System and method for use of a virtual assembly builder

• US 9,612,803 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2012
• Issued: 04/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Mousseau, Richard P., Nelson, Mark, Richards, Jon, Schulz, Troy, Kelleman, Keith, Spotswood, Mark, Berkowitz, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILLS, PAUL V
• Application Number:
  US13/448,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20130042239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,814 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A virtual assembly builder for use in virtualization environments, which can be used as a tool for virtualizing installed components in a reference environment, modifying those components if necessary, and then deploying them into another/target environment. Using the virtual assembly builder, a user (e.g., an administrator) can capture the configuration and product/component binaries of existing software components into software appliance artifacts. Appliances can be grouped, and their relationships defined, into software assembly artifacts. Logical connections between appliances within an assembly can be reconfigured by a process of assembly editing. When a desired assembly configuration has been achieved, the assembly can be prepared for, and deployed into, the target environment.

Claims

1. A system for virtualizing installed components in a reference environment, comprising:

a computer that includes one or more microprocessors;

a virtual assembly builder, executing on the computer, for use with a reference environment including a plurality of installed software components, wherein the virtual assembly builder includes a graphical user interface and a plurality of plug-ins, each plug-in provided for introspecting a different type of installed software component in the reference environment;

wherein the virtual assembly builder is configured to

generate, for each of the plurality of installed software components in the reference environment, a metadata description that specifies one or more files, including at least an executable, that need to be captured for reproducing an installation of that software component in a virtualized target environment,

capture, using a corresponding plug-in, each of the plurality of installed software components from the reference environment into a software appliance in accordance with the metadata description of that installed software component,

store the software appliance into a catalog associated with the virtual assembly builder,

retrieve, via the graphical user interface, a plurality of software appliances from the catalog and group the software appliances into a software assembly by defining connections between the software appliances based on a deployment plan,

receive, from a user, a selection of the software assembly, and a virtualized resource pool from a plurality of virtualized resource pools available in the virtualized target environment,

connect to the selected virtualized resource pool, and deploy the selected software assembly as a single unit onto the selected virtualized resource pool in the virtualized target environment using the deployment plan;

select a virtual machine template based on the user'"'"'s selection of the software assembly and the virtualized resource pool; and

create and start, using the selected virtual machine template, one or more virtual machines to execute the deployed software assembly.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is further used to establish relationships between a software appliance and one or more external resources.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the deployment plan includes configurations for the software assembly that override base configuration properties for each software appliance in the software assembly, and/or accommodate late-binding or scalability of the software appliances.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the installation of each of the installed software components includes one or more executables, and one or more shared libraries.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the software assembly includes one or more virtual machine disk images for deployment to a particular virtualization platform, wherein the disk images include deployment artifacts necessary for the software assembly.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtualized resource pool is discovered through a virtual machine manager in the virtualized target environment.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the wherein the plurality of installed software components in the reference environment are located on one or more hosts selected from group consisting of a local host, and a remote network-accessible host.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual assembly builder uses a particular protocol to transport an introspection engine to a remote network-accessible host, and returns a software appliance, or a software assembly if a plurality of software components to be introspect are installed in an application server domain.

9. A method for virtualizing installed components in a reference environment, comprising:

providing a virtual assembly builder for use with a reference environment including a plurality of installed software components, wherein the virtual assembly builder includes a graphical user interface and a plurality of plug-ins, each plug-in provided for introspecting a different type of installed software component in the reference environment;

generating, for each of the plurality of installed software components in the reference environment, a metadata description that specifies one or more files, including at least an executable, that need to be captured for reproducing an installation of that software component in a virtualized target environment;

capturing, using a corresponding plug-in, each of the plurality of installed software components from the reference environment into one of a plurality of software appliances in accordance with the metadata description of that installed software component;

storing the software appliance into a catalog associated with the virtual assembly builder;

retrieving, via the graphical user interface, the plurality of software appliances, wherein the plurality of software appliances are grouped into a software assembly by defining connections between the software appliances based on a deployment plan;

receiving, from a user, a selection of the software assembly, and a virtualized resource pool from a plurality of virtualized resource pools available in the virtualized target environment; and

connecting to the selected virtualized resource pool, and deploying the selected software assembly as a single unit onto a virtualized resource pool in the virtualized target environment;

selecting, by the virtual assembly builder, a virtual machine template based on the user'"'"'s selection of the software assembly and the virtualized resource pool; and

creating and starting, using the selected virtual machine template, one or more virtual machines to execute the deployed software assembly.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the graphical user interface is further used to establish relationships between a software appliance and one or more external resources.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the installation of each of the installed software components includes one or more executables, and one or more shared libraries.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the software assembly includes one or more virtual machine disk images for deployment to a particular virtualization platform, wherein the disk images include deployment artifacts necessary for the software assembly.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the virtualized resource pool is discovered through a virtual machine manager in the virtualized target environment.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the wherein the plurality of installed software components in the reference environment are located on one or more hosts selected from group consisting of a local host, and a remote host network-accessible.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the virtual assembly builder uses a particular protocol to transport an introspection engine to a remote network-accessible host, and returns a software appliance, or a software assembly if a plurality of software components to be introspect are installed in an application server domain.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the deployment plan includes configurations for the software assembly that override base configuration properties for each software appliance in the software assembly, and/or accommodate late-binding or scalability of the software appliances.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for virtualizing installed components in a reference environment, comprising:

configuring a virtual assembly builder for use with a reference environment including a plurality of installed software components, wherein the virtual assembly builder includes a graphical user interface and a plurality of plug-ins, each plug-in provided for introspecting a different type of installed software component in the reference environment;

generating, for each of the plurality of installed software components in the reference environment, a metadata description that specifies one or more files, including at least an executable, that need to be captured for reproducing an installation of that software component in a virtualized target environment;

capturing, using a corresponding plug-in, each of the plurality of installed software components from the reference environment into one of a plurality of software appliances in accordance with the metadata description of that installed software component;

storing the software appliance into a catalog associated with the virtual assembly builder;

retrieving, via the graphical user interface, the plurality of software appliances, wherein the plurality of software appliances are grouped into a software assembly by defining connections between the software appliances based on a deployment plan;

receiving, from a user, a selection of the software assembly, and a virtualized resource pool from a plurality of virtualized resource pools available in the virtualized target environment; and

connecting to the selected virtualized resource pool, and deploying the selected software assembly as a single unit onto a virtualized resource pool in the virtualized target environment;

selecting, by the virtual assembly builder, a virtual machine template based on the user'"'"'s selection of the software assembly and the virtualized resource pool; and

creating and starting, using the selected virtual machine template, one or more virtual machines to execute the deployed software assembly.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the graphical user interface is further used to establish relationships between a software appliance and one or more external resources.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the deployment plan includes configurations for the software assembly that override base configuration properties for each software appliance in the software assembly, and/or accommodate late-binding or scalability of the software appliances.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the installation of each of the installed software components includes one or more executables, and one or more shared libraries.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the virtualized resource pool is discovered through a virtual machine manager in the virtualized target environment.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the wherein the plurality of installed software components in the reference environment are located on one or more hosts selected from group consisting of a local host, and a remote network-accessible host.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the virtual assembly builder uses a particular protocol to transport an introspection engine to a remote network-accessible host, and returns a software appliance, or a software assembly if a plurality of software components to be introspect are installed in an application server domain.