Efficient hosting of virtualized containers using read-only operating systems

摘要

A single operating system image is shared among multiple running virtualized containers such that each running container interacts with underlying shared files and resources in system storage. Each container running on a server are provided the same image, which remains consistent among the containers. Each image is named and versioned and each container is configured in a manner that defines which underlying image is used when the container is started. When updates to the image are made, a new image is be generated, and the containers are be switched to the new image by changing configuration properties associated with the container and restarting the container.

主权项

1. A method for provisioning an image of an operating system within a virtual machine environment in which a plurality of discrete system containers share access to one or more components of the image of the operating system, the method comprising the steps of:
creating a uniquely identifiable versioned directory to store an image of an operating system; modifying the image of the operating system; providing a mount script for initializing the image of the operating system, wherein the mount script is configured to:
allocate a plurality of file systems in memory, the file systems comprising locations writeable by the operating system;copy default contents from the image of the operating system into each of the file systems in memory;set environment variables for use by a particular discrete system container;mount a read-only software repository into a particular discrete system container; andmount a read-write data directory into a particular discrete system container; adding the image of the operating system and the mount script for initializing the image of the operating system into a bundled archive file; initiating an update to one or more components of the image of the operating system by creating a new uniquely identifiable versioned directory to store an updated image of the operating system; updating a configuration property of the discrete system containers associated with the updated image of the operating system; extracting the image of the operating system into a master file repository store in each of a plurality of storage servers whereby the discrete system containers stored on each storage server share access to one or more components of the image of the operating system; receive a request to create a new virtualized application environment, the request including a preferred operating system to support the virtualized application environment and a preferred version of the preferred operating system; in response to the request, confirm the validity of the preferred operating system and the preferred version of the preferred operating system based at least in part on previously provisioned operating system images; and if the preferred operating system and the preferred version are confirmed as valid, select the preferred version of the preferred operating system to support the new virtualized application environment, and, if the preferred operating system or the referred version is not confirmed as valid select a default version of a default operating system to support the new virtualized application environment.