Thin Provisioning Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VMs Cloud Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cloud environments like Microsoft Azure do not support thin clones, leading to the need for full disk clones when creating multiple identical Virtual Machines (VMs) for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which is expensive and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that uses cloud storage and a cloud-based relational database to enable thin provisioning of VMs, leveraging storage deduplication and a storage-aware driver in the Operating System to allow multiple VMs to share the same boot disk, with metadata management using Structured Query Language (SQL).
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If full disk clones are created for multiple VMs in cloud environments without thin clone support, then VM provisioning is achieved, but storage costs and provisioning time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the disk cloning process into two phases: (1) creating a single master disk image containing the base OS, and (2) creating multiple thin-clone VMs that reference this master image. This segmentation eliminates the need to clone entire disks for each VM, reducing provisioning time from minutes to seconds while enabling rapid VM deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a copying mechanism where multiple VMs create lightweight references (thin clones) to a single master disk image rather than creating full physical copies. Each VM stores only the differences from the master image, enabling instantaneous VM provisioning by copying metadata pointers instead of terabytes of disk data.
2Productivity
If full disk clones are created for multiple VMs, then VM provisioning is achieved, but storage costs increase due to duplicate data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple VM disk references into a single shared master disk image. Instead of storing N separate full disk copies for N VMs, the system consolidates the base OS image once and has all VMs reference this shared image, reducing storage consumption from N×disk_size to approximately disk_size plus minimal clone overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a copying mechanism where multiple VMs create lightweight references (thin clones) to a single master disk image rather than creating full physical copies. Each VM stores only the differences from the master image, enabling instantaneous VM provisioning by copying metadata pointers instead of terabytes of disk data.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the boot disk is cloned to create multiple VMs, then multiple identical VMs are provisioned, but the process is expensive and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the disk cloning process into two phases: (1) creating a single master disk image containing the base OS, and (2) creating multiple thin-clone VMs that reference this master image. This segmentation eliminates the need to clone entire disks for each VM, reducing provisioning time from minutes to seconds while enabling rapid VM deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary action by creating the master disk image once with the complete base OS installation. This master image serves as a reusable template that can be referenced by multiple VMs indefinitely, eliminating the need to repeat the time-consuming disk cloning process for each subsequent VM while maintaining full VM provisioning capability.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for operating a cloud based computing system. The methods comprise: receiving, by a cloud server, a request for accessing Virtual Hard Disk ("VHD") data associated with a first location in the VHD of a Virtual Machine ("VM") hosted by a remote computing device; extracting, by the cloud server, at least a first address specifying the first location from the request; translating, by the cloud server, the first address into a second address specifying a second location in a cloud storage where the VHD data is stored; and communicating from the cloud server the second address to the remote computing device for facilitating access to the VHD data stored in the cloud storage.