System and method for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment

• US 8,862,633 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SUSE, LLC (SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Nathaniel
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US13/464,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20130297922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 893 Days
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

A system and method for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment is provided. In particular, a plurality of image archives may be stored in a build database, with each image archive including a file system having a directory structure and a plurality of files installed within the directory structure. In response to a build request containing an image description, a build engine may create a file system layout defining a directory structure for an image. The build engine may then copy the file system from one of the image archives to the file system layout of the image, wherein the copied file system may provide a subset of the file system for the image. The build engine may then build the image, which may include a file system having various files installed within various directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the image.

Claims

1. A system for building a virtual appliance image using a pre-stored operating system image, the system comprising:

one or more physical processors programmed with one or more computer program instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more physical processors to;

receive a request to build a virtual appliance that includes an operating system, wherein the build request includes an image description associated with the virtual appliance;

create, based on the image description, a root file system having a root directory structure that defines a layout of directories in which files of the virtual appliance are to be stored;

identify, based on the image description, a pre-stored image for the virtual appliance, wherein the pre-stored image includes files sufficient to build an operating system, wherein pre-stored images, including the pre-stored image, are stored in a database, and wherein individual ones of the pre-stored images are derived from other ones of the pre-stored images;

add the files of the pre-stored image to the root directory structure to augment the root file system;

identify, based on the image description, one or more additional files that are not included in the pre-stored image to be added to the root directory structure;

add the one or more additional files to the root directory structure to further augment the root file system;

identify first and second sets of the pre-stored images such that first images of the first set of pre-stored images are images from which second images of the second set of pre-stored images are derived;

analyze differences between the first images and the second images to determine statistics regarding types of changes made to build the second images;

provide, to a user, one or more suggested changes to the augmented root file system based on the statistics regarding the types of changes; and

build an image of the virtual appliance based on the augmented root file system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors are further caused to:

create, based on the image description, a boot file system having a boot directory structure that defines a layout of directories in which files used to boot the virtual appliance are to be stored;

identify, based on the image description, a second pre-stored image for the virtual appliance, wherein the second pre-stored image includes files for booting the virtual appliance; and

add the files of the second pre-stored image to the boot directory structure to augment the boot file system,

wherein building the image of the virtual appliance comprises building the image of the virtual appliance further based on the augmented boot file system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more physical processors are further caused to:

identify at least one personalization option in the build request that applies a custom graphic to a boot screen associated with the virtual appliance, wherein the files of the second pre-stored image include a boot screen graphic file; and

replace the boot screen graphic file with the custom graphic such that the augmented boot file system includes the custom graphic in lieu of the boot screen graphic file.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein identifying the pre-stored image comprises:

identifying a plurality of pre-stored images such that all files included in each one of the plurality of pre-stored images are at least a subset of files to be installed for the virtual appliance; and

selecting the pre-stored image from the plurality of pre-stored images based on one or more criteria.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein selecting the pre-stored image comprises:

determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes a largest subset of the files to be installed for the virtual appliance; and

selecting the pre-stored image from the plurality of pre-stored images based on a determination that the pre-stored image includes the largest subset.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes the largest subset comprises determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes a largest number of files.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes the largest subset comprises determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes a subset of the files to be installed for the virtual appliance that is greatest in size with respect storage usage.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors are further caused to:

detect an update to a software component stored in one or more source repositories;

invalidate one or more of the pre-stored images that are associated with the software component based on the detection of the update; and

rebuild the invalidated pre-stored images such that the rebuilt pre-stored images include files that correspond to the updated software component.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more physical processors are further caused to:

identify one or more of the pre-stored images that have not been used for a predetermined amount of time; and

delete the one or more pre-stored images from the database.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the pre-stored image includes an image of a second virtual appliance, and wherein the one or more physical processors are further caused to:

associate the virtual appliance with the second virtual appliance to indicate that the virtual appliance is derived from the second virtual appliance; and

present the association between the first and second virtual appliances to one or more users.

11. A computer-implemented method for building a virtual appliance image using a pre-stored operating system image, the method being implemented by a computer system that includes one or more physical processors executing one or more computer program instructions which, when executed, perform the method, the method comprising:

receiving, by the computer system, a request to build a virtual appliance that includes an operating system, wherein the build request includes an image description associated with the virtual appliance;

creating, by the computer system, based on the image description, a root file system having a root directory structure that defines a layout of directories in which files of the virtual appliance are to be stored;

identifying, by the computer system, based on the image description, a pre-stored image for the virtual appliance, wherein the pre-stored image includes files sufficient to build an operating system, wherein pre-stored images, including the pre-stored image, are stored in a database, and wherein individual ones of the pre-stored images are derived from other ones of the pre-stored images;

adding, by the computer system, the files of the pre-stored image to the root directory structure to augment the root file system;

identifying, by the computer system, based on the image description, one or more additional files that are not included in the pre-stored image to be added to the root directory structure;

adding, by the computer system, the one or more additional files to the root directory structure to further augment the root file system;

identifying, by the computer system, first and second sets of the pre-stored images such that first images of the first set of pre-stored images are images from which second images of the second set of pre-stored images are derived;

analyzing, by the computer system, differences between the first images and the second images to determine statistics regarding types of changes made to build the second images;

providing, by the computer system, to a user, one or more suggested changes to the augmented root file system based on the statistics regarding the types of changes; and

building, by the computer system, an image of the virtual appliance based on the augmented root file system.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

creating, by the computer system, based on the image description, a boot file system having a boot directory structure that defines a layout of directories in which files used to boot the virtual appliance are to be stored;

identify, by the computer system, based on the image description, a second pre-stored image for the virtual appliance, wherein the second pre-stored image includes files for booting the virtual appliance; and

adding, by the computer system, the files of the second pre-stored image to the boot directory structure to augment the boot file system,

wherein building the image of the virtual appliance comprises building the image of the virtual appliance further based on the augmented boot file system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

identifying, by the computer system, at least one personalization option in the build request that applies a custom graphic to a boot screen associated with the virtual appliance, wherein the files of the second pre-stored image include a boot screen graphic file; and

replacing, by the computer system, the boot screen graphic file with the custom graphic such that the augmented boot file system includes the custom graphic in lieu of the boot screen graphic file.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the pre-stored image comprises:

identifying a plurality of pre-stored images such that all files included in each one of the plurality of pre-stored images are at least a subset of files to be installed for the virtual appliance; and

selecting the pre-stored image from the plurality of pre-stored images based on one or more criteria.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting the pre-stored image comprises:

determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes a largest subset of the files to be installed for the virtual appliance; and

selecting the pre-stored image from the plurality of pre-stored images based on a determination that the pre-stored image includes the largest subset.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes the largest subset comprises determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes a largest number of files.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes the largest subset comprises determining which one of the plurality of pre-stored images includes a subset of the files to be installed for the virtual appliance that is greatest in size with respect storage usage.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting, by the computer system, an update to a software component stored in one or more source repositories;

invalidating, by the computer system, one or more of the pre-stored images that are associated with the software component based on the detection of the update; and

rebuilding, by the computer system, the invalidated pre-stored images such that the rebuilt pre-stored images include files that correspond to the updated software component.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

identifying, by the computer system, one or more of the pre-stored images that have not been used for a predetermined amount of time; and

deleting, by the computer system, the one or more pre-stored images from the database.