SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY BUILDING VIRTUAL APPLIANCES IN A HOSTED ENVIRONMENT

• US 20090300057A1
• Filed: 06/01/2009
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SUSE, LLC (SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Friedman, Nathaniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,094 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

A system and method for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment is provided. In particular, a plurality of image archives may be stored in a build database, with each image archive including a file system having a directory structure and a plurality of files installed within the directory structure. In response to a build request containing an image description, a build engine may create a file system layout defining a directory structure for an image. The build engine may then copy the file system for one of the image archives to the file system layout for the image, wherein the copied file system may provide a subset of the file system for the image. The build engine may then build the image, which may include a file system having various files installed within various directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the image.

Claims

1. A system for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment, comprising:

a build database configured to store a plurality of image archives, wherein the plurality of image archives each include a file system having one or more directories and a plurality of files installed within the one or more directories; and

a build engine configured to;

receive a build request that includes an image description for an appliance;

create a file system layout from the image description, wherein the file system layout defines a directory structure for an operating system image;

copy the file system for one of the plurality of image archives to the file system layout created from the image description, wherein the copied file system provides a subset of the operating system image; and

build the operating system image, wherein the operating system image includes a file system having a plurality of files installed within one or more directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the operating system image.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the build engine is further configured to:

create a second file system layout from the image description, wherein the second file system layout defines a directory structure for a boot image;

copy the file system for a second one of the plurality of image archives to the second file system layout created from the image description, wherein the second copied file system provides a subset of the boot image;

build the boot image, wherein the boot image includes a second file system having a plurality of files installed within one or more directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the boot image; and

build an appliance image, wherein the appliance image includes the operating system image and the boot image.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the build engine is further configured to:

identify at least one personalization option in the build request that applies a custom graphic to a boot screen, wherein the plurality of files in the file system for the boot image include at least one file corresponding to a boot screen graphic;

remove the file corresponding to the boot screen graphic from the file system for the boot image; and

copy a file corresponding to the custom graphic to the file system for the boot image.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of image archives each further include a manifest file having a list of unique identifiers for one or more software components associated with the respective image archive, wherein the one or more software components correspond to the plurality of files installed within the file system for the respective image archive.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the build engine is further configured to reference the manifest files for the plurality of image archives to identify the image archive having the file system that provides the subset of the operating system image.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising a virtualization environment configured to:

reference the manifest files for the plurality of image archives in response to a repository metadata server detecting an update to one or more software components stored in one or more source repositories;

invalidate one or more of the plurality of image archives, wherein the invalidated image archives each include one or more of the updated software components; and

invoke the build engine to rebuild the file systems for the invalidated image archives, wherein the rebuilt file systems include a plurality of files corresponding to at least the updated software components.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a plurality of the image archives have file systems that provide a subset of the operating system image, and wherein the copied file system provides a largest subset of the operating system image.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the build engine is further configured to:

identify one or more additional files that need to be installed for the operating system image subsequent to the file system for the image archive being copied to the file system layout for the operating system image;

retrieve the one or more additional files from one or more source repositories identified in the image description; and

copy the additional files retrieved from the source repositories to the file system layout for the operating system image, wherein the additional files are installed to the file system layout in accordance with the directory structure defined for the operating system image.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a virtualization environment configured to:

identify one or more of a plurality of public appliances that are popular or highly rated, wherein the one or more public appliances are identified based on one or more statistics; and

invoke the build engine to create one or more images corresponding to the one or more popular or highly rated public appliances, wherein the build engine is further configured to archive file systems corresponding to the images created for the one or more popular or highly rated appliances in the build database.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a virtualization environment configured to:

identify one or more of the plurality of image archives stored in the build database that have not been referenced for a predetermined amount of time; and

delete the identified image archives from the build database.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the file system for the operating system image comprises a root directory of the operating system image.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of image archives stored in the build database each include a tarball that collects the file system for the respective image archive within one file.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of files installed for the operating system image correspond to one or more software components identified in the image description.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the build engine is further configured to add an archive of the file system for the operating image to the image archives stored in the build database.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the build engine is further configured to copy the archived file system for the operating image to a file system layout for a subsequent version of the operating system image that includes one or more additional files.

