Systems and methods for accessing remote resources for emulation

• US 9,965,303 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2014
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sphere 3D, Inc. (Sphere 3D Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sphere 3D, Inc. (Sphere 3D Corporation)
• Inventors: Morelli, Jr., Giovanni, Cowen, Brandon, Dan, Marian, Damji, Hussain
• Primary Examiner(s): Alhija, Saif A
• Application Number:
  US14/229,497
• Publication Number:
  US 20140297251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,502 Days
• Field of Search: 703 27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A method and system for emulating a computer product at an emulator server. The method and system involve receiving an emulation request to emulate the computer product; determining emulation properties based on the emulation request; determining whether each resource in the one or more resources is available at the emulator server; in response to determining at least one unavailable resource from the one or more resources, accessing the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server, the remote emulator server being in electronic communication with the emulator server via a virtual external bus interface and the virtual external bus interface being operable to facilitate data communication between two or more different device components, and otherwise, initializing the resource at the emulator server; and initializing the computer product at the emulator server.

Claims

1. A method for emulating a computer product at an emulator server, the method comprising:

receiving an emulation request to emulate the computer product;

determining, from a database in electronic communication with the emulator server, emulation properties based on the emulation request, the emulation properties comprising one or more resources required for emulating the computer product;

determining whether each resource in the one or more resources is available at the emulator server;

in response to determining at least one unavailable resource from the one or more resources, accessing the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server, the remote emulator server being in electronic communication with the emulator server via a virtual external bus interface and the virtual external bus interface being operable to facilitate data communication between two or more different device components, and otherwise, initializing the resource at the emulator server; and

initializing the computer product at the emulator server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the emulator server includes a storage module associated with a predefined memory size;

the emulation properties further comprise an emulation memory size indicating a minimum amount of memory required for emulating the computer product; and

the method further comprises partitioning a memory portion from the storage module, the memory portion having a memory size less than the predefined memory size and at least the emulation memory size.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

initializing the computer product at the emulator server comprises initializing an operating system;

the one or more resources comprises at least one operation system component, the at least one operating system component being required for initializing the operating system; and

when the at least one unavailable resource comprises the at least one operation system component, accessing the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server comprises;

providing a platform driver for the at least one operating system component;

locating, from the database, the at least one operating system component at the remote emulator server;

initializing, by the emulator server, the at least one operating system component at the remote emulator server; and

providing operational data between the at least one operating system component and the emulator server via the virtual external bus interface.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the platform driver for the at least one operating system component comprises:

bypassing one or more standard platform drivers provided at the emulator server via a bonded Transmission control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more resources comprises at least one product component, the at least one product component being required for initializing the computer product;

and

when the at least one unavailable resource comprises the at least one product component, accessing the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server comprises;

locating, from the database, the at least one product component at the remote emulator server;

initializing, by the emulator server, the at least one product component at the remote emulator server; and

providing operational data between the at least one product component and the emulator server via the virtual external bus interface.

6. The method claim 5, wherein the at least one product component comprises a hardware component.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the database is provided at the storage module.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one device component of the two or more different device components is associated with a first data bus type and another device component of the two or more different device components is associated with a second data bus type that is different from the first data bus type.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual external bus interface comprises a Peripheral Component Interconnect.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein initializing the operating system comprises:

providing an image of the operating system to the emulator server; and

initializing the image of the operating system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein initializing the computer product at the emulator server comprises:

providing a copy of the computer product to the emulator server; and

initializing the copy of the computer product.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein initializing the computer product at the emulator server comprises:

providing a memory address in the storage module at which the computer product is stored; and

accessing the computer product at the memory address.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more resources comprises at least one of (i) a hardware component controllable by a server processor and (ii) a software component storable on a storage module in electronic communication with the emulator server.

14. A system for emulating a computer product, the system comprising:

a storage module;

an interface module comprising a virtual external bus interface operable to facilitate data communication between two or more different device components; and

a processor module in electronic communication with at least the storage module and the interface module, the processor module configured to;

receive, via the interface module, an emulation request to emulate the computer product;

determine emulation properties based on the emulation request, the emulation properties comprising one or more resources required for emulating the computer product;

determine whether each resource in the one or more resources is available at the system;

in response to determining at least one unavailable resource from the one or more resources, access the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server, the remote emulator server being in electronic communication via the virtual external bus interface, and otherwise, initialize the resource at the resource module; and

initialize the computer product.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the storage module is configured to store a plurality of emulation properties for one or more computer products; and

the processor module is configured to determine the emulation properties at least from the plurality of emulation properties in the storage module.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprises:

a resource module comprising one or more resource components available at the system without operating the virtual external bus interface.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable on a processor for implementing a method for emulating a computer product at an emulator server, the method comprising:

receiving an emulation request to emulate the computer product;

determining, from a database in electronic communication with the emulator server, emulation properties based on the emulation request, the emulation properties comprising one or more resources required for emulating the computer product;

determining whether each resource in the one or more resources is available at the emulator server;

in response to determining at least one unavailable resource from the one or more resources, accessing the at least one unavailable resource at a remote emulator server, the remote emulator server being in electronic communication with the emulator server via a virtual external bus interface and the virtual external bus interface being operable to facilitate data communication between two or more different device components, and otherwise, initializing the resource at the emulator server; and

initializing the computer product at the emulator server.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein:

the emulator server includes a storage module associated with a predefined memory size;

the emulation properties further comprise an emulation memory size indicating a minimum amount of memory required for emulating the computer product; and

the method further comprises partitioning a memory portion from the storage module, the memory portion having a memory size less than the predefined memory size and at least the emulation memory size.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein:

the method comprises initializing an operating system;

the one or more resources comprises at least one operation system component, the at least one operating system component being required for initializing the operating system; and

when the at least one unavailable resource comprises the at least one operation system component, the method further comprises;

providing a platform driver for the at least one operating system component;

locating, from the database, the at least one operating system component at the remote emulator server;

initializing, by the emulator server, the at least one operating system component at the remote emulator server; and

providing operational data between the at least one operating system component and the emulator server via the virtual external bus interface.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises:

bypassing one or more standard platform drivers provided at the emulator server via a bonded Transmission control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) connection.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more resources comprises at least one product component, the at least one product component being required for initializing the computer product;

and

when the at least one unavailable resource comprises the at least one product component, the method comprises;

locating, from the database, the at least one product component at the remote emulator server;

initializing, by the emulator server, the at least one product component at the remote emulator server; and

providing operational data between the at least one product component and the emulator server via the virtual external bus interface.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein one device component of the two or more different device components is associated with a first data bus type and another device component of the two or more different device components is associated with a second data bus type that is different from the first data bus type.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the method comprises:

providing an image of the operating system to the emulator server; and

initializing the image of the operating system.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method comprises:

providing a copy of the computer product to the emulator server; and

initializing the copy of the computer product.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the method comprises:

providing a memory address in the storage module at which the computer product is stored; and

accessing the computer product at the memory address.