Optimized virtual machine specification for provisioning application specific runtime environment

• US 8,219,987 B1
• Filed: 08/24/2007
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vlaovic, Stevan, Offer, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): WU, BENJAMIN C
• Application Number:
  US11/895,518
• Time in Patent Office: 1,782 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718/105, 717/174
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/448 Execution paradigms, e.g. implementations of programming paradigms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• 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

Systems and methods of executing an application in an application specific runtime environment are disclosed. The application specific runtime environment is defined by an application environment specification to include a minimal or reduced set of software resources required for execution of the application. The application environment is generated by determining software resource dependencies and is optionally used to provision the application specific runtime environment in real-time in response to a request to execute the application. Use of the application specific runtime environment allows the application to be executed using fewer computing resources, e.g., memory. The application specific runtime environment is optionally disposed within a virtual machine. The virtual machine may be created in response to the request to run the executable application and the virtual machine may be automatically provisioned using an associated application environment specification.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a repository configured to store an executable application, resources included in a distribution of a general purpose runtime environment, a virtual machine specification, and an application environment specification, wherein the application environment specification identifies a subset of the resources included in the distribution of the general purpose runtime environment on which execution of the executable application is dependent, and wherein the virtual machine specification defines virtual machine attributes for a virtual machine container that are determined based on the subset of resources on which execution of the executable application is dependent;

a provisioning server configured to use the application environment specification to locate the subset of the resources and to use the subset of the resources to generate an image of an application specific runtime environment for the executable application;

a virtual machine manager configured to;

create the virtual machine container using the virtual machine specification, wherein the virtual machine container includes characteristics based on the virtual machine attributes, the characteristics being configured for the subset of resources used to generate the image of the application specific runtime environment, and

place the image of the application specific runtime environment in the virtual machine container.

2. The system of claim 1, further including an external interface configured for a user to request creation of the virtual machine container and placement of the image of the application specific runtime environment in the virtual machine container.

3. The system of claim 1, further including an external interface configured for a user to request execution of the executable application.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the repository is distributed among more than one storage device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine specification is based on the application environment specification.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a processing node comprising software configured to manage allocation of the image between working memory and static memory during execution of the executable application.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a parser configured to identify a first undefined symbol in the executable application, to identify a first member of the resources including a definition of the first undefined symbol, and to add an identity of the first member to the application environment specification.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an image storage configured to store the image of the application specific runtime environment.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine manager is further configured to create the virtual machine container automatically in response to a request to execute the executable application.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the provisioning server is further configured to generate the image of the application specific runtime environment automatically.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the executable application includes an operating system.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a parser configured to:

parse the executable application to determine the subset of resources on which execution of the executable application is dependent; and

determine the virtual machine attributes for the virtual machine specification based on the parsing.

13. A system comprising:

a provisioning server comprising;

one or more computer processors; and

a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling the one or more computer processors to be operable to;

generate a virtual machine specification based on an application environment specification, wherein the application environment specification identifies a subset resources included in a distribution of a general purpose runtime environment on which execution of an executable application is dependent, and wherein the virtual machine specification defines virtual machine attributes for a virtual machine container that are determined based on the subset of resources on which execution of the executable application is dependent;

a virtual machine manager configured to;

create the virtual machine container using the virtual machine specification, wherein the virtual machine container includes characteristics based on the virtual machine attributes, the characteristics being configured for the subset of resources used to generate the image of the application specific runtime environment, and

place an image of an application specific runtime environment in the virtual machine container.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the characteristics include an amount of memory based on memory requirements included in the virtual machine attributes of the application environment specification.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising a processing node comprising software configured to support execution of a plurality of executable applications each within one of a plurality of virtual machine containers.

16. A computer implemented method comprising:

determining a virtual machine specification defining virtual machine attributes for a virtual machine container that are determined based on a subset of resources included in a distribution of a general purpose runtime environment on which execution of an executable application is dependent;

provisioning an application specific runtime environment using an application environment specification, wherein the application specific runtime environment includes the subset of resources on which the executable application is dependent; and

creating an image of the provisioned application specific runtime environment;

creating the virtual machine container for executing the executable application using the virtual machine specification, the virtual machine container including characteristics based on the virtual machine attributes configured for the subset of resources; and

placing the image of an application specific runtime environment within the virtual machine container, the application specific runtime environment being based on an application environment specification including identification of the subset of resources on which execution of the executable application is dependent.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein creating the image comprises:

identifying the application environment specification; and

locating the subset of resources on which execution of the executable application is dependent using the application environment specification in a repository including the resources included in the distribution of the general purpose runtime environment.

18. The method of claim 16, further including executing the executable application within the virtual machine container.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the virtual machine container is automatically created in response to receiving a request from a user of the executable application to execute the executable application.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying an application environment specification;

locating a subset of resources on which execution of an executable application is dependent using the application environment specification in a repository, the repository including resources included in a distribution of the general purpose runtime environment;

provisioning an application specific runtime environment, the application specific runtime environment including the subset of resources on which the executable application is dependent;

creating an image of the provisioned application specific runtime environment; and

creating a virtual machine specification based on the application environment specification, the virtual machine specification defining virtual machine attributes for a virtual machine container that are determined based on the subset of resources on which execution of the executable application is dependent.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising including the virtual machine specification in the application environment specification.

22. The method claim 20, wherein the image of the application specific runtime environment is a disk image configured according to an integrated drive electronics (IDE) or small computer system interface (SCSI) standard.

23. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a first unresolved symbol in an executable application;

identifying a first resource comprising a definition of the first unresolved symbol;

adding a first identifier of the first resource to an application environment specification, the application environment specification comprising a specification of an application specific runtime environment configured for executing the executable application;

determining if the first resource includes a second unresolved symbol;

if the first resource includes a second unresolved symbol, identifying a second resource comprising a definition of the second unresolved symbol and adding a second identifier of the second resource to the application environment specification; and

creating a virtual machine specification configured for executing the executable application based on the application environment specification, wherein the virtual machine specification defines virtual machine attributes for a virtual machine container that are determined based on the first resource and the second resource, the first resource and the second resource being a subset of resources included in a distribution of a general runtime environment.