Virtual Appliance Management

• US 20080215796A1
• Filed: 03/06/2008
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Inventors: Rosenblum, Mendel, Brumley, David James, Chow, James Eugene, Zeldovich, Nickolai Borisovich, Lam, Monica Sin-Ling, Sapuntzakis, Constantine Paul, Chandra, Ramesh U.V.
• Granted Patent: US 7,890,689 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Various approaches for virtual appliance management are described. In one approach a virtual appliance repository stores one or more virtual appliances and is coupled to the host computer via a network. A storage device stores a transceiver program capable when executed on said host computer of requesting and receiving the virtual appliances, and generating for each received virtual appliance a respective local copy on the host computer of each received virtual appliance. The local copy is private to the host computer. The transceiver program further binds the virtual appliances to the host computer and obtains user data relevant to the virtual appliances. The transceiver program runs each of the virtual appliances from the respective private local copies on the host computer.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a virtual appliance repository storing one or more virtual appliances;

a host computer;

a network coupling said virtual appliance repository and said host computer; and

a storage device storing a transceiver program capable when executed on said host computer of performing operations comprising;

requesting and receiving said virtual appliances, and generating for each received virtual appliance a respective local copy on the host computer of each received virtual appliance, the local copy being private to the host computer;

binding said virtual appliances to said host computer;

obtaining user data relevant to said virtual appliances; and

running each of said virtual appliances from said respective private local copies on said host computer.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver program is further capable of performing on said host computer operations comprising:

initiating said running of each of said virtual appliances at a time when said respective private local copies of said virtual appliances are incomplete copies.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein any changes to a running virtual appliance made by the running virtual appliance are made to the respective private local copy of the virtual appliance and not to the corresponding virtual appliance stored on the virtual appliance repository.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver program is further capable of performing on said host computer operations comprising:

communicating user authentication to said virtual appliance repository.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver program is further capable of performing on said host computer operations comprising:

transmitting altered virtual appliances to said virtual appliance repository.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver program is further capable of performing on said host computer operations comprising:

backing up altered user data and newly created user data over said network, the computer system further comprising;

at least one user data repository coupled to said network.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein changes directed to a user disk are separately stored on one or more version virtual disks in said user data repository.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein said version virtual disks are discarded at the end of a user log in session such that said user disk is not affected by said changes.

9. The computer system of claim 7, wherein said changes are committed back to said user data repository, thereby becoming a latest version of said user disk.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver program is further capable of performing on said host computer operations comprising:

interacting with the virtual appliance repository to subscribe to, request, and receive virtual appliances stored on the virtual appliance repository.

11. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said virtual appliances consists of a network of virtual appliances.

12. The computer system of claim 1, wherein said transceiver program further comprises a virtual machine monitor.

13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein changes made to a user-subscribed virtual appliance are separately stored on one or more version virtual disks.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said changes are discarded at the end of a user log in session such that said user-subscribed virtual appliance is not affected by said changes.

15. The computer system of claim 12, wherein said changes are committed back to said virtual appliance repository, thereby becoming a latest version of said user-subscribed virtual appliance.

16. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage means having a cache optimized for holding virtual disks;

a caching subsystem that

fetches and caches new data and evicts old data, wherein said new data include metadata for virtual program disks of said virtual appliances; and

upon a first use of a virtual appliance or a new release thereof, automatically charges said storage means with a set of predetermined repository blocks.

17. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage means having a cache for holding virtual disks;

a caching subsystem that fetches and caches new data and evicts old data, wherein said new data include metadata for virtual program disks of said virtual appliances, wherein said cache subsystem has

a log mode in which said cache subsystem continuously backs up user data in order as generated to a user data repository;

a checkpoint mode in which said cache subsystem takes snapshots of said user data at a plurality of checkpoints and writes said snapshots to said user data repository; and

a combination mode in which said cache subsystem automatically switches between said log mode and said checkpoint mode.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

an electronic device enclosed in a portable housing;

a computer-readable storage medium disposed in the housing, the storage medium configured with software that is accessible to and executable by a computer that is external to the housing and removably coupled to the housing, wherein

the software comprises

a software state of executable code, settings, and data, and

a virtualization layer; and

the software is configured to execute the executable code on the virtualization layer on the external computer; and

the electronic device is configured with an interface configured to allow the device to be automatically discovered and mounted by the computer.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the virtualization layer is a virtual machine monitor.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software state is an operating system virtualization and the virtualization layer implements operating system virtualization.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the virtualization layer is operable to provide isolation of other software on the external computer from operations performed by the executable code.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein all power and data received by the apparatus is received from the computer through a single port.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the virtualization layer is operable to protect all other software on the external computer from the executable code.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the electronic device is configured as a bootable device operable to boot the computer.

25. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the electronic device is a plug-and-play device.

26. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the electronic device is a flash drive device.

27. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the executable code includes a web browser.

28. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the executable code comprises instructions directly executable by a processor of the external computer.

29. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured with an operating system for operating the external computer.

30. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to obtain a username and password from a user upon initiation of execution of the software.

31. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to:

check for a more recent publication of the software relative to the software executing on the computer; and

retrieve the more recent publication of the software, and store the more recent publication of the software on the storage medium disposed in the housing.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the software state executing on the computer comprises a first operating system and the more recent publication of the software comprises a software state comprising a different second operating system.

33. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to:

check for a more recent publication of the software relative to the software executing on the computer;

retrieve the more recent publication of the software, and store the more recent publication of the software on the storage medium disposed in the housing; and

automatically change the storage medium to reference the more recent publication of the software.

34. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to maintain a cache on the storage medium for retrieved software states.

35. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to:

check for a more recent instance of a software state than the instance of a corresponding software state cached in the storage medium; and

retrieve the newer instance and store the newer instance in the cache.

36. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein each software state includes system state information separate from user data.

37. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to:

obtain, in response to requests by the executable code, user data from a user data repository; and

write, in response to requests by the executable code, updated data to the user data repository.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein in writing updated user data to the user data repository, the software is configured to write the updated data as the updated user data is generated by the executable code in the software state.

39. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein in writing updated user data to the user data repository, the software is configured to write, at checkpoints, the updated data to the user data repository.

40. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein in writing updated user data to the user data repository, the software is configured to switch between first and second write modes, wherein in the first write mode the software is configured to write the updated data as the updated user data is generated by the executable code in the software state, and in the second write mode the software is configured to snapshot the user data and write back the snapshots to the user data repository.

41. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein in writing updated user data to the user data repository, the software is configured to queue the updated user data in the computer-readable storage medium prior to writing the updated user data to the user data repository.

42. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to:

retrieve a second software state of executable code, settings, and data from a repository.

43. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured with a user interface that presents a user with options for selecting a software state.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the software is further configured to retrieve the selected software state from a repository over a network.

45. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the software is further configured to:

obtain the user data from the user data repository over the network; and

write the updated data to the user data repository over the network.

46. A method comprising:

downloading a first version of a software state of executable code, settings, and data;

running the downloaded first version of the software state;

determining without user intervention that an updated version of the software state is available for downloading;

downloading less than all of the updated version to local storage while still running the first version; and

switching to the updated version only when the executable code is restarted and before having downloaded all of the updated version to local storage.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the software state comprises a virtual machine and running the downloaded first version software state comprises running the virtual machine.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein switching to the updated version occurs without user intervention on a reboot of the virtual machine.

49. The method of claim 46, wherein a user is prompted to switch to the updated version and switching occurs after the user agrees to switch to the updated version.