16. A method for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment, comprising:

storing a plurality of image archives in a build database, wherein the plurality of image archives each include a file system having one or more directories and a plurality of files installed within the one or more directories;

receiving a build request at a build engine, wherein the build request includes an image description for an appliance;

creating a file system layout from an image description using the build engine, wherein the file system layout defines a directory structure for an operating system image;

copying the file system for one of the plurality of image archives stored in the build database to the file system layout created from the image description, wherein the copied file system provides a subset of the operating system image; and

building the operating system image using the build engine, wherein the operating system image includes a file system having a plurality of files installed within one or more directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the operating system image.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

creating second file system layout from the image description using the build engine, wherein the second file system layout defines a directory structure for a boot image;

copying the file system for a second one of the plurality of image archives stored in the build database to the second file system layout created from the image description, wherein the second copied file system provides a subset of the boot image;

building the boot image using the build engine, wherein the boot image includes a second file system having a plurality of files installed within one or more directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the boot image; and

building an appliance image using the build engine, wherein the appliance image includes the operating system image and the boot image.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

identifying at least one personalization option in the build request that applies a custom graphic to a boot screen, wherein the plurality of files in the file system for the boot image include at least one file corresponding to a boot screen graphic;

removing the file corresponding to the boot screen graphic from the file system for the boot image; and

copying a file corresponding to the custom graphic to the file system for the boot image.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of image archives each further include a manifest file having a list of unique identifiers for one or more software components associated with the respective image archive, wherein the one or more software components correspond to the plurality of files installed within the file system for the respective image archive.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising referencing the manifest files for the plurality of image archives stored in the build database to identify the image archive having the file system that provides the subset of the operating system image.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

referencing the manifest files for the plurality of image archives stored in the build database in response to a repository metadata server detecting an update to one or more software components stored in one or more source repositories;

invalidating one or more of the plurality of image archives stored in the build database, wherein each of the invalidated image archives include one or more of the updated software components; and

invoking the build engine to rebuild the file systems for the invalidated image archives, wherein the rebuilt file systems include a plurality of files corresponding to at least the updated software components.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein a plurality of the image archives have file systems that provide a subset of the operating system image, and wherein the copied file system provides a largest subset of the operating system image.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying one or more additional files that need to be installed for the operating system image subsequent to the file system for the image archive being copied to the file system layout for the operating system image;

retrieving the one or more additional files from one or more source repositories identified in the image description; and

copying the additional files from the source repositories to the file system layout for the operating system image, wherein the additional files are installed to the file system layout in accordance with the directory structure defined for the operating system image.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of image archives stored in the build database each include a tarball that collects the file system for the respective image archive within one file.

25. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying one or more of a plurality of public appliances that are popular or highly rated in a virtualization environment coupled to the build engine, wherein the one or more public appliances are identified based on one or more statistics;

invoking the build engine to create one or more images corresponding to the one or more popular or highly rated public appliances; and

archiving file systems corresponding to the images created for the one or more popular or highly rated appliances in the build database.

26. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying one or more of the plurality of image archives stored in the build database that have not been referenced for a predetermined amount of time; and

deleting the identified image archives from the build database.

27. A method for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment, comprising:

building a file system for a base appliance using a build engine, wherein the file system includes a plurality of files installed within one or more directories;

receiving a build request at the build engine, wherein the build request includes an image description for an appliance derived from the base appliance;

creating a file system layout from an image description for an appliance derived from the base appliance, wherein the file system layout defines one or more files to be installed for the derived appliance in addition to the plurality of files installed for the base appliance;

copying the file system for the base appliance to the file system layout created for the derived appliance, and further copying the one or more additional files to the file system layout created for the derived appliance; and

building an image of the derived appliance using the build engine, wherein the image of the derived appliance includes a file system having the plurality of files for the base appliance and the one or more additional files for the derived appliance installed within one or more directories that are defined in the file system layout created for the derived appliance.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the file system for the base appliance is stored in a build database in an archived file format.