Compound Virtual Appliance Deduplication for Faster Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
The large size of compound virtual appliances poses a challenge for transmission, requiring significant network bandwidth and time, and can be disrupted by brief connectivity issues, necessitating a reduction in file size without compromising the integrity of the virtual appliance.
Innovation Solution
A method is introduced to create a compact version of the virtual appliance by deduplicating common components, such as operating systems, and providing reconstruction metadata, allowing the virtual machine manager to rebuild the complete appliance upon deployment, thereby reducing the initial transmission size and maintaining functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a complete virtual appliance is packaged and transmitted, then the appliance is ready to run with full functionality, but the file size becomes very large requiring enormous network bandwidth and transmission time
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual appliance is divided into multiple components: a compact base image containing essential system files and metadata, and separate disk image files that are downloaded on-demand. This segmentation allows the critical base image to be transmitted quickly while deferring less critical disk images to later on-demand retrieval.
Solution Approach 2:
The base image is prepared in advance with all necessary system files, configuration metadata, and boot information required to initialize the virtual appliance. This preliminary preparation enables the appliance to start quickly with minimal initial download, while disk images are fetched as needed during operation.
2Reliability
If a complete virtual appliance is packaged and transmitted, then the appliance is ready to run with full functionality, but the file size becomes very large consuming enormous network bandwidth
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual appliance is divided into multiple components: a compact base image containing essential system files and metadata, and separate disk image files that are downloaded on-demand. This segmentation allows the critical base image to be transmitted quickly while deferring less critical disk images to later on-demand retrieval.
Solution Approach 2:
Disk image files are extracted and separated from the base image for on-demand downloading. Only the essential base image is included in the initial transmission package, while disk images are obtained separately from remote storage locations after the appliance is deployed.
3Loss of time
If the virtual appliance file size is reduced for transmission, then network bandwidth and transmission time are improved, but the completeness and integrity of the appliance may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The base image is prepared in advance with all necessary system files, configuration metadata, and boot information required to initialize the virtual appliance. This preliminary preparation enables the appliance to start quickly with minimal initial download, while disk images are fetched as needed during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
A virtual machine manager acts as an intermediary that coordinates between the deployed base image and remote disk image files. The manager ensures proper assembly, mounting, and integration of disk images with the base image, maintaining appliance integrity while enabling on-demand loading.
4Quantity of substance
If a compact version of the virtual appliance is transmitted, then transmission efficiency is improved, but additional reconstruction procedures are required at the customer site
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual appliance base image contains embedded metadata and configuration information that enables automatic self-configuration and self-assembly. The system automatically discovers, downloads, and integrates disk images without requiring manual user intervention or complex reconstruction procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
A virtual machine manager acts as an intermediary that coordinates between the deployed base image and remote disk image files. The manager ensures proper assembly, mounting, and integration of disk images with the base image, maintaining appliance integrity while enabling on-demand loading.
Data Source
AI summary
An application is provided as a compound virtual appliance having components to be hosted by virtual machines. Each component includes a set of virtual machine disks. Partial versions of the components are created by removing from each component each virtual machine disk determined to be a duplicate of a virtual machine disk of another component. A compact version of the compound virtual appliance is created by packing together the partial versions of the components and a single copy of each virtual machine disk having been determined to be a duplicate. The compact compound virtual appliance is deployed to a customer site. At the customer site, a complete version of the compound virtual appliance is reconstructed by adding back the single copy of each virtual machine disk having been determined to be a duplicate into each component having had the duplicate virtual machine disk removed.