JPWO2010100867A1 - Virtual machine management system - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a virtual machine management system that enables a system administrator to easily grasp the update status of the execution environment of a virtual machine. In the virtual machine management system, each virtual machine has system update means for recording update information indicating update contents of its own execution environment in an update record file, and update information transmission means for sending the update information to the virtual machine management apparatus. Including. The virtual machine management device compares the update information storage control means for recording the transmitted update information in the update information file and the update information recorded in the update information file to indicate the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machine Update information comparing means for generating data.

Description

  The present invention relates to a virtualization technique for configuring a virtual computer on a real computer.

  With the recent improvement in performance of real computers (hardware configuration computers), virtualization technology that configures virtual computers (virtual machines) on real computers is widely used. If multiple virtual machines are configured on a single real machine, multiple types of operating systems (OS) can be operated in parallel on these virtual machines. It can be used. Further, by transmitting a file group necessary for the configuration of the virtual computer to the real computer via the communication network, it becomes possible to easily construct a user computing environment on the real computer.

  The work of maintaining and managing a large number of virtual machines distributed on a communication network is not easy. Therefore, a technology for efficiently managing a large number of virtual machines via a communication network is required. Prior art documents relating to this type of management technology include, for example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-332223), Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-208999), and Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-115653). Gazette) and Patent Document 4 (US Pat. No. 7,398,524).

JP 2005-332223 A JP 2005-208999 A JP 2005-115653 A US Pat. No. 7,398,524

  As a method of building a virtual machine in a short time on a real machine, an image file group (an image of an OS, application program, directory structure, etc.) representing the execution environment of the virtual machine once built is saved, and this image file There is a method of reusing groups when reconstructing virtual machines. In the conventional management technique, an apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a management server) for remotely managing virtual machines distributed on a communication network is used. If the management server stores such an image file group, the virtual machine control unit (host OS or virtual machine monitor) on the real computer can use the image file group to shorten the execution environment of the virtual machine in a short time. And can be easily reconstructed. Furthermore, if the image file group is packaged and stored in the management server, it is possible to easily construct a desired execution environment of the virtual machine using only necessary packages.

  When the computing environment used for each virtual machine user is different, the image file group necessary for constructing the virtual machine is different for each execution environment of the virtual machine. The management server transfers details of the execution environment for each virtual machine in order to transfer a minimum image file group (for example, an image of a specific application program or a specific directory structure) necessary for the construction of the virtual machine to the real machine. It is necessary to understand this. However, the conventional management technique has a problem that it is difficult for the management server to accurately and completely grasp the details of the execution environment of a large number of virtual machines distributed and arranged on the communication network.

  For example, a virtual machine management system (virtual machine management system) disclosed in Patent Document 1 manages an environment in which a plurality of virtual machine servers (virtual machines) operate, and immediately rebuilds the environment when necessary. It can be carried out. These virtual machine servers have a function of transmitting setting information such as OS identification information and OS version information operating on the virtual machine server to the virtual machine management system. The virtual machine management system can store the setting information transmitted from the virtual machine server, and can reconstruct the environment of the virtual machine server in a short time when necessary based on the setting information. However, in the virtual machine management system of Patent Document 1, the system administrator cannot easily grasp the update status of the execution environment of a large number of virtual machine servers.

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a virtual machine management system that enables a system administrator to easily grasp the update status of the execution environment of a large number of virtual machines distributed on a communication network. It is.

  According to the present invention, a plurality of real computers each having at least one virtual computer, a virtual computer management device that remotely controls the virtual computer via a communication network, and the plurality of virtual computers, respectively. A virtual machine management system is provided that includes a storage device that stores a plurality of prepared update information files. In this virtual machine management system, each virtual machine has a data storage unit in which an update record file is stored, and update information indicating the contents of the update when the execution environment of each virtual machine is updated. System update means for recording in an update record file; and update information transmission means for transmitting the update information in the update record file to the virtual machine management apparatus, wherein the virtual machine management apparatus is the update information transmission means Update information storage control means for recording the update information transmitted from the update information file and data indicating the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machine by comparing the update information recorded in the update information file Update information comparing means to be generated.

  According to the present invention, there is provided a virtual machine management system comprising a plurality of real machines each having at least one virtual machine, and a virtual machine management apparatus that remotely controls the virtual machine via a communication network. The In this virtual machine management system, each virtual machine has identification information of a plurality of software packages introduced into each virtual machine in order to construct an execution environment of each virtual machine, and interdependencies between the software packages. Package information transmitting means for transmitting dependency information indicating a relationship to the virtual machine management apparatus as package information, wherein the virtual machine management apparatus transmits the package information transmitted from the package information transmission means for each virtual machine. Package information storage control means for storing data in a storage device, and package information comparison means for comparing the package information stored in the storage device to generate data indicating the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machine, Including.

  According to the virtual machine management system of the present invention, it is possible to acquire accurate detailed information regarding the execution environment of a large number of virtual machines distributed on the communication network, and to provide data indicating the update status of the execution environment. . Therefore, the management burden on the system administrator is greatly reduced.

