APPLICATION CONFIGURATION IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

• US 20170039078A1
• Filed: 08/04/2015
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Li Long, Karn, Holger
• Granted Patent: US 9,851,986 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 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

A method, system and program product for providing virtual configuration management for applications running in a virtual environment. A method is described that includes: receiving a request for application configuration information from a virtual machine for an application; retrieving a versioned configuration image for the application, wherein the versioned configuration image comprises formatted configuration information captured from a previously configured application; creating a configuration runtime instance from the versioned configuration image; and attaching the configuration runtime image to the virtual machine for the application.

Claims

1. A virtual configuration management system that manages configuration information for applications running in a virtual environment, comprising:

a computing platform having a processor and a memory that is configured to host a plurality of virtual machines (VM), wherein each VM includes an application and operating system;

a hypervisor that handles data read and write operations between a virtual storage and each VM, where the hypervisor includes a configuration repository emulator that intercepts and processes a request from a VM for a virtual configuration for an application being launched by the VM;

a configuration metadata repository for storing metadata associated with a plurality of applications;

a versioned configuration image repository for storing versioned configuration images, each versioned configuration image associated with a previously configured application; and

a configuration repository manager that dynamically generates a configuration repository runtime instance from a selected versioned configuration image for the application being launched by the VM, wherein the configuration runtime instance includes the virtual configuration.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata for each application includes a location of a configuration file.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the configuration repository emulator utilizes the location of the configuration file to intercept requests.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the versioned configuration images are stored in an XML (extensible markup language) format.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the versioned configuration images include a set of configuration parameters.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration repository runtime instance is configured for the VM requesting configuration information for the application.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface for registering metadata for a selected application.

8. A computer program product recorded on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, which when executed by a computing platform, provides virtual configuration management for applications running in a virtual environment, the computer program product comprising:

program code that processes requests from a virtual machine for a virtual configuration for an application being launched on the virtual machine;

program code that retrieves a versioned configuration image for the application, wherein the versioned configuration image comprises formatted configuration information captured from a previously configured application;

program code that dynamically creates a configuration repository runtime instance from the versioned configuration image in response to a request, wherein the configuration repository runtime instance includes the virtual configuration; and

program code for applying the configuration repository runtime image to the virtual machine for the application.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the versioned configuration image is stored in an XML (extensible markup language) format.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

program code for registering metadata for a new or updated application; and

program code for intercepting configuration information from the new or updated application.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

program code for reformatting the configuration information into a new versioned configuration image; and

program code for storing the new versioned configuration image in a repository.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the metadata includes a location of a configuration file for the new or updated application.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the location of the configuration file is utilized to intercept requests.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the versioned configuration image includes a set of configuration parameters.

15. A method of providing virtual configuration management for applications running in a virtual environment, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a virtual machine for a virtual configuration for an application being launched by the virtual machine;

retrieving a versioned configuration image for the application, wherein the versioned configuration image comprises formatted configuration information captured from a previously configured application;

dynamically creating a configuration repository runtime instance from the versioned configuration image in response to the request; and

attaching the configuration repository runtime image to the virtual machine for the application, wherein the configuration repository runtime image includes the virtual configuration.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the versioned configuration image is stored in an XML (extensible markup language) format.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

registering metadata for a new or updated application; and

intercepting configuration information from the new or updated application.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

reformatting the configuration information into a new versioned configuration image; and

storing the new versioned configuration image in a repository.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the metadata includes a location of a configuration file for the new or updated application.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the location of the configuration file is utilized to intercept requests.