PROPAGATING CHANGES FROM A VIRTUAL MACHINE CLONE TO A PHYSICAL HOST DEVICE

• US 20160378528A1
• Filed: 06/26/2015
• Published: 12/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zamir, Tal
• Application Number:
  US14/752,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378528A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/16 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0676 Magnetic disk device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Techniques are described for creating a virtual machine clone of a physical host computing device. A hosted hypervisor running within a host operating system on the physical computing device receives a request to boot a virtual machine clone of the device. In response to the request, the hosted hypervisor synthesizes a virtual disk that is comprised of a master boot record of the host computing device, a read-only snapshot obtained from a volume snapshot service of the host operating system and a delta virtual disk for recording changes. The hosted hypervisor then launches the virtual machine clone by attaching the synthesized virtual disk to the virtual machine clone and booting the guest operating system from the master boot record and the snapshot. Any changes made during the use of the virtual machine clone can be automatically propagated back and applied to the physical host device.

Claims

1. A method for retaining changes made in a virtual machine clone of a host computing device, the method comprising:

executing a virtual machine clone of the host computing device by using hosted hypervisor operating within a host operating system on the host computing device, the virtual machine clone attached to a synthesized virtual disk that is comprised of a master boot record of the host computing device, a read-only snapshot, and a delta virtual disk;

recording one or more changes that were made on the virtual machine clone to the delta virtual disk of the synthesized virtual disk;

receiving a request to propagate the one or more changes from the synthesized virtual disk of the virtual machine clone to the host computing device; and

scanning the one or more changes in the synthesized disk by a first agent operating in the virtual machine clone and merging the one or more changes onto the host computing device by a second agent operating in the host operating system of the host computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

uploading the one or more changes to a remote server by the first agent operating in the virtual machine clone; and

downloading the one or more changes from the remote server by the second agent operating in the host operating system and applying the one or more changes to the host operating system by the second agent.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

propagating the one or more changes from the first agent to the second agent directly, by using a local communication interface on the host computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein if the one or more changes are performed to user data files, merging the one or more changes further comprises:

synchronizing one or more folders containing the user data files in the synthesized virtual disk with corresponding one or more folders on a physical disk of the host computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein if the one or more changes are performed to installed applications, operating system changes or settings, merging the one or more changes further comprises:

storing the one or more changes to a designated staging directory until a reboot of the host computing device is performed; and

copying the one or more changes from the designated staging directory to corresponding locations by an agent during the reboot of the host computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the read-only snapshot of the synthesized virtual disk is obtained from a volume snapshot service of the host operating system and represents a state of the host computing device at a particular point in time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein during execution of the virtual machine clone, all read commands are directed from the virtual machine clone to the read-only snapshot of the synthesized virtual disk and all write commands are directed to the delta virtual disk, wherein the write commands are saved to a temporary storage.

8. A method for retaining changes made in a virtual machine clone of a host computing device, the method comprising:

at least one processor; and

a storage medium including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to;

execute a virtual machine clone of the computing device by using hosted hypervisor operating within a host operating system on the computing device, the virtual machine clone attached to a synthesized virtual disk that is comprised of a master boot record of the host computing device, a read-only snapshot, and a delta virtual disk;

record one or more changes that were made on the virtual machine clone to the delta virtual disk of the synthesized virtual disk;

receive a request to propagate the one or more changes from the synthesized virtual disk of the virtual machine clone to the computing device; and

scan the one or more changes in the synthesized disk by a first agent operating in the virtual machine clone and merge the one or more changes onto the computing device by a second agent operating in the host operating system of the computing device.

9. The computing device of claim 8, the storage medium further comprising instructions that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:

upload the one or more changes to a remote server by the first agent operating in the virtual machine clone; and

download the one or more changes from the remote server by the second agent operating in the host operating system and applying the one or more changes to the host operating system by the second agent.

10. The computing device of claim 8, the storage medium further comprising instructions that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to:

propagating the one or more changes from the first agent to the second agent directly, by using a local communication interface on the host computing device.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein if the one or more changes are performed to user data files, merging the one or more changes further comprises:

synchronizing one or more folders containing the user data files in the synthesized virtual disk with corresponding one or more folders on a physical disk of the host computing device.

12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein if the one or more changes are performed to installed applications, operating system changes or settings, merging the one or more changes further comprises:

storing the one or more changes to a designated staging directory until a reboot of the host computing device is performed; and

copying the one or more changes from the designated staging directory to corresponding locations by an agent during the reboot of the host computing device.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the read-only snapshot of the synthesized virtual disk is obtained from a volume snapshot service of the host operating system and represents a state of the host computing device at a particular point in time.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein during execution of the virtual machine clone, all read commands are directed from the virtual machine clone to the read-only snapshot of the synthesized virtual disk and all write commands are directed to the delta virtual disk, wherein the write commands are saved to a temporary storage.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions, the instructions when executed by one or more processors causing the one or more processors to execute the operations of:

executing a virtual machine clone of the host computing device by using hosted hypervisor operating within a host operating system on the host computing device, the virtual machine clone attached to a synthesized virtual disk that is comprised of a master boot record of the host computing device, a read-only snapshot, and a delta virtual disk;

recording one or more changes that were made on the virtual machine clone to the delta virtual disk of the synthesized virtual disk;

receiving a request to propagate the one or more changes from the synthesized virtual disk of the virtual machine clone to the host computing device; and

scanning the one or more changes in the synthesized disk by a first agent operating in the virtual machine clone and merging the one or more changes onto the host computing device by a second agent operating in the host operating system of the host computing device.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions executed by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to execute the operations of:

uploading the one or more changes to a remote server by the first agent operating in the virtual machine clone; and

downloading the one or more changes from the remote server by the second agent operating in the host operating system and applying the one or more changes to the host operating system by the second agent.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions executed by the one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to execute the operations of:

propagating the one or more changes from the first agent to the second agent directly, by using a local communication interface on the host computing device.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein if the one or more changes are performed to user data files, merging the one or more changes further comprises:

synchronizing one or more folders containing the user data files in the synthesized virtual disk with corresponding one or more folders on a physical disk of the host computing device.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein if the one or more changes are performed to installed applications, operating system changes or settings, merging the one or more changes further comprises:

storing the one or more changes to a designated staging directory until a reboot of the host computing device is performed; and

copying the one or more changes from the designated staging directory to corresponding locations by an agent during the reboot of the host computing device.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the read-only snapshot of the synthesized virtual disk is obtained from a volume snapshot service of the host operating system and represents a state of the host computing device at a particular point in time.