  The above-described object and other objects, features, and advantages will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments described below and the accompanying drawings.

It is a functional block diagram which shows schematic structure of the virtual machine management system of 1st Embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of an update recording file roughly. It is a figure which shows roughly the communication sequence which shows the storage procedure of virtual computer information. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of the virtual machine information management table. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation screen for designating the disk image which is a comparison object. It is a figure which shows an example of the comparison result based on the difference detection by character string comparison. It is a functional block diagram which shows schematic structure of the virtual machine management system of 2nd Embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows roughly the communication sequence which shows the storage procedure of virtual computer information. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of a package information database. It is a flowchart which shows roughly the process sequence by a package information comparison part. It is a figure which shows the dependency relationship information about five packages. It is a figure which shows the group of a package name. It is a figure which illustrates the contents of a disk image. It is a figure which shows an example of the dependency relationship information between package lists. It is a figure which shows the comparison result output to a management terminal.

  Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In all the drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is appropriately omitted so as not to overlap.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a virtual machine management system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. This virtual machine management system includes a plurality of real machines 300 _{1 to} 300 _N , a virtual machine management server (Virtual Machine Management Server) 100A, a storage device 200, and a management terminal 400. The real computers 300 _{1 to} 300 _N , the virtual computer management server 100A, the storage device 200, and the management terminal 400 are connected to each other via a communication network 500.

At least one virtual machine is started in each of the real machines 300 _{1 to} 300 _N. As shown in FIG. 1, the actual computer 300 ₁ has a virtual machine control unit 310 _1, the virtual machine 301 ₁ is built on a real machine 300 ₁ under the control of the virtual machine control unit 310 ₁ ing. The other real computers 300 _{2 to} 300 _N have the same configuration as that of the real computer 300 ₁ . In other words, the real machine ₃₀₀ 2 to 300 _N has respectively, a virtual machine ₃₀₁ 2 to 301 _N built under the control of the virtual machine control unit ₃₁₀ 2 to 310 _N. The virtual machine management server 100A has a function of remotely managing a virtual machine group on the real machines 300 _{1 to} 300 _N via the communication network 500.

Virtual computer control unit 310 ₁ has a function of constructing a virtual machine 301 ₁ logically based on the real machine 300 ₁ storage disk image stored in the (not shown) and configuration files. Virtual computer control unit ₃₁₀ 2 to 310 _N also has a similar function to that of the virtual machine control unit 310 _1. In the present embodiment, the virtual machine control unit 310 ₁ is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that operates on the real machine 300 ₁ . There can be a configuration in which the virtual computer monitor directly operates on the real computer and a configuration in which the virtual computer monitor operates on a host operating system (host OS) on the real computer.

  The virtual machine monitor can be realized by software or hardware. Examples of the existing virtual machine monitor include VMware (registered trademark) and Xen (registered trademark).

The hardware configuration of the actual computers 300 _{1 to} 300 _N may be a general-purpose configuration, such as a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a main memory, a cache memory, a bus circuit, a timer circuit, and an input device. (E.g., a keyboard) and output devices (e.g., a display or a printer). For example, the real computers 300 _{1 to} 300 _N may be realized by a workstation or a personal computer.

  The management terminal 400 is a terminal device that includes an input device such as a keyboard and a pointing device and an output device such as a liquid crystal display. The management terminal 400 is connected to the virtual machine management server 100A via the network 500. The management terminal 400 can be constituted by, for example, a personal computer that operates a Windows (registered trademark) operating system.

Virtual machine 301 ₁ of the real machine 300 ₁ has an update record transmission unit (update information transmitting means) 302, the system updates 303 and update the recording file 304. System update unit 303, when an update of the virtual machine 301 ₁ execution environment (system) is performed, has a function of recording the update information indicating the content of the update to update the recording file 304. For example, the introduction of a new application program to the virtual machine 301 _1, when the existing application program or been updated to the new version, the system files for the virtual OS running on the virtual machine 301 ₁ is or is updated, the virtual computer 301 _first execution environment is updated. The data representing the execution environment is a disk image, the disk image is stored in the real machine 300 ₁ internal disk.

Update record file 304 is stored in the storage area allocated to the virtual machine 301 ₁ (data storage unit). In response to an update information acquisition request from the virtual machine management server 100A, the update record transmission unit 302 transmits the update information recorded in the update record file 304 to the virtual machine management server 100A.

Virtual computer control unit 310 ₁ for controlling the virtual machine 301 ₁ has a disk image transmitting unit 310A. The disk image transmitting unit 310A, in accordance with the disk image storage request from the virtual machine management server 100A, reads out the disk image of the real machine 300 _1, has a function of transmitting it. As described below, the virtual machine control unit 310 _1, when the disk image storage request arrives, while temporarily stopping the operation of the virtual machine 301 _1, the virtual machine 301 ₁ disk image disk image transmission unit 310A It has the function to send to.

