VM) on the second cloud based, in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation;

obtain, in a format compatible with the second cloud, volume data for the second VM from the stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data;

augment the obtained volume data with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud; and

create the second VMI based on the augmented volume data.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the second VM is launched using an operating system that is compatible with but different from an operating system associated with the first VMI.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to deploy the second VMI on the second cloud.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, perform steps in a method comprising:

obtaining a cloud agnostic image representation from a first Virtual Machine Image (VMI) on a first cloud, the cloud agnostic image representation being obtained, in part, by removing a cloud specific layer in the first VMI; and

obtaining a second VMI for a second cloud different from the first cloud, wherein the second VMI is obtained based, at least in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the second VMI is obtained, in part, by obtaining a cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud, the cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud being obtained by augmenting the cloud agnostic image representation with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein obtaining the cloud specific layer corresponding to the second cloud comprises:

launching a second virtual machine (VM) obtained from the cloud agnostic image representation on the second cloud;

downloading, in a format compatible with the second cloud, a stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data to the second cloud, wherein the cloud agnostic representation of the volume data is associated with cloud agnostic image representation;

creating and attaching a volume comprising the downloaded volume data to the second VM;

augmenting the volume comprising the downloaded volume data with cloud specific configuration settings for the second cloud;

detaching the volume comprising the augmented volume data from the second cloud; and

creating the second VMI based on the volume comprising the augmented volume data.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein obtaining the cloud agnostic image representation comprises:

launching a first virtual machine (VM) on the first cloud based, in part, on the first VMI;

modifying volume data associated with the first VM by removing cloud specific settings for the first VM;

obtaining bundled volume data by bundling the modified volume data; and

storing a cloud agnostic representation of the bundled volume data.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein obtaining the second VMI comprises:

launching a second virtual machine (VM) on the second cloud based, in part, on the cloud agnostic image representation;

obtaining, in a format compatible with the second cloud, volume data for the second VM from the stored cloud agnostic representation of volume data associated with the cloud agnostic image representation;

augmenting the obtained volume data with cloud-specific settings for the second cloud; and

creating the second VMI based on the augmented volume data.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, the steps further comprising:

deploying the second VMI on the second cloud.