Use of cloning in maintenance of virtual appliances

摘要

Maintenance of a virtual appliance is provided. The virtual appliance comprises a set of software components each one installed on a corresponding virtual machine. A maintenance descriptor is provided comprising an indication of a new level of at least each one of the software components to be updated thereto. For each software component indicated in the maintenance descriptor, a current level is determined of the software component that is installed on the corresponding virtual machine. A set of old ones of the software components to be actually updated is determined according to a comparison between the corresponding current levels and new levels. The virtual appliance is then cloned. The cloned virtual appliance is updated by updating each old software component thereof to the new level. The virtual appliance is now replaced by the updated cloned virtual appliance.

主权项

1. A method for maintaining a current virtual appliance comprising a set of software components each one installed on a corresponding virtual machine, wherein the method comprises:
retrieving a maintenance descriptor comprising an indication of a new level of at least one of the software components to be updated; determining, for each software component indicated in the maintenance descriptor, a current level of the software component being installed on the corresponding virtual machine; determining a set of old ones of the software components to be actually updated according to a comparison between the corresponding current levels and new levels; determining local data of the current virtual appliance, cloning the current virtual appliance in response to determining that software components need to be updated; updating the cloned virtual appliance by updating each old software component thereof to the new level, wherein the updating occurs while the current virtual appliance is running; determining changes to the local data of the current virtual appliance that occurred to the current virtual appliance during the updating of the cloned virtual appliance; applying the changes to the local data of the current virtual appliance to the updated cloned virtual appliance; and replacing the current virtual appliance with the updated cloned virtual appliance.