Minimizing SCSI limitations for virtual machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9465638-B2
Application number	US-201414203894-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2014
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

Examples disclosed herein provide systems, methods, and software for minimizing Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) limitations on virtual machines are disclosed herein. In one example, a method of operating a volume combining system to combine volumes for a virtual machine includes identifying two or more volumes to be attached to the virtual machine. The method further provides combining the two or more volumes into a single volume, and attaching the single volume to the virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a virtual volume combining system to combine virtual volumes for a virtual machine, the method comprising:
identifying two or more virtual volumes to be attached to the virtual machine in response to a user request for the virtual machine;
combining the two or more virtual volumes into a single virtual volume; and
attaching the single virtual volume to the virtual machine by mounting the single virtual volume to the virtual machine and modifying registry information on the virtual machine to make at least one application stored on the single virtual volume executable by the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the two or more virtual volumes includes one or more applications.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises: storing the single virtual volume in a storage repository.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more virtual volumes comprise two or more virtual hard disks (VHDs).

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the single virtual volume comprises a virtual machine disk (VMDK).

6. The method of claim 5 wherein combining the two or more virtual volumes into a single virtual volume comprises: generating the VMDK as a container for the two or more VHDs.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the user request for the virtual machine comprises a request for the at least one application during execution of the virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, prior to initiating the virtual machine, the user request, wherein the user request comprises a request for the at least one application; and
initiating execution of the virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the user request for the virtual machine comprises a request for the two or more virtual volumes.

10. A computer apparatus to combine virtual volumes for a virtual machine, the computer apparatus comprising:
processing instructions that direct a virtual volume combining system, when executed by the virtual volume combining system, to:
identify two or more virtual volumes to be attached to the virtual machine in response to a user request for the virtual machine;
combine the two or more virtual volumes into a single virtual volume; and
attach the single virtual volume to the virtual machine by mounting the single virtual volume to the virtual machine and modifying registry information on the virtual machine to make at least one application stored on the single virtual volume executable by the virtual machine; and

one or more non-transitory computer readable media that store the processing instructions.

11. The computer apparatus of claim 10 wherein each of the two or more virtual volumes includes one or more applications.

12. The computer apparatus of claim 10 wherein the processing instructions further direct the virtual volume combining system to store the single virtual volume in a storage repository.

13. The computer apparatus of claim 10 wherein the two or more virtual volumes comprise two or more virtual hard disks (VHDs).

14. The computer apparatus of claim 13 wherein the single virtual volume comprises a virtual machine disk (VMDK).

15. The computer apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing instructions to combine the two or more virtual volumes into the single virtual volume direct the virtual volume combining system to generate the VMDK as a container for the two or more VHDs.

16. The computer apparatus of claim 10 wherein the user request for the virtual machine comprises a request for the at least one application during the execution of the virtual machine.

17. The computer apparatus of claim 16 wherein the processing instructions further direct the virtual volume combining system to:
receive, prior to initiating the virtual machine, the user request, wherein the user request comprises a request for the at least one application; and
initiate execution of the virtual machine.

18. The computer apparatus of claim 10 wherein the processing instructions further direct the virtual volume combining system to execute the at least one application on the virtual machine.

19. An apparatus comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media;
processing instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media to operate a virtual volume combining service that, when read and executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to:
identify a request to attach two or more virtual volumes of a first virtual drive format to a virtual machine;
in response to identifying the request, combine the two or more virtual volumes into a single virtual volume of a second virtual drive format, wherein the second virtual drive format comprises a container file for the two or more virtual drives; and
attach the single virtual volume to the virtual machine by mounting the single virtual volume to the virtual machine and modifying registry information on the virtual machine to make at least one application stored on the single virtual volume executable by the virtual machine.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the two or more virtual volumes comprise two or more virtual hard disks (VHDs) and the single virtual volume comprises a virtual machine disk (VMDK).

Assignees

• Cloudvolumes Inc
• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Conover Matthew
• Parekh Rajesh H
• Choudhary Jairam
• Huang Fei
• Tauglich Gregory

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title