System and method to commit container changes on a vm-based container

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022012079-A1
Application number	US-202016986899-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 6, 2020
Priority date	Jul 10, 2020
Publication date	Jan 13, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed herein are embodiments for committing changes of an image of a virtual machine-based container running on a host computer system. A starting image for a container is obtained from a guest starting folder, and while the container runs the starting image changes to the image made by the running container are captured in a guest folder that is union mounted with the guest starting folder. Another union folder, which is the union of a new host folder and the starting folder, contains the changed image which can be used for the container or transferred to a different container.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for committing changes of an image of a container running in a virtual machine (VM) on a host computer system, the method comprising:
obtaining a guest starting folder containing a starting image for the container; while the container is running the starting image, storing changes made by the running container to the starting image in a first union folder to generate a changed image for the container, wherein the first union folder is a union of a new guest folder and the guest starting folder, and wherein the new guest folder reflects the changes in the first union folder; and forming a second union folder as a union of a new host folder and the guest starting folder, the new host folder containing the changes to the starting image, and the second union folder containing the changed image.

2 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein a guest file system of the VM is shared with a host file system of the host computer system; and wherein the host file system includes a host starting folder containing the starting image of the container and shares the host starting folder as the guest starting folder in the guest file system.

3 . The method of claim 2 ,
wherein the host file system includes the new host folder; and wherein the host file system shares the new host folder as a guest folder of the guest file system, the guest folder containing the changes to the starting image.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the container runtime fetches the starting image for the container from the host computer system and provides the starting image in the host starting folder.

5 . The method of claim 4 ,
wherein the starting image for the container resides in a repository for images on the host computer system; and wherein the images in the repository are read-only images.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the changed image in the second union folder is stored in a repository of container images.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a container runtime runs on the host computer system but does not run the starting image.

8 . A host computer system comprising:
one or more CPUs; and a memory coupled to the CPUs, wherein the memory has loaded therein system software that includes virtualization software for running one or more virtual machines, and a container runtime; wherein system software runs the container runtime and one of the virtual machines runs a guest operating system with a container running as an application of the guest operating system; and wherein the guest operating system is configured to:
obtain a guest starting folder containing a starting image for the container;
while the container is running the starting image, store changes made by the running container to the starting image in a first union folder to generate a changed image for the container, wherein the first union folder is a union of a new guest folder and the guest starting folder, and wherein the new guest folder reflects the changes in the first union folder; and form a second union folder as a union of a new host folder and the guest starting folder, the new host folder containing the changes to the starting image, and the second union folder containing the changed image.

9 . The host computer system of claim 8 ,
wherein a guest file system of the VM is shared with a host file system of the host computer system; and wherein the host file system includes a host starting folder containing the starting image of the container and shares the host starting folder as the guest starting folder in the guest file system.

10 . The host computer system of claim 9 ,
wherein the host file system includes the new host folder; and wherein the host file system shares the new host folder as a guest folder of the guest file system, the guest folder containing the changes to the starting image.

11 . The host computer system of claim 9 , wherein the container runtime fetches the starting image for the container from the host computer system and provides the starting image in the host starting folder.

12 . The host computer system of claim 11 ,
wherein the starting image for the container resides in a repository for images on the host computer system; and wherein the images in the repository are read-only images.

13 . The host computer system of claim 8 , wherein the changed image in the second union folder is stored in a repository of container images.

14 . The host computer system of claim 8 , wherein a container runtime runs on the host computer system but does not run the starting image.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable in a computer system, wherein the instructions when executed in the computer system cause the computer system to carry out a method for committing changes of an image of a container running in a virtual machine (VM) on a host computer system, the method comprising:
obtaining a guest starting folder containing a starting image for the container; while the container is running the starting image, storing changes made by the running container to the starting image in a first union folder to generate a changed image for the container, wherein the first union folder is a union of a new guest folder and the guest starting folder, and wherein the new guest folder reflects the changes in the first union folder; and forming a second union folder as a union of a new host folder and the guest starting folder, the new host folder containing the changes to the starting image, and the second union folder containing the changed image.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 ,
wherein a guest file system of the VM is shared with a host file system of the host computer system; and wherein the host file system includes a host starting folder containing the starting image of the container and shares the host starting folder as the guest starting folder in the guest file system.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 ,
wherein the host file system includes the new host folder; and wherein the host file system shares the new host folder as a guest folder of the guest file system, the guest folder containing the changes to the starting image.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 ,
wherein the container runtime fetches the starting image for the container from the host computer system and provides the starting image in the host starting folder; wherein the starting image for the container resides in a repository for images on the host computer system; and wherein the images in the repository are read-only images.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the changed image in the second union folder is stored in a repository of container images.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein a container runtime runs on the host computer system but does not run the starting image.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Wu Junfei
• Yu Xiang
• Ye Xiaodong
• Wang Fangchi
• Zuo Haitao

Classifications

• G06F9/45545 Primary

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

• G06F8/656

  while running · CPC title

• G06F8/63 Primary

  Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/5027

  the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals · CPC title