Providing a custom virtual appliance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9910694-B2
Application number	US-201615090644-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2016
Priority date	Aug 20, 2013
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A method, system, and/or computer program product provide a custom virtual appliance. One or more processors generate a description file of a custom virtual appliance based on a user requirement. The processor(s) acquire configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance from the description file. The processor(s) create a list of candidate virtual appliances based on the configuration metadata. The processor(s) acquire a disk size of the custom virtual appliance based on configuration metadata. The processor(s), for a specific virtual appliance in the list: acquire a disk size of the specific virtual appliance; and determine, based on the disk size conversion information, whether the specific virtual appliance is required to convert a disk size of the custom virtual appliance. In response to determining that a candidate virtual appliance from the list is required to convert the virtual disk, the processor(s) construct the candidate virtual appliance as the custom virtual appliance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a custom virtual appliance, the method comprising:
generating, by one or more processors, a description file of a custom virtual appliance based on a user requirement;
acquiring, by the one or more processors, configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance from the description file;
creating, by the one or more processors, a list of candidate virtual appliances based on the configuration metadata by using conversion information, wherein candidate virtual appliances in the list of candidate virtual appliances are capable of converting to a configuration that corresponds to the configuration metadata;
acquiring, by the one or more processors, a disk size of the custom virtual appliance based on the configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance; and
for a specific virtual appliance in the list:
acquiring, by the one or more processors, a disk size of the specific virtual appliance; and
determining, by the one or more processors and based on disk size conversion information, whether the specific virtual appliance is required to convert a disk size of the custom virtual appliance by performing a disk size conversion on the specific virtual appliance; and

in response to determining that a candidate virtual appliance from the list of candidate virtual appliances is required to convert a virtual disk on the candidate virtual appliance using the disk size conversion information, downloading and constructing, by the one or more processors, the candidate virtual appliance as the custom virtual appliance.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the conversion information for the specific virtual appliance comprises at least one of software customization conversion information, disk format conversion information, and the disk size conversion information.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the conversion information comprises software customization conversion information, and wherein the method further comprises:
acquiring, by the one or more processors, a software customization of the custom virtual appliance based on the configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance; and
for the specific available virtual appliance:
acquiring, by the one or more processors, customization software for the specific available virtual appliance;
determining, by the one or more processors and based on conversion information for the customization software, whether the specific available virtual appliance is required to be customized using the customization software;
in response to determining that the specific available virtual appliance is required to be customized using the customization software, placing, by the one or more processors, the specific available virtual appliance into the list as a candidate converted virtual appliance; and
recording, by the one or more processors, a required conversion process for converting the specific available virtual appliance into the custom virtual appliance.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the conversion information further comprises disk format conversion information, and wherein the method further comprises:
acquiring, by the one or more processors, a disk format of the custom virtual appliance based on the configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance; and
for the specific virtual appliance:
acquiring, by the one or more processors, a disk format of the specific virtual appliance;
determining, by the one or more processors and based on the disk format conversion information, whether the specific virtual appliance is required to convert a virtual disk on the specific virtual appliance using the disk format conversion information;
in response to determining that the specific virtual appliance is required to convert the virtual disk on the specific virtual appliance using the disk format conversion information, retaining, by the one or more processors, the specific virtual appliance in the list as a candidate virtual appliance; and
recording, by the one or more processors, a required conversion process for converting the virtual disk to a converted virtual disk.

5. A computer program product for providing a custom virtual appliance, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, and wherein the program code is readable and executable by a processor to perform a method comprising:
generating a description file of a custom virtual appliance based on a user requirement;
acquiring configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance from the description file;
creating a list of candidate virtual appliances based on the configuration metadata by using conversion information, wherein candidate virtual appliances in the list of candidate virtual appliances are capable of converting to a configuration that corresponds to the configuration metadata;
acquiring a disk size of the custom virtual appliance based on the configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance; and
for a specific virtual appliance in the list:
acquiring a disk size of the specific virtual appliance; and
determining, based on disk size conversion information, whether the specific virtual appliance is required to convert a disk size of the custom virtual appliance by performing a disk size conversion on the specific virtual appliance; and

in response to determining that a candidate virtual appliance from the list of candidate virtual appliances is required to convert a virtual disk on the candidate virtual appliance using the disk size conversion information, downloading and constructing the candidate virtual appliance as the custom virtual appliance.

6. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the conversion information for the specific virtual appliance comprises at least one of software customization conversion information, disk format conversion information, and the disk size conversion information.

7. The computer program product according to claim 5 , wherein the conversion information comprises software customization conversion information, and wherein the method further comprises:
acquiring a software customization of the custom virtual appliance based on the configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance; and
for the specific available virtual appliance:
acquiring customization software for the specific available virtual appliance;
determining, based on conversion information for the customization software, whether the specific available virtual appliance is required to be customized using the customization software;
in response to determining that the specific available virtual appliance is required to be customized using the customization software, placing the specific available virtual appliance into the list as a candidate converted virtual appliance; and
recording a required conversion process for converting the specific available virtual appliance into the custom virtual appliance.

8. The computer program product method according to claim 5 , wherein the conversion information further comprises disk format conversion information, and wherein the method further comprises:
acquiring a disk format of the custom virtual appliance based on the configuration metadata of the custom virtual appliance; and
for the specific virtual appliance:
acquiring a disk format of the specific virtual appliance;
determining, based on the disk format conversion information, whether the specific virtual appliance is required to convert a virtual disk on the specific virtual appliance using the disk format conversion information;
in response to determining that the

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Li Lei
• Liu Xin Peng
• Qin Lei
• Shu Jian
• Wang Xi Ning

Classifications

• G06F8/60

  Software deployment · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title