  On the other hand, the virtual machine management server 100A includes a disk image storage control unit 110, an update information storage control unit 120, an update information comparison unit 130, and a network service interface 140. All or part of the configuration of the virtual machine management server 100A may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by a computer program (or program code) that causes a processor of a computer to execute processing. When the functions of the components 110, 120, 130, and 140 of the virtual machine management server 100A are realized by a computer program, the processor reads the computer program from a recording medium such as a nonvolatile memory and executes it.

The storage device 200 is a storage device such as a hard disk. The storage device 200 holds a disk image and virtual machine information stored or referenced by the virtual machine management server 100A. Details of the virtual machine information will be described later. The storage device 200, a real machine ₃₀₀ 1-300 number of virtual machines ₃₀₁ 1 to 301 update information file 230 prepared corresponding respectively to the _N on _N, ... are stored. The update information file 230 is an electronic file including information indicating a history of updates made to the execution environments of the virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _N under the management of the virtual machine management server 100A.

The update information storage control unit 120 controls the storage device 200 to prepare update information transmitted from the virtual computer 301 _i (i is any one of 1 to N) for the virtual computer 301 _i. The update information file 230 is recorded.

The storage device 200, disk image 220 sent from the real machine ₃₀₀ 1 to 300 _N, and has a storage area for storing .... Disk image storage control unit 110 controls the storage unit 200 stores the disk image transmitted from the real machine 300 ₁ to the storage area.

Further, the storage device 200 stores a virtual computer information management table 210. In the virtual machine information management table 210, information (metadata) related to the virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _N under the management of the virtual machine management server 100A is recorded. Disk image storage control unit 110, real machine 300 _i of disk image of the virtual machine 301 _i transmitted from the identifier (e.g., data representing the name of the disk image) and are prepared corresponding to the virtual machine 301 _i The identifier of the updated information file 230 (for example, data representing the name of the updated information file 230) can be associated and recorded in the virtual machine information management table 210.

  Based on a request or inquiry from the network service interface 140, the update information comparison unit 130 refers to the virtual machine information management table 210 and selects the update information file 230 corresponding to the disk image to be compared. The update information comparison unit 130 compares the update information recorded in the selected update information file or files 230 and generates data indicating the update status of the execution environment of the single or multiple virtual machines.

As will be described later, for example, when an update history of the execution environment (disk image) of one virtual machine 301 _i is requested from the management terminal 400 via the network service interface 140, the update information comparison unit 130 The update information file 230 assigned to the virtual computer 301 _i is selected, and the update information in the update information file 230 is compared. On the other hand, when a difference between execution environments (disk images) of two different virtual machines 301 _i and 301 _j (i ≠ j) is requested from the management terminal 400 via the network service interface 140, an update information comparison unit 130 selects two update information files 230 and 230 assigned to the two virtual machines 301 _i and 301 _j , respectively, and compares the update information between the update information files 230 and 230. The processing result by the update information comparison unit 130 is transmitted to the management terminal 400 via the network service interface 140.

  The network service interface 140 is an interface for exchanging information between the management terminal 400 and the update information comparison unit 130 or between the management terminal 400 and the update information storage control unit 120.

  The system administrator can operate the management terminal 400 to input instruction information for the virtual machine management server 100A. This instruction information is transmitted to the network service interface 140 via the communication network 500. The network service interface 140 makes a request or inquiry based on the instruction information to the update information comparison unit 130 or the update information storage control unit 120. The update information comparison unit 130 or the update information storage control unit 120 executes processing corresponding to the inquiry or request, and returns the execution result to the network service interface 140. Then, the network service interface 140 returns the execution result to the management terminal 400 as a response result to the instruction information.

  As the network service interface 140, for example, an interface that provides a web service based on HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) / HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer) can be employed. HTTP / HTTPS is defined in RFC (Request For Comment). In this case, a web browser (WWW browser) that displays a web page provided by the network service interface 140 is introduced into the management terminal 400. The system administrator can access the network service interface 140 through the web browser.

  The operation of the virtual machine management system having the above configuration will be described below. The virtual machine management system according to the first embodiment operates in three phases: 1) update of a virtual machine, 2) registration of virtual machine information, and 3) reference of virtual machine information.

“Updating a virtual machine” means adding a change operation such as introduction of an application program to an OS (operating system) operating on the virtual machine. System update unit 303 of the virtual on computer 301 ₁ in FIG. 1, according to the update instruction information from the management terminal 400 has a function to perform this change operation. That is, the system administrator operates enter an update instruction information to the management terminal 400, the update instruction information is transmitted through the communication network 500 to the real machine 300 _1. In accordance with the update instruction information received from the management terminal 400, the system update unit 303 executes a change operation such as installation of a software package, update of an installed software package, or deletion of an installed software package, for example. can do.

