Method to enable application sharing on embedded hypervisors by installing only application context

• US 8,726,269 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2009
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Chaganti, Ravikanth
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): APONTE, FRANCISCO JAVIER
• Application Number:
  US12/423,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20100262962A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,855 Days
• Field of Search: 717101-178, 709/202, 709/211, 709217-219, 719/317, 719/332, 718/1, 705/53, 707/822, 707/999.001, 707/999.103
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45554 Instruction set architectures of guest OS and hypervisor or native processor differ, e.g. Bochs or VirtualPC on PowerPC MacOS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

A system and method for reducing storage space requirements for an embedded hypervisor. The system and method includes installing an application context on a hypervisor while installing files needed by the applications to a shared storage device. Such a system and method provides a unique application context install. Additionally, such a system and method uniquely shares applications while reducing the space occupied on the embedded device. Also, such system and a method uniquely loads applications from remote storage without actually caching the applications on a local system.

Claims

1. A method for reducing storage space requirements for an embedded hypervisor of an information handling system comprising:

providing a virtual machine (VM) host comprising a plurality of VM resources operable to execute virtual machines;

providing a virtual appliance device, the virtual appliance device comprising a virtual appliance stored on the virtual appliance device and a universal software installer application stored on the virtual appliance device, the virtual appliance comprising an application;

installing a context of the virtual appliance onto the virtual machine host via the universal software installer application; and

,

hosting the universal software installer application via a hypervisor executing on the virtual appliance, the hosting comprising accessing shared storage to invoke a shared application portion of the virtual appliance; and

wherein

when performing a share application load procedure at the end of an application install, the universal software installer application modifies an installed application startup path to include a hypervisor application startup binary;

the hypervisor application startup binary invokes the shared application portion by determining whether a lock on the shared storage exists,

during a startup procedure, if a lock exists, the hypervisor application startup binary waits for a predetermined time period to obtain the lock;

if no lock exists, the hypervisor application startup binary creates a lock on the shared storage to prevent any conflicts while loading the application;

the hypervisor application startup binary loads the application from remote storage and determines whether the application loads without errors; and

,

if the application loads with errors, then the hypervisor application startup binary exits gracefully and leaves the application loaded as an independent entity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

installing the context of the virtual appliance further comprises modifying an application startup to include a startup binary as an application starting point.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

creating a lock on the shared storage to prevent any conflicts while loading the application.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

removing the lock after loading of the shared application completes by the hypervisor application startup binary.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the universal software installer application performs any registry modifications and configuration file modifications on the VM host.

6. An apparatus for reducing storage space requirements for an embedded hypervisor of an information handling system comprising:

a virtual machine (VM) host comprising a plurality of VM resources operable to execute virtual machines;

a virtual appliance device, the virtual appliance device comprising a virtual appliance stored on the virtual appliance device and a universal software installer application stored on the virtual appliance device, the virtual appliance comprising an application;

means for installing a context of the virtual appliance onto the virtual machine host via the universal software installer application; and

,

means for hosting the universal software installer application via a hypervisor executing on the virtual appliance, the hosting comprising accessing shared storage to invoke a shared application portion of the virtual appliance; and

wherein

when performing a share application load procedure at the end of an application install, the universal software installer application modifies an installed application startup path to include a hypervisor application startup binary;

the hypervisor application startup binary invokes the shared application portion by determining whether a lock on the shared storage exists,

during a startup procedure, if a lock exists, the hypervisor application startup binary waits for a predetermined time period to obtain the lock;

if no lock exists, the hypervisor application startup binary creates a lock on the shared storage to prevent any conflicts while loading the application;

the hypervisor application startup binary loads the application from remote storage and determines whether the application loads without errors; and

,

if the application loads with errors, then the hypervisor application startup binary exits gracefully and leaves the application loaded as an independent entity.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising:

means for modifying an application startup to include a startup binary as an application starting point.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising:

means for creating a lock on the shared storage to prevent any conflicts while loading the application.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising:

means for removing the lock after loading of the shared application completes by the hypervisor application startup binary.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein:

the universal software installer application performs any registry modifications and configuration file modifications on the VM host.

11. An information handling system comprising:

a virtual machine (VM) host comprising a plurality of VM resources operable to execute virtual machines;

a virtual appliance device, the virtual appliance device comprising a virtual appliance stored on the virtual appliance device, the virtual appliance comprising an application;

a memory, the memory storing a system a universal software installer application for reducing storage space requirements for an embedded hypervisor of the information handling system, the universal software installer application comprising instructions for

installing a context of the virtual appliance onto the virtual machine host via the universal software installer application; and

,

hosting the universal software installer application via a hypervisor executing on the virtual appliance, the hosting comprising accessing shared storage to invoke a shared application portion of the virtual appliance; and

wherein

when performing a share application load procedure at the end of an application install, the universal software installer application modifies an installed application startup path to include a hypervisor application startup binary;

the hypervisor application startup binary invokes the shared application portion by determining whether a lock on the shared storage exists,

during a startup procedure, if a lock exists, the hypervisor application startup binary waits for a predetermined time period to obtain the lock;

if no lock exists, the hypervisor application startup binary creates a lock on the shared storage to prevent any conflicts while loading the application;

the hypervisor application startup binary loads the application from remote storage and determines whether the application loads without errors; and

,

if the application loads with errors, then the hypervisor application startup binary exits gracefully and leaves the application loaded as an independent entity.

12. The information handling system of claim 11 wherein the universal software installer application further comprises instructions for:

modifying an application startup to include a startup binary as an application starting point.

13. The information handling system of claim 11 wherein the universal software installer application further comprises instructions for:

creating a lock on the shared storage to prevent any conflicts while loading the application.

14. The information handling system of claim 13 wherein the universal software installer application further comprises instructions for:

removing the lock after loading of the shared application completes by the hypervisor application startup binary.

15. The information handling system of claim 11 wherein:

the universal software installer application performs any registry modifications and configuration file modifications on the VM host.