Live application management workflow using metadata capture

• US 9,996,381 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2016
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Raju, Gurinder, Singh, Karmveer Veer, Shrivastava, Abhinav, Koushik, Sheshadri Supreeth, Suryanarayanan, Deepak
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van H
• Application Number:
  US15/084,296
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Techniques for configuring virtual machine instances are described herein. A virtual machine instance is instantiated and the virtual machine instance is monitored to receive notifications of configuration events associated with that virtual machine instance. Each configuration event, which specifies configuration changes to the virtual machine instance, includes a set of metadata associated with the configuration event. The metadata is extracted from the configuration event and the configuration changes are applied to the virtual machine instance. A new virtual machine image is then produced from the virtual machine instance and the extracted metadata is associated with the new virtual machine image.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

instantiating a virtual machine instance that replicates display contents of the virtual machine instance to a display of a computing device associated with a user;

creating a set of virtual machine image metadata based at least in part on a configuration of the virtual machine instance;

receiving a notification of an input event from the computing device;

determining, based at least in part on a set of metadata associated with the input event, that the input event is a configuration event;

extracting a subset of the set of metadata associated from the configuration event;

updating the set of virtual machine image metadata based at least in part on the subset of the set of metadata;

configuring the virtual machine instance by performing one or more operations specified by the configuration event;

generating a virtual machine image from the virtual machine instance; and

associating the set of virtual machine image metadata with the virtual machine image.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the configuration event is associated with an installation of one or more software applications.

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

storing the virtual machine image in a virtual machine image catalog.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a selected virtual machine image from the virtual machine image catalog based at least in part on the virtual machine image metadata corresponding to one or more search parameters specified by a user of the virtual machine image catalog; and

instantiating a second virtual machine instance, the second virtual machine instance based at least in part on the selected virtual machine image.

5. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing instructions that, as a result of execution by the one or more processors, cause the system to;

instantiate a virtual machine instance;

receive a notification of a configuration event at the virtual machine instance, the configuration event specifying one or more configuration changes to the virtual machine instance;

extract a set of metadata associated with the configuration event;

create a set of virtual machine image metadata based at least in part on the set of metadata;

configure the virtual machine instance based at least in part on the one or more configuration changes; and

associate the set of virtual machine image metadata with a virtual machine image generated from the virtual machine instance.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the virtual machine instance replicates display contents of the virtual machine instance to a display of a computing device associated with a user of the virtual machine instance.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the virtual machine instance replicates the display contents of the virtual machine instance in a browser, the browser displayed on the display of the computing device.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the virtual machine instance replicates the display contents of the virtual machine instance in a window provided by a client running on the computing device, the window displayed on the display of the computing.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the virtual machine image generated from the virtual machine instance is generated by copying a set of memory of the virtual machine instance to the virtual machine image.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the virtual machine image generated from the virtual machine instance is generated after pausing the virtual machine instance.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the virtual machine image is an application collection, generated from the virtual machine instance by copying a subset of a set of memory of the virtual machine instance to the virtual machine image, the subset selected based at least in part on the one or more configuration changes.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the application collection is instantiated on a second virtual machine instance, the second virtual machine instance selected based at least in part on the set of metadata.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least:

receive a notification of a configuration event at a virtual machine instance that sends display contents of the virtual machine instance to a display of a computing device, the configuration event specifying one or more configuration changes to the virtual machine instance;

configure the virtual machine instance based at least in part on the one or more configuration changes;

create a set of virtual machine image metadata based at least in part on the one or more configuration changes; and

associate the set of virtual machine image metadata with a virtual machine image generated from the virtual machine instance.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein one or more of the one or more configuration changes cause an alteration to configuration parameters of the virtual machine instance, the configuration parameters including at least one of:

an amount of memory associated with the virtual machine instance, an amount of storage associated with the virtual machine instance, a processor associated with the virtual machine instance, or a network bandwidth associated with the virtual machine instance.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein one or more of the one or more configuration changes cause an installation of one or more software applications on the virtual machine instance.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the virtual machine image generated from the virtual machine instance is an application collection generated based at least in part on the installation of the one or more software applications on the virtual machine instance.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the application collection is installed on a second virtual machine instance, the second virtual machine instance selected based at least in part on the set of metadata.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the second virtual machine instance is a multi-tenant virtual machine instance that provides one or more application collections to one or more users of the second virtual machine instance.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein one or more of the one or more configuration changes cause a removal of one or more software applications installed on the virtual machine image.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein one or more of the one or more configuration changes cause an update of one or more software applications installed on the virtual machine image.