  Here, a software package (hereinafter, simply referred to as “package”) refers to installation (ie, installation), update (ie, update or upgrade), or deletion (delete or remove) of software. It includes a set of files that serve as a management unit when performing the above and dependency information associated with the set of files. The dependency relationship information is information indicating a relationship between a certain package and another package necessary for introducing the package. Alternatively, the dependency relationship information may be defined by a combination of a function (capability) provided by each package and a function on which each package depends. As a package format for giving such dependency relationship information, for example, a format based on RPM or dpkg is known. RPM and dpkg are software package management systems, respectively. RPM and dpkg are disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 4 (US Pat. No. 7,398,524).

Not only the system update unit 303, an application program running on the OS and the OS running on the virtual machine 301 ₁ even in some cases to perform the change operation. As described above, the system update unit 303, when an update of the virtual machine 301 ₁ execution environment is executed, it has a function of recording the update information in the update record file 304.

  Further, the system update unit 303 has a function of adding the update information to the update record file 304 in a format that can be read by the system administrator. 2A and 2B are diagrams schematically showing an example of the contents of the update recording file 304. FIG. FIG. 2A shows six packages ("base-5.00-0", "admintool-4.2-2", "monitor-3.0.1-4", "database-6.2-2", "backup-1.0-" 5 ”,“ shopping-3.2-3 ”) shows the contents of the introduction history recorded in time order. For example, the first line in the file of FIG. 2A shows a record in which a package named “base-5.00-0” is introduced.

  On the other hand, the contents from the first line to the sixth line of the file in FIG. 2B are the same as the contents of the file in FIG. The seventh line indicates that the installed package “monitor-3.0.1-4” has been updated to a newer “monitor-3.0.1-5”. Line 8 shows that a new package "cache-1.1.1-3" has been introduced.

  The system update unit 303 can be realized by, for example, a higher-order program (wrapper) having a function of calling a package management command and additionally writing the update contents in the update record file 304. As package management commands, for example, rpm, yum, dpkg, and apt-get are known. The rpm command is a command for operating the above-described package management system RPM, and the dpkg command is a command for operating the above-described package management system dpkg. The yum command is a command for calling the package management system RPM, and the apt-get command is a command for calling the package management system dpkg.

  Next, a phase called “virtual machine information registration” will be described.

“Registration of virtual machine information” refers to a process of storing virtual machine information corresponding to the virtual machine 301 _i at a certain time in the storage device 200. Here, the virtual machine information, the disk image representing the contents of the virtual disk drive virtual machine 301 _i is built (disk image), and the update information file 230 update history is recorded for the virtual machine 301 _i, In addition, it includes information accompanying the virtual machine 301 _i .

The virtual machine information other than the disk image and update information file 230, for example, virtual machine 301 _i identifier (e.g., the name of the virtual machine 301 _i), the memory capacity of the virtual machine 301 _i, introduced an operating system ( OS). These pieces of information are used by the system administrator to determine what configuration the virtual computer 301 _i represented by the disk image to be stored in the storage device 200 has.

The system administrator can input to the management terminal 400 instruction information for storing a disk image of a certain virtual machine 301 _i and its update information in the storage device 200. The management terminal 400 transmits this instruction information to the virtual machine management server 100A. In the virtual machine management server 100A, the update information storage control unit 120 executes control for recording the update information of the virtual machine 301 _i in the update information file 230 of the storage device 200 in accordance with the instruction information. Further, the disk image storage control unit 110 executes control to store the disk image of the virtual machine 301 _{i in} the storage device 200 in accordance with the instruction information.

Further, the disk image storage control unit 110 adds a new record (row) to the virtual machine information management table 210. The disk image storage control unit 110 associates the identifier of the disk image of the virtual machine 301 _i transmitted from the real machine 300 _{i with} the identifier of the update information file 230 prepared corresponding to the virtual machine 301 _i. Record in a new record.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a communication sequence showing a procedure for storing virtual computer information. Hereinafter, this procedure will be described in detail along the steps shown in FIG.

First, the system administrator operates the management terminal 400 to input virtual computer information storage instruction information to the management terminal 400 (step S121). The management terminal 400 transmits this instruction information to the virtual machine management server 100A. In the virtual machine management server 100A, the update information storage control unit 120 receives the instruction information via the network service interface 140. The instruction information only needs to specify the identifier of the virtual machine 301 _i (for example, the name of the virtual machine 301 _i ).

  Prior to the operation input by the system administrator in step S121, the system administrator performs an operation on the management terminal 400 to call an operation screen for storing virtual machine information. In response to this operation, the management terminal 400 acquires information for displaying an operation screen from the network service interface 140. In this embodiment, in order to call up the operation screen, the system administrator performs an operation of inputting a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to the web browser activated on the management terminal 400. In this case, the information for displaying the operation screen may be described in, for example, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).

Next, the update information storage control unit 120 transmits an update information acquisition request to the update record transmission unit 302 on the virtual machine 301 _i corresponding to the given identifier (step S122). The update record transmission unit 302 of the virtual machine 301 _i transmits the update information recorded in the update record file 304 in response to this update information acquisition request. As a result, the update information storage control unit 120 acquires the update information.

