System and method providing single application image

• US 20050235273A1
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Published: 10/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Multerer, Boyd C., Schliiter, Kent S., Dillingham, Lara N., Sleeman, Martin J., Sprague, Roger W., Travison, Daniel T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,681,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order

Abstract

A system and method is provided that facilitates the administration of an application in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a resource identifier that identifies resources associated with the application and a manifest that logs the resources. An aggregator is provided that aggregates a subset of the resources into the manifest to facilitate administration of the application. The aggregator can be provided by a user interface and/or an automated builder. A graphical user interface is also provided to facilitate deployment, creation and enumeration of the application.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media containing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, facilitate administration of an application by implementing the following steps:

defining an application identifier;

locating one or more resources associated with the application; and

combining the one or more resources and the application identifier into an application image.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the application identifier is a globally unique identifier.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising replicating the application image to one or more members.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising nesting the application image into a subsequent application image.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising extending the application image by combining a subsequent component with the application image.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising operating upon the application image in at least one of a flat and a hierarchical manner.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising combining the one or more resources into a manifest.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising associating at least one of a monitoring component, a service level agreement, a deployment policy, and a bandwidth policy with the application image.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the at least one of the monitoring component, the service level agreement, the deployment policy, and the bandwidth policy are included within the application image.

10. A method to facilitate administration of an application, comprising:

defining an application identifier;

locating one or more resources associated with the application; and

combining the one or more resources and the application identifier into an application image.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the combining is accomplished by at least one of a user interface and an automated builder.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising combining the one or more resources into a manifest, wherein the manifest is at least one of consumable and manageable in order to facilitate administration of the application.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the resources are at least one of a data structure, configuration file, file, directory, directory substructure, pointer, identifier to other images, objects and code image.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating a monitoring component with the application image, wherein the monitoring component provides an enumerated display of the resources, the enumerated view including at least one of a flat or hierarchical display of the resources.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating a service level agreement with the application image, wherein the service level agreement provides rules for at least one of the operation, execution, and lifetime of the application.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

associating a deployment policy with the application image; and

associating a stager that utilizes the deployment policy to configure one or more application images to be deployed.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the deployment policy determines a location where the one or more application images are deployed.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating a bandwidth policy with the application image, wherein the bandwidth policy enables an application to determine available resources.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the bandwidth policy enables the application to monitor the application utilization and regulate the amount of available resources executing the application in accordance with the application utilization.

20. The method of claim 10, further comprising mapping the resources to corresponding system resources.