Merging Composite Images Into Unified Filesystem Namespace
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing containerization technologies face inefficiencies when deploying multiple Composite Image (CIM) formats into a single guest context, as they are conventionally mounted into separate filesystem namespaces, leading to resource-intensive data duplication and namespace conflicts.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for merging multiple CIMs into a single merged filesystem namespace by merging their metadata portions while referencing underlying data portions, using a CIM manager to handle namespace conflicts and generate a low-overhead merged namespace.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple CIMs are mounted into separate filesystem namespaces, then each CIM can be deployed independently, but resource-intensive data duplication and namespace conflicts occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple CIM filesystem namespaces into a single unified namespace, allowing multiple CIMs to coexist without duplicating data. The system combines metadata from multiple CIMs while sharing underlying data portions, eliminating redundant data storage while maintaining independent deployment capability through the merged namespace structure.
2Stability of the object's composition
If multiple CIMs are mounted into separate filesystem namespaces, then each CIM maintains its own namespace integrity, but data duplication and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the filesystem namespace into metadata portions and data portions. Each CIM's metadata is merged into the unified namespace metadata, while data portions are shared references. This segmentation allows namespace integrity to be maintained through structured metadata merging while improving deployment efficiency by eliminating data duplication.
3Stability of the object's composition
If data portions are copied during namespace merging, then a complete merged namespace is created, but processing and memory resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses symbolic copying through references rather than physical data copying. The merged namespace metadata contains references to the original data portions in their source CIMs, creating a complete merged namespace view without duplicating the actual data. This approach maintains namespace completeness while minimizing processing and memory resource consumption.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Merging a plurality of CIMs into a merged filesystem namespace includes accessing merge configuration information that identifies a plurality of backing CIMs and a merge precedence order for the backing CIMs. Based on the merge configuration information, merged metadata is generated from metadata portions of the backing CIMs. The merged metadata defines a merged filesystem namespace comprising two or more filesystem objects from the backing CIMs. The merged metadata includes at least first and second merged metadata items that each defines a corresponding filesystem object as being part of the merged filesystem namespace. Each merged metadata item corresponds to a corresponding metadata item within a corresponding metadata portion of a different backing CIM, references a data portion of its corresponding backing CIM, and is generated based on its corresponding filesystem object having no conflict with any filesystem object from any backing CIM that has a higher merge precedence.