When this step S122 is executed, the virtual machine 301 _i needs to be in an operating state. Although not clearly shown in FIG. 3, when the virtual computer 301 _i is in a stopped state, the virtual computer 301 _i is activated prior to transmission of the update information acquisition request. This activation process is performed when the update information storage control unit 120 transmits an activation request to the virtual machine control unit 310 _i . In response to this activation request, the virtual machine control unit 310 _i activates the virtual machine 301 _i . Thus, system administrators real machine 300 is not necessary to start the virtual machine 301 _i to the real machine on 300 _i directly operated or remotely to _i, the burden of the system administrator is reduced significantly .

Next, the update information storage control unit 120 controls the storage device 200 to record the update information acquired in step S122 in the update information file 230 of the storage device 200 (step S123). In the update information file 230, a unique name is added to the virtual computer 301 _i in the storage device 200.

Name of the update information file 230, for example, fixed the beginning of the string (prefix: prefix) and, a number indicating the name of the virtual machine 301 _i, version of the execution environment of the virtual machine 301 _i a (plate) ( (Hereinafter referred to as “version number”). Even in the execution environment of the same virtual machine, its contents are updated as time passes. The version number is a number for specifying the execution environment of the virtual machine at a certain point in time. Therefore, it can be said that the version number distinguishes between an execution environment at a certain time and an execution environment at another time in the same virtual machine.

  An example of the name of the update information file 230 is shown in FIG. In this example, “update” is used as the first character string, “shopping” is used as the name of the virtual machine, and “52” and “53” are used as the version numbers. The version number (version number) may be called a sequence number or a revision number.

Next, the update information storage control unit 120 makes a disk image storage request to the disk image storage control unit 110 (step S124). Along with this disk image storage request, the name of the virtual machine 301 _i is given to the disk image storage control unit 110. In response to this disk image storage request, the disk image storage control unit 110 executes steps S111 to S123.

In this embodiment, in order to store the disk image of the virtual machine 301 _{i in} the storage device 200, the update information storage control unit 120 calls the disk image storage control unit 110 by making a disk image storage request. However, the present invention is not limited to such a form. For example, the disk image storage control unit 110 may execute steps S111 to S123 in response to a virtual machine storage request (step S121) without being called by the update information storage control unit 120.

Referring to FIG. 3, in step S111, the disk image storage control unit 110 makes a virtual machine stop request to the virtual machine control unit 310 _i on the real machine 300 _{i in} which the virtual machine 301 _i is constructed. In response to the virtual machine stop request, the virtual machine control unit 310 _i temporarily stops the operation of the virtual machine 301 _i . Here, the reason why the virtual machine 301 _i is temporarily stopped is to reliably acquire an accurate disk image. When the virtual machine 301 _i is in the operating state, there is a possibility that the disk image is updated, so that an accurate and complete disk image cannot always be acquired. Without temporarily stopping the operation of the virtual machine 301 _i, as long as it can acquire the accurate and complete disk image, it is not necessary to temporarily stop the operation of the virtual machine 301 _i.

Next, the disk image storage control unit 110 transmits a disk image transmission request to the virtual machine control unit 310 _i on the real computer 300 _i (step S112). Along with this disk image transmission request, the identifier of the virtual machine 301 _i (for example, the name of the virtual machine 301 _i ) is also sent to the virtual machine controller 310 _i . In response to this disk image transmission request, the virtual machine control unit 310 _i transmits the disk image of the virtual machine 301 _i .

  An example of the disk image format is the VMDK format in VMware. In many virtual machine software including VMware, in order to express the contents of the virtual machine, in addition to the disk image, contents of a nonvolatile memory (nvram file in VMware) and a virtual machine setting file (vmx file in VMware) are attached. A file is required. These accompanying files are also included as part of the disk image.

Next, the disk image storage control unit 110 controls the storage device 200 to store the disk image acquired from the real computer 300 _i in the storage device 200 (step S113). Here, a unique file name is assigned to the virtual computer 301 _i in the storage device 200 to the disk image 220 stored in the storage device 200.

The file name that is the identifier of the disk image 220 is given by, for example, concatenating a fixed leading character string, the name of the virtual computer 301 _i , and the version number. FIG. 4 exemplifies the file name (disk image name) given in this way. As Version number (version number), the case of using the same as the version number assigned to the update information file 230, together with the disk image storage request in step S124, the version number is also stored disc image in addition to the identifier of the virtual machine 301 _i What is necessary is just to give to the control part 110.

  When the processing from steps S111 to S113 is completed, control returns to the update information storage control unit 120.

Thereafter, the update information storage control unit 120 stores the virtual computer information in the storage device 200 (step S125). That is, the update information storage control unit 120, the identifier of the update information file 230 stored in the storage unit 200, the identifier of the disk image 220 of the virtual machine 301 _i, the identifier of the virtual machine 301 _i, the virtual machine 301 _i of The version number is associated and added to the virtual machine information management table 210. At this time, the update information storage control unit 120 provides a new record in the virtual machine information management table 210, and in this new record, the identifier of the update information file 230, the identifier of the disk image 220, and the identifier of the virtual machine 301 _i And the version number of the virtual machine 301 _i are recorded.

