Satisfying application dependencies

• US 9,354,852 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2010
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Babey, Matthew Christopher, Jewart, Eric, Reierson, Kristofer Hellick, Anderson, Angela Mele
• Primary Examiner(s): Mejia, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US12/977,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20120166597A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,986 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/226, 709/203
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

The dependencies of an application are identified by intercepting application programming interface calls made by an application. A determination is then made at the runtime of the application as to whether the dependencies of the application are present. If the dependencies are not present, a client device upon which the application is executing is configured such that the dependencies are present and are made available only to the authorized application. If the dependencies are present and the application is authorized to interact with the dependencies, the application is permitted to execute.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising performing computer-implemented operations for:

receiving a request to deploy an application at a client device to make the application available for execution at the client device;

determining whether each of one or more dependencies requisite for deploying the application is present at the client device;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies requisite for deploying the application is not present, configuring the client device such that the dependencies are present and deploying the application at the client device;

upon deploying the application at the client device, intercepting an application programming interface (API) call from the application, the API call requesting access to a resource;

selecting a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected; and

redirecting the API call to the resource stored at a private location.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising

protecting the private location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising prior to deploying the application:

installing the application on a monitoring station;

monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the installation of the application to identify the dependencies; and

storing data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising prior to deploying the virtualized application:

executing the virtualized application on the monitoring station;

monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

storing data identifying the dependencies in the dependency analysis database.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the application comprises:

intercepting API calls made by the application during execution; and

inspecting parameters contained in the API calls to identify the dependencies.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application, storing data indicating that the one or more dependencies that is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application will need to be present at a runtime of the application.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application comprises querying a registry provided by the operating system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application comprises querying an internal mapping table that matches API calls to dependencies.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein configuring the client device such that the dependencies are present comprises

configuring the client device so that the configuration settings of the client device match the configuration settings of a server when the virtualized application was installed on the server.

9. An optical disk, a magnetic storage device, or a solid state storage device storing computer-executable instructions to cause a computer to:

receive a request to deploy a virtualized application to make the virtualized application available for execution at the client device;

determine whether each of one or more dependencies required to deploy the virtualized application is present;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies is not present, configuring a client device upon which the virtualized application is executing such that the dependencies are present and deploy the virtualized application at the client device;

upon deploying the virtualized application on the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application, the API call requesting access to a resource;

select a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected; and

redirect the API call to the resource stored at a private location.

10. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 9, storing further computer-executable instructions to cause the computer to:

protect the private location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource.

11. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 9, storing further computer-executable instructions to cause the computer to:

prior to deploying the virtualized application, install the virtualized application on a monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

package data identifying the dependencies in an application package configured to be streamed to the client device.

12. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 11, storing further computer-executable instructions to cause the computer to:

execute the virtualized application installed on the monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

package data identifying the dependencies in the application package configured to be streamed to the client device.

13. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 12, wherein monitoring changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies comprises:

intercepting API calls made by the virtualized application during execution; and

inspecting parameters contained in the API calls to identify the dependencies.

14. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 13, storing further computer-executable instructions to cause the computer to:

determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application, store data indicating that the one or more dependencies that are added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application will need to be present at a runtime of the virtualized application.

15. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 14, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application comprises querying a registry provided by the operating system.

16. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device of claim 14, wherein determining whether each of the one or more dependencies is added or configured during the installation or deployment of the application comprises querying a table that maps API calls to dependencies.

17. An optical disk, a magnetic storage device, or a solid state storage device storing computer-executable instructions to cause the computer to:

install and execute a virtualized application on a monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation and execution of the virtualized application to identify one or more dependencies of the virtualized application that are requisite for deploying the virtualized application to a client device;

store data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database;

receive a request to deploy the virtualized application at the client device to make the virtualized application available for execution at the client device;

in response to the request, determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is present at the client device using the data;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies are not present at the client device, configure the client device such that each of the one or more dependencies is present;

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies requisite for deploying the virtualized application is present, deploy the virtualized application at the client device;

upon deploying the virtualized application at the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application, the API call requesting access to a resource on the client device;

select a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected; and

redirect the API call to the resource stored at a private location.

18. The optical disk, the magnetic storage device, or the solid state storage device computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, storing further computer-executable instructions to cause the computer to:

protect the private location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource.

19. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to;

receive a request to deploy an application at a client device to make the application available for execution at the client device,

determine whether each of one or more dependencies requisite for deploying the application is present at the client device,

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies requisite for deploying the application is not present, configure the client device such that the dependencies are satisfied and deploy the application at the device,

upon deploying the application at the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the application, the API call requesting access to a resource,

select a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected, and redirect the API call to the resource stored at a private location.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions to:

protect the private location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions to:

install the application on a monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation of the application to identify the dependencies; and

store data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the memory further comprises computer-executable instructions to:

execute the virtualized application on the monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the execution of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

store data identifying the dependencies in the dependency analysis database.

23. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to;

receive a request to deploy a virtualized application to make the application available for execution at the client device,

determine whether each of one or more dependencies required to deploy the virtualized application is present,

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies is not present, configuring a client device upon which the virtualized application is executing such that the dependencies are present and deploy the virtualized application at the client device,

upon deploying the virtualized application on the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application, the API call requesting access to a resource,

select a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected, and redirect the API call to the resource stored at a private location.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to:

protect the private location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to:

install the virtualized application on a monitoring station;

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation of the virtualized application to identify the dependencies; and

package data identifying the dependencies in an application package configured to be streamed to the client device.

26. A computer system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to;

install and execute a virtualized application on a monitoring station,

monitor changes made to the monitoring station during the installation and execution of the virtualized application to identify one or more dependencies of the virtualized application that are requisite for deploying the virtualized application to a client device,

store data identifying the dependencies in a dependency analysis database,

receive a request to deploy the virtualized application at the client device to make the application available for execution at the client device,

in response to the request, determine whether each of the one or more dependencies is present at the client device using the data,

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies are not present at the client device, configure the client device such that each of the one or more dependencies is present, and

upon determining that each of the one or more dependencies requisite for deploying the virtualized application is present, deploy the virtualized application at the client device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the memory further stores computer-executable instructions to cause the processor to:

upon deploying the virtualized application at the client device, intercept an application programming interface (API) call from the virtualized application, the API call requesting access to a resource on the client device;

select a copy of the resource to which the API call is to be redirected;

protect a private location with an access control list (ACL) associated with the resource; and

redirect the API call to the resource stored at the private location.