Personal and pooled virtual machine update

摘要

The updating of virtual machines. A task broker schedules update tasks for multiple virtual machines on the host machine. As each update task is to be performed, if the virtual machine is not currently running, as might be the case for a personal virtual machine, the virtual machine is caused to begin running to allow the update task to be performed on the virtual machine. Also, a pooled virtual machine is updated by copying information from the old virtual hard drive to a location to allow the information to be preserved as the master image is updated. After the update is completed, the virtual machine is formed, associated with the new virtual hard drive, and copied back to the virtual machine.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for performing an update on a pooled virtual machine, the method being implemented by a computing system that includes at least one processor and comprising:
an act of updating a master image associated with the pooled virtual machine; an act of copying information from a first virtual hard drive that is associated with the pooled virtual machine to a location external to the first virtual hard drive; after the act of copying, an act of disconnecting the pooled virtual machine from the first virtual hard drive; an act of associating the pooled virtual machine with a second virtual hard drive that is associated with the updated master image; and after the act of associating, an act of copying at least some of the information copied from the first virtual hard drive back into the second virtual hard drive.