Here, the above-mentioned new record needs to be uniquely identified by the identifier (name and its version number) of the virtual machine 301 _i . Further, for example, any information included in the file accompanying the image file acquired in step 112 and contributing to specifying the virtual machine 301 _i may be added to the new record.

In this embodiment, in the series of operation procedures shown in FIG. 3, the version number common to the identifier of the disk image 220, the identifier of the update information file 230, and the new record added to the virtual machine information management table 210 is shared. Is granted. Furthermore, its new record, as additional information, to include the name of the operating system operating in the virtual machine on 301 _i (OS name), a physical memory capacity of information assigned to the virtual machine 301 _i Can do.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the contents of the virtual machine information management table 210. As shown in FIG. 4, in addition to “virtual machine name”, “version number”, “disk image name”, and “update information file name”, “OS name” is added to each record (row) of the table. In addition, additional information “physical memory amount” is recorded. In addition, there are two records including the same name “shop”. Among these records, the version number of one record is “52”, and the version number of the other record is “53”. Therefore, information on two types of disc images with different version numbers is recorded.

  Next, a phase called “reference to virtual machine information” will be described.

  “Reference to virtual machine information” is performed by the update information comparison unit 130 of the virtual machine management server 100A comparing the contents of the update information file 230 stored in the storage device 200 and outputting the result. That is, referring to the virtual machine information, a person understands the information about the disk image 220 stored in the storage device 200 from the contents of the virtual machine information management table 210 in the storage device 200 and the contents of the update information file 230. An operation that is referred to in a possible manner.

  The system administrator can refer to virtual machine information stored in the storage device 200 by operating the management terminal 400 and inputting instruction information for the virtual machine management server 100. The system administrator performs an operation (for example, input of URL to the web browser) for calling the operation screen for referring to the virtual machine information on the management terminal 400. In response to this operation, the management terminal 400 acquires information (for example, an HTML document) for displaying the corresponding operation screen from the network service interface 140.

In the virtual machine management server 100A, when the instruction information regarding the comparison of the execution environments of the two virtual machines 301 _i and 300 _j (i ≠ j) is received from the management terminal 400, the update information comparison unit 130 displays the two virtual machines 301 _i and 300 _j (i ≠ j). The contents of the update information files 230 and 230 corresponding to the computers 301 _i and 300 _j are compared, and the result is output to the network service interface 140.

In addition, referring to the virtual machine information, there are a case where information on a single disk image 220 is targeted, and a case where information on two different disk images 220 and 220 are compared with each other. When the information of the two disk images 220 and 220 is compared with each other, when two different virtual machines 301 _i and 301 _j (i ≠ j) are compared, different versions of the same virtual machine 301 _i ( Version).

When referring to virtual machine information with a single disk image 220 as a comparison target, a pair of the name of the virtual machine 301 _i and its version number is passed from the management terminal 400 to the update information comparison unit 130. On the other hand, the update information comparison unit 130 acquires the corresponding record from the virtual machine information management table 210, reads the content of the update information file 230 corresponding to the update information file name included in the record, and The contents are transmitted to the management terminal 400 via the network service interface 140. The management terminal 400 displays information related to the disk image corresponding to the specified virtual machine 301 _i and version number pair in a form understandable to humans.

  On the other hand, when comparing virtual machine information using two different disk images 220 and 220 as comparison targets, the system administrator operates the management terminal 400 to provide instruction information for specifying the comparison target disk images 220 and 220. input. This instruction information is transmitted to the update information comparison unit 130 via the network service interface 140.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation screen for designating a disk image to be compared. In FIG. 5, the disk images 220,... Stored in the storage device 200 are displayed as boxes 11R, 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D, and 13, respectively. In addition, virtual machine names and version numbers are displayed as labels of the boxes 11R, 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D, and 13. Furthermore, the derivation relationship between the disk images is illustrated by arrows. For example, the four disc images “rails version number 24”, “blog version number 29”, “shop version number 52”, “wiki, version number 19” are all created based on “base_os, version number 1”. It has been shown that In order to display such a derivation relationship, it is necessary to store the derivation relationship between disk images in the storage device 200 in advance. One method of giving this information is that the system administrator designates information indicating from which disk image the storage target disk image is derived at the time of step S121 in FIG.

Alternatively, a disc image derivation relationship can be automatically generated according to the following procedure. When the virtual machine control unit 310 _i transmits the disk image of the virtual machine 301 _i in step S112 of FIG. 3, the identifier (name and version number) of the virtual machine 301 _i corresponding to the disk image is updated information storage control. Is transmitted to the unit 120. Based on this identifier, the update information storage control unit 120 generates a derivation relationship associates a plate of current disk image of the virtual machine 301 _i, and a version of the previous disk image of the virtual machine 301 _i. Specifically, an identifier (name and version number) indicating a derivation source virtual machine can be recorded in each record of the virtual machine information management table 210. For example, the virtual machine information management table 210 shown in FIG. 4 may be provided with a column (field) for recording derivation source information (identifier indicating the derivation source virtual machine), and the derivation source information may be recorded in this column. . In this case, in the disc image name record of “shop-53.img”, the name “shop” of the virtual machine and the version number “52” can be recorded as derivation source information. In addition, the disc image name records such as “rails-24.img”, “blog-29.img”, “shop-52.img”, and “wiki-19.img” are the origin information, respectively. The name “base_os” and the version number “1” of the installed virtual machine can be recorded.

  The system administrator operates the input device such as a pointing device while checking the operation screen shown in FIG. 5 and designates one of the boxes 11R, 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D, and 13 corresponding to the disk image. Thus, it is possible to specify a disk image to be compared. More specifically, the system administrator operates the pointing device, clicks a box corresponding to one disk image, and then clicks a “designate” button 15A at the bottom of the operation screen to compare objects. Specifies one of the disk images. In the same procedure, the system administrator operates the pointing device, clicks the box corresponding to one disk image, and then clicks the “designate” button 15B at the bottom of the operation screen, so that the comparison target Specifies the other disk image. Thereafter, the system administrator selects the “decision” button 16, thereby sending a virtual computer information comparison request from the management terminal 400 to the update information comparison unit 130. This virtual machine comparison request includes the virtual machine name and version number for the two disk images to be compared.

  The update information comparison unit 130 that has received the virtual machine information comparison request refers to the virtual machine information management table 210 and extracts records corresponding to the two disk images to be compared. Furthermore, the update information comparison unit 130 reads the contents of the update information files 230 and 230 respectively corresponding to the two disk images from the information of the update information file names included in these records. Finally, the update information comparison unit 130 detects the difference between the acquired records and the difference between the update information files 230 and 230 between the two disk images, and uses this detection result as the network service interface 140. To the management terminal 400.

  The difference between the records and the difference between the update information files 230 and 230 are detected by, for example, simple character string comparison. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a comparison result based on difference detection by character string comparison. This example corresponds to the case where “shop version number 52” and “shop version number 53” are designated as the disc images to be compared on the operation screen of FIG. If the contents of the virtual machine information management table 210 are the contents of FIG. 4, the difference between “shop version number 52” and “shop version number 53” is only the disk image name and the update information file name. . Next, assuming that the contents of the update information files 230 and 230 corresponding to the update information file names included in these records are the contents of FIGS. 2A and 2B, respectively, the difference between them is “shop version”. The last two lines included in the number 53 ”. As a result, the management terminal 400 displays, as comparison results, the update (update) of the package “monitor-3.0.1-5” and the installation (install) of the package “cache-1.1.1-3”. The

  The effects exhibited by the virtual machine management system of the first embodiment are as follows.

As described above, in each of the virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _N , the system update unit 303 updates the update information indicating the contents of the update in the form of the update record file 304 when its own execution environment is updated. The update record transmission unit 302 stores the update information recorded in the update record file 304 to the virtual machine management server 100A. The virtual machine management server 100A records the update information transmitted from the virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _{N in the} corresponding update information files 230,. Therefore, the update information comparison unit 130 can generate data indicating the update status of the virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _N based on the update information of the update information file 230.

Therefore, the virtual machine management system according to the present embodiment can acquire accurate detailed information related to the execution environments of a large number of virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _N distributed on the communication network 500, and updates the execution environment. Data indicating the situation can be provided to the system administrator. Therefore, the management burden on the system administrator is greatly reduced.

Further, the disk image storage control unit 110 associates the identifier of the disk image 220 with the identifier of the update information file 230 prepared corresponding to the virtual computer 301 _i having the disk image 220, and manages the virtual computer information management table 210. To record. The update information comparison unit 130 uses this virtual machine information management table 210 to generate data indicating the update history of the same disk image 220 or data indicating the difference between two different disk images 220 and 220. be able to. Based on the update history and data indicating the difference, the system administrator can quickly and easily grasp the update status of the execution environments of the virtual machines 301 _{1 to} 301 _N through the network service interface 140.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the virtual machine management system according to the second embodiment. This virtual machine management system includes a plurality of real machines 320 _{1 to} 320 _N , a virtual machine management server 100 B, a storage device 200, and a management terminal 400. The real computers 320 _{1 to} 320 _N , the virtual computer management server 100B, the storage device 200, and the management terminal 400 are connected to each other via a communication network 500.

Each of the real computers 320 _{1 to} 320 _N has at least one virtual computer. As shown in FIG. 7, the real computer 320 ₁ has a virtual computer control unit 330 ₁ , and the virtual computer 305 ₁ is constructed on the real computer 320 ₁ under the control of the virtual computer control unit 330 _1. ing. The other real computers 320 _{2 to} 320 _N also have the same configuration as the real computer 320 ₁ . That is, the real machine ₃₂₀ 2 to 320 _N has respectively, a virtual machine ₃₂₁ 2 to 321 _N built under the control of the virtual machine control unit ₃₃₀ 2 to 330 _N. The virtual machine management server 100B has a function of remotely managing a virtual machine group on the real machines 320 _{1 to} 320 _N via the communication network 500.

