Portable aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018246745-A1
Application number	US-201715441526-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 24, 2017
Priority date	Feb 24, 2017
Publication date	Aug 30, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers by one or more processors. Prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container, a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container is started. Relevant information from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application is extracted. Aggregated information is calculated based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host.

First claim

1 . A method for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers, by a processor device, comprising:
prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container:
starting a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container;
extracting relevant information from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application;
calculating aggregated information based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host; and
injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculated aggregated information comprises configuration information, runtime information and characteristics of the application; and is stored by an information injection agent; and
the application template comprises a specification of the container template, information for launching one of more of the application containers based on the container template, and further information.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further including performing at least one of:
caching the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container; and determining a disk consumption of the cached relevant information, wherein if the disk consumption exceeds a predetermined size threshold, using certain heuristics to exclude less required cached information to bring the disk consumption of the cached relevant information below the predetermined size threshold.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further including, while calculating the aggregated information, enabling a time guard component to ensure the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container is current by performing at least one of:
implementing a timer associated with a data age of the relevant information extracted from the temporary container; and extrapolating certain properties of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container according to a time-dependent logic.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the relevant information extracted from the host is collected from a host information data source, including at least one of:
host static configuration files, local databases, environment variables, shared directories, and running processes or commands that provide data of the host.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container includes mounting the calculated aggregated information using data volumes into the working container; or
providing the calculated aggregated information as a component in a container template to be used when starting a new working container.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further including weighting an importance of each of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container and the relevant information extracted from the host, wherein upon calculating the aggregated information, one of an overwrite mode selection and a merge mode selection is used when performing the aggregating depending on the weight of the importance determined.

8 . A system for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers, the system comprising:
a processor device executing instructions stored in a memory, wherein the processor device, prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container:
starts a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container;
extracts relevant information from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application;
calculates aggregated information based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host; and
injects the calculated aggregated information into the working container.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the calculated aggregated information comprises configuration information, runtime information and characteristics of the application; and is stored by an information injection agent; and
the application template comprises a specification of the container template, information for launching one of more of the application containers based on the container template, and further information.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor device performs at least one of:
caching the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container; and determining a disk consumption of the cached relevant information, wherein if the disk consumption exceeds a predetermined size threshold, using certain heuristics to exclude less required cached information to bring the disk consumption of the cached relevant information below the predetermined size threshold.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor device, while calculating the aggregated information, enables a time guard component to ensure the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container is current by performing at least one of:
implementing a timer associated with a data age of the relevant information extracted from the temporary container; and extrapolating certain properties of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container according to a time-dependent logic.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the relevant information extracted from the host is collected from a host information data source, including at least one of:
host static configuration files, local databases, environment variables, shared directories, and running processes or commands that provide data of the host.

13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein injecting the calculated aggregated information into the working container includes mounting the calculated aggregated information using data volumes into the working container; or
providing the calculated aggregated information as a component in a container template to be used when starting a new working container.

14 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor device weights an importance of each of the relevant information extracted from inside the temporary container and the relevant information extracted from the host, wherein upon calculating the aggregated information, one of an overwrite mode selection and a merge mode selection is used when performing the aggregating depending on the weight of the importance determined.

15 . A computer program product for aggregated information calculation and injection for application containers, by a processor device, the computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:
an executable portion that, prior to commencing execution of an application inside a working container:
starts a temporary container having an equivalent application template or container template as the working container;
extracts relevant information from inside the temporary container and relevant information from a host associated with the application;
calculates aggregated information based on the extracted relevant information from inside the temporary container and from the host; and
injects the calculated aggregated information into the working container.

16 . The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the calculated aggregated information comprises configuration information, runtime information and characteristics of the application; and is stored

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Aronovich Lior
• Ma Shibin I

Classifications

• G06F9/45545 Primary

  Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox · CPC title