Managing a software appliance

• US 9,092,243 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2008
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Faus, Norman Lee, Huff, David P., Kearney, Bryan M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Li B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kia, Arshia S
• Application Number:
  US12/128,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,617 Days
• Field of Search: 717/168
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

A management tool can be included in a software appliance. The management tool can be configured to provide control, management, and maintenance of the software appliance. The management tool can be utilized in order to start/stop, configure, repair, and update a software appliance. The management tool can be configured to provide an interface for management of the software appliance. The interface allows for management of the software appliance and the individual components of the software appliance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving from a user a request for a custom software appliance, the request specifying functionality of the custom software appliance;

searching, by a processor, a repository, in view of the functionality, for a pre-built software appliance, a recipe among the plurality of recipes, and one or more software components, wherein the pre-built software appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes;

building, by the processor, the custom software appliance in view of the pre-built software appliance, the recipe, and the one or more software components, wherein the custom software appliance comprises identifying information of the user;

storing the custom software appliance in the repository, wherein the custom appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes;

providing, by the processor, an interface for the custom software appliance, the custom software appliance comprising a management tool, an application to perform a function and a portion of an operating system to provide an execution platform for the application, and wherein the management tool provides the interface to receive a management request to cause the management tool to manage the application, and the portion of the operating system, wherein the management tool is embedded within the custom software appliance, the management tool comprising a hardware interface to retrieve at least one of information, settings or parameters from hardware of a computing device running the custom software appliance and a component interface to connect to the application and the portion of the operating system; and

managing, by the processor, the custom software appliance, wherein the managing comprises updating the custom software appliance, wherein the updating comprises determining a plurality of incremental update bits of the binary image representing the custom software appliance that are used to update the custom software appliance and adding the plurality of incremental update bits to the custom software appliance on a bit-level binary-difference basis, and wherein the determining the plurality of incremental update bits comprises;

determining a recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance;

determining a modified recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance and

comparing the recipe and the modified recipe to determine the plurality of incremental update bits.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the interface comprises:

displaying, in the interface, a description of the application and a description of the portion of the operation system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the management request specifies a description of a computing platform implementing the custom software appliance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the management request comprises a request to provide configuration information to the application.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the management request comprises a request to provide configuration information to the portion of the operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the management request comprises a request for the management tool to perform at least one of halting the custom software appliance or initiating the custom software appliance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the management request comprises a request for the management tool to initiate the updating of the custom software appliance.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the custom software appliance comprises:

providing a link to a location of the binary image in the repository.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the custom software appliance comprises:

transmitting the binary image to the user of the request.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the custom software appliance comprises:

storing the binary image on a computer readable medium.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, operatively coupled to the processor, the memory to store;

a search engine, executable by the processor from the memory, to receive a request from a user for a custom software appliance specifying functionality of the custom software appliance and search, in view of the functionality, a repository for a pre-built software appliance, a recipe among the plurality of recipes, and one or more software components, wherein the pre-built software appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes;

the search engine, executable by the processor from the memory, to build the custom software appliance from the pre-built software appliance, the recipe, and the one or more software components, wherein the custom software appliance comprises identifying information of the user and the custom software appliance is stored in the repository, wherein the custom appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes;

a management engine, executable by the processor from the memory, to manage the custom software appliance in view of a management request, wherein the custom software appliance comprises an application to perform a function and a portion of an operating system to provide an execution platform for the application, wherein the management engine is embedded within the custom software appliance, the management engine comprising a hardware interface to retrieve at least one of information, settings or parameters from hardware of a computing device running the custom software appliance and a component interface to connect to the application and the portion of the operating system; and

a program interface to receive the management request and in response cause the management engine to manage the application and the portion of the operating system, wherein to manage, the management engine is further to update the custom software appliance, wherein to update, the management engine is further to determine a plurality of incremental update bits of the binary image representing the custom software appliance that are used to update the custom software appliance and add the plurality of incremental update bits to the custom software appliance on a bit-level binary-difference basis, and wherein to determine the plurality of incremental update bits, the management engine is further to;

determine a recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance,

determine a modified recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance, and

compare the recipe and the modified recipe to determine the plurality of incremental update bits.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the management engine is further to display, in the interface, a description of the application and a description of the the portion of the operation system.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program interface is further to receive information describing a computing platform implementing the custom software appliance.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program interface is further to receive a request to provide configuration information to the application.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program interface is further to receive a request to provide configuration information to the portion of the operating system.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program interface is further to receive a request for the management tool to perform at least one of halting the custom software appliance or initiating the custom software appliance.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program interface is further to receive a request to initiate the update of the custom software appliance.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, from a user a request for a custom software appliance, the request specifying a function to be performed by the custom software appliance;

searching, by the processor, a repository, in view of the service, for a pre-built software appliance, a recipe among the plurality of recipes, and one or more software components;

building, by the processor, the custom software appliance from the pre-built software appliance, the recipe, and the one or more software components, wherein the custom software appliance comprises identifying information of the user;

storing the custom software appliance in the repository, wherein the custom appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes, the custom software appliance comprising a management tool, an application to perform the function, and a portion of an operating system to provide an execution platform for the application, wherein the management tool is to provide an interface to receive a request for management of the custom software appliance and to cause the management tool to manage the application and the portion of the operating system, and wherein the management tool is embedded within the software appliance, the management tool comprising a hardware interface to retrieve at least one of information, settings or parameters from hardware of a computing device running the software appliance and a component interface to connect to the application and the the portion of the operating system;

managing, by the processor, the customer software appliance, wherein the managing comprises updating the custom software appliance, wherein the updating comprises determining a plurality of incremental update bits of the binary image representing the custom software appliance that are used to update the custom software appliance and adding the plurality of incremental update bits to the custom software appliance on a bit-level binary-difference basis, and wherein the determining the plurality of incremental update bits comprises;

determining a recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance,

determining a modified recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance, and

comparing the recipe and the modified recipe to determine the plurality of incremental update bits; and

providing the custom software appliance to the user of the request.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions that, when accessed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive from a user a request for a custom software appliance, the request specifying functionality of the custom software appliance;

search a repository, in view of the functionality, for a pre-built software appliance, a recipe among the plurality of recipes, and one or more software components, wherein the pre-built software appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes;

build the custom software appliance in view of the pre-built software appliance, the recipe, and the one or more software components, wherein the custom software appliance comprises identifying information of the user;

store the custom software appliance in the repository, wherein the custom appliance comprises a plurality of bits of a binary image described by the plurality of recipes;

provide, by the processor, an interface for the custom software appliance, the custom software appliance comprising a management tool, an application to perform a function and a portion of an operating system to provide an execution platform for the application, and wherein the management tool provides the interface to receive a management request to cause the management tool to manage the application and the portion of the operating system, wherein the management tool is embedded within the custom software appliance, the management tool comprising a hardware interface to retrieve at least one of information, settings or parameters from hardware of a computing device running the software appliance and a component interface to connect to the application and the portion of the operating system;

manage the software appliance, wherein to manage, the processor is further to update the custom software appliance, wherein to update, the processor is further to determine a plurality of incremental update bits of the binary image representing the custom software appliance that are used to update the custom software appliance and add the plurality of incremental update bits to the custom software appliance on a bit-level binary-difference basis, and wherein to determine the plurality of incremental update bits, the processor is further to;

determine a recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance,

determine a modified recipe of the plurality of recipes corresponding to the custom software appliance, and

compare the recipe and the modified recipe to determine the plurality of incremental update bits.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein to provide the interface the processor is to:

display, in the interface, a description of the application and a description of the portion of the operation system.