Virtual computer control unit 330 ₁ has a function of constructing a virtual machine 321 ₁ logically based on the real machine 320 ₁ storage disk image stored in the (not shown) and configuration files. The virtual machine control units 330 _{2 to} 330 _N also have the same functions as the virtual machine control unit 330 ₁ . Similar to the virtual computer control unit 310 ₁ (FIG. 1) of the _first embodiment, the virtual computer control unit 330 ₁ is a host operating system (host OS) or virtual computer monitor operating on the real computer 320 _1. (VMM: Virtual Machine Monitor). The hardware configuration of the real computers 320 _{1 to} 320 _N can be configured by physical resources similar to those of the real computers 300 _{1 to} 300 _{N of the first} embodiment.

Virtual machine 321 ₁ includes a package information transmitting unit 305. Package information transmitting unit 305, the virtual machine 321 _first identification information of a plurality of software packages introduced to construct the execution environment (e.g., the name of the software package) and, interdependence of the software package And the dependency relation information indicating that the package information is transmitted to the virtual machine management server 100B.

Virtual computer control unit 330 ₁ for controlling the virtual machine 321 ₁ has a disk image transmitting unit 330A. The disk image transmitting unit 330A, in accordance with the disk image storage request from the virtual machine management server 100B, reads the disk image of the real machine 320 _1, has a function of transmitting it to the storage device 200.

  On the other hand, the virtual machine management server 100B includes a disk image storage control unit 110, a package information storage control unit 150, a package information comparison unit 160, and a network service interface 140. All or part of the configuration of the virtual machine management server 100B may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by a computer program (or program code) that causes a processor of a computer to execute processing. When the functions of the components 110, 150, 160, and 140 of the virtual machine management server 100B are realized by a computer program, the processor reads the computer program from a recording medium such as a nonvolatile memory and executes it.

The storage device 200 holds disk images, package information, and virtual computer information that are stored or referenced by the virtual computer management server 100B. The storage device 200 stores package lists 250,... Prepared corresponding to the large number of virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N on the real computers 320 _{1 to} 320 _N , respectively. Here, the package list 250 is a kind of package information, and is a list including the names of packages already installed in the disk image 220 for each disk image 220 stored in the storage device 200.

  Further, the storage device 200 stores a package information database 240. Details of the package information database 240 will be described later.

The storage device 200 has a storage area for storing the disk images 220,... Transmitted from the real computers 320 _{1 to} 320 _N. As described above, the disk image storage control unit 110 controls the storage unit 200 stores the disk image transmitted from the real machine 320 ₁ to the storage area.

Further, the storage device 200 stores a virtual computer information management table 210B. In the virtual machine information management table 210B, information (metadata) related to the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N under the management of the virtual machine management server 100B is recorded. The disk image storage control unit 110 includes a disk image identifier (for example, data representing the name of the disk image) of the virtual machine 321 _i transmitted from the real computer 320 _i (i is one of 1 to N). The package information corresponding to the virtual machine 321 _i can be associated and recorded in the virtual machine information management table 210B.

  Based on a request or inquiry from the network service interface 140, the package information comparison unit 160 refers to the virtual machine information management table 210B and selects package information corresponding to a disk image to be compared. The package information comparison unit 160 compares the selected package information and generates data indicating the update status of the execution environment of a single virtual machine or a plurality of virtual machines.

  In the second embodiment, the network service interface 140 is used for exchanging information between the management terminal 400 and the package information comparison unit 160, or between the management terminal 400 and the package information storage control unit 150. Interface.

  The system administrator can operate the management terminal 400 to input instruction information for the virtual machine management server 100B. This instruction information is transmitted to the network service interface 140 via the communication network 500. The network service interface 140 makes a request or inquiry based on the instruction information to the package information comparison unit 160 or the package information storage control unit 150. The package information comparison unit 160 or the package information storage control unit 150 executes processing according to the inquiry or request, and returns the execution result to the network service interface 140. Then, the network service interface 140 returns the execution result to the management terminal 400 as a response result to the instruction information.

The package information storage control unit 150 controls the storage device 200 so that the package information transmitted from the virtual machine 321 _i (including information related to the package already installed in the disk image) corresponds to the virtual machine 321 _i. And recorded in the prepared package list 250.

  The package information database 240 is a database that stores, for one or more disk images 220 stored in the storage device 200, package information including the names of packages already installed in the disk images and dependency information.

  The operation of the virtual machine management system having the above configuration will be described below. As in the case of the first embodiment, the virtual machine management system of the second embodiment has three phases: 1) update of virtual machine, 2) registration of virtual machine information, and 3) reference of virtual machine information. Operates in (phase).

In the “update virtual machine” phase, a change operation such as introduction of an application program is added to the OS running on the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N , as in the first embodiment. In the second embodiment, the package management function prepared in the OS on the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N is used for this update.

Next, in the “virtual machine information registration” phase, virtual machine information (including package information) corresponding to the virtual machine 321 _i at a certain time is stored in the storage device