System and method for maintaining mappings between application resources inside and outside isolated environments

• US 8,904,004 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2009
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Open Invention Network LLC
• Inventors: Havemose, Allan
• Primary Examiner(s): ZHANG, SHIRLEY X
• Application Number:
  US12/421,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20100262694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,062 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 717/100, 717/174, 719310-332
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0662 Virtualisation aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium for maintaining mappings between resources inside an isolated environment and outside the isolated environment for one or more applications. The system may include a plurality of lists of resources requested by the one or more applications during installation and while executing, and a corresponding lists of resources inside the isolated environment. The system may also include a list of resource exceptions, wherein the mappings between resources as requested by the applications and their corresponding values in the isolated environment are maintained subject to the list of exceptions.

Claims

1. A system for maintaining mappings between resources inside an isolated environment and outside said isolated environment for one or more applications, the system comprising:

one or more memory locations configured to store said applications executing on a host with a host operating system;

one or more storage or memory locations configured to store a plurality of mappings of resources inside said isolated environment with the corresponding resources in the host operating system;

one or more additional storage or memory locations configured to store one or more exceptions to said plurality of mappings;

one or more interceptors configured to intercept calls to the host operating system and shared libraries; and

a directory for said isolated environment configured to store isolated environment files for said one or more applications;

wherein said mappings are automatically created during installation into said isolated environment or during run-time of said one or more applications by mapping of resource requests by said one or more applications for the host operating system into resource requests within said isolated environment located within said directory;

wherein each resource request by said one or more applications is mapped to one resource inside said isolated environment or, if subject to an one exception, mapped to a resource outside the isolated environment; and

wherein the mapping for a resource is determined a first time said resource is requested during installation or at run-time.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the mappings for all resources are maintained using at least one of a database and custom coding comprising the use of Concurrent Hashmap( ), Windows .NET equivalents, or custom data structures and locking.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the exceptions identify shared resources outside the isolated environment and each shared resource has at most one exception for each isolated environment.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the exceptions identify shared resources on a host and each shared resource has at most one exception for each isolated environment.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the exceptions identify shared libraries and shared fonts and said shared libraries and shared fonts are stored outside said isolated environment.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a rules engine, wherein the mappings for applications within said isolated environment are automatically generated by the rules engine, and wherein said rules are comprised of one mapping rule for each resource within each isolated environment and subject to at most one exception rule for each resource for each environment, and wherein each application is comprised of one or more processes.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein access to a Windows Registry is intercepted, data intended to be stored in a Windows Registry by said one or more applications is stored in an Interception database, and data intended to be retrieved from a Windows Registry by said one or more applications is retrieved from an Interception database.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein shared resources are installed inside the isolated environment for shared resource that later are modified and for shared resources that are left unmodified.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the resource mappings map resources using naming conventions based on one of Microsoft Windows and Linux.

10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an administrative management interface enabling configuration of policies and exceptions, wherein policies and exceptions can be configured for applications, application groups, isolated environments, and hosts.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the policies include defining the exceptions.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the policies include defining policy for installation of shared resources and fonts inside at least one of the isolated environment and a host operating system.

13. The system according to claim 10, further comprising settings for the isolated environment to override default policies, wherein said settings may override one or more default settings for one or more of an application, an application group, an isolated environment, or a host.

14. The system according to claim 10, wherein the administrative management interface is controlled using an application programming interface (API), and wherein said application programming interface is configured to set, change, add, and remove policies for the administrative management interface.

15. A method for maintaining mappings between resources inside an isolated environment and outside the isolated environment for one or more applications, the method comprising:

creating a plurality of lists of resources by the one or more applications during installation;

requesting a plurality of lists of resources by the one or more applications while executing;

associating corresponding lists of resources inside the isolated environment;

creating said mappings during installation into said insolated environment or during run-time of said one or more applications by mapping of resource requests by said one or more applications for the host operating system into resource requests within said isolated environment located within said directory; and

mapping each resource request by said one or more applications to one resource inside said isolated environment or, if subject to an one exception, mapping to a resource outside the isolated environment; and

wherein the mapping for a resource is determined a first time said resource is requested during installation or at run-time.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the mappings for all resources are maintained using at least one of a database and custom coding comprising the use of Concurrent Hashmap( ), Windows .NET equivalents, or custom data structures and locking.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the exceptions identify shared resources on at least one of a host and outside the isolated environment, and each shared resource has at most one exception for said at least one of a host and outside the isolated environment.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium for maintaining mappings between resources inside an isolated environment and outside the isolated environment for one or more applications, the computer readable medium including instructions executable by a computer, the instructions for:

creating a plurality of lists of resources by the one or more applications during installation;

requesting a plurality of lists of resources by the one or more applications while executing;

associating corresponding lists of resources inside the isolated environment; and

creating said mappings during installation into said insolated environment or during run-time of said one or more applications by mapping of resource requests by said one or more applications for the host operating system into resource requests within said isolated environment located within said directory; and

mapping each resource request by said one or more applications to one resource inside said isolated environment or, if subject to an one exception, mapping to a resource outside the isolated environment; and

wherein the mapping for a resource is determined a first time said resource is requested during installation or at run-time.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the mappings for all resources are maintained using at least one of a database and custom coding comprising the use of Concurrent Hashmap( ), Windows .NET equivalents, or custom data structures and locking.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the exceptions identify shared resources on at least one of a host and outside the isolated environment, and each shared resources has at most one exception for said at least one of a host and outside the isolated environment.