SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING OR RECONFIGURING A VIRTUAL SERVER IMAGE FOR CLOUD DEPLOYMENT

• US 20140143389A1
• Filed: 01/27/2014
• Published: 05/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Lagergren, Marcus, Vidstedt, Mikael
• Granted Patent: US 9,239,814 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A system and method to convert a software application, such as a Java application into a virtual server image that is suitable for cloud deployment. In accordance with an embodiment, the system and method allows for building a hypervisor appliance containing a virtual machine running an application. In particular, the hypervisor appliance can be compatible with any hypervisor for server virtualization and the application virtual machine can be a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

Claims

1. A system for creating or reconfiguring a virtual server image, comprising:

a computer including a processor, memory and operating system;

a memory space for creating a virtual server image; and

wherein an appliance or assembly builder is used to generate or reconfigure a virtual server image containing both a software application and a virtual machine capable of executing the software application, including performing the steps comprising

reading an appliance or assembly configuration file,

writing a bootable component of a Java virtual machine into the virtual server image,

writing a non-bootable component of a Java virtual machine, together with the software application into the virtual server image,

configuring the bootable component to load and execute the non-bootable component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine inside the generated virtual server image contains a version of its own operating system necessary to run as a hypervisor client, and wherein the virtual machine inside the generated virtual server image is configured to boot when the virtual server image is started.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the appliance or assembly builder writes bootloader code into a virtual server image stored in the memory space, and configures the bootloader code to execute the bootable component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the appliance builder writes the completed virtual server image to a file.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the appliance builder sends the completed virtual server image to a cloud for immediate deployment.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a virtual server image updater, which can receive a virtual server image patch and use information in the virtual server image patch to reconfigure the contents of the virtual server image from its original content to a reconfigured content, to create a reconfigured virtual server image.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein during reconfiguration the virtual server image updater also creates an inverse patch which includes information that can be later used by the virtual server image updater to reverse the reconfigured content of the reconfigured virtual server image, and restore the original content of the virtual server image.

8. A method for creating or reconfiguring a virtual server image, comprising the steps of:

providing a computer including a processor, memory and operating system, and a memory space for creating a virtual server image; and

using an appliance or assembly builder to generate or reconfigure a virtual server image containing both a software application and a virtual machine capable of executing the software application, including performing the steps comprising

reading an appliance or assembly configuration file,

writing a bootable component of a Java virtual machine into the virtual server image,

writing a non-bootable component of a Java virtual machine, together with the software application into the virtual server image, and

configuring the bootable component to load and execute the non-bootable component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the virtual machine inside the generated virtual server image contains a version of its own operating system necessary to run as a hypervisor client, and wherein the virtual machine inside the generated virtual server image is configured to boot when the virtual server image is started.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the appliance or assembly builder writes bootloader code into a virtual server image stored in the memory space, and configures the bootloader code to execute the bootable component.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the appliance builder writes the completed virtual server image to a file.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the appliance builder sends the completed virtual server image to a cloud for immediate deployment.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising a virtual server image updater, which can receive a virtual server image patch and use information in the virtual server image patch to reconfigure the contents of the virtual server image from its original content to a reconfigured content, to create a reconfigured virtual server image.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein during reconfiguration the virtual server image updater also creates an inverse patch which includes information that can be later used by the virtual server image updater to reverse the reconfigured content of the reconfigured virtual server image, and restore the original content of the virtual server image.

15. A computer-readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon, which when read an executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the steps comprising:

providing a computer including a processor, memory and operating system, and a memory space for creating a virtual server image; and

using an appliance or assembly builder to generate or reconfigure a virtual server image containing both a software application and a virtual machine capable of executing the software application, including performing the steps comprising

reading an appliance or assembly configuration file,

writing a bootable component of a Java virtual machine into the virtual server image,

writing a non-bootable component of a Java virtual machine, together with the software application into the virtual server image, and

configuring the bootable component to load and execute the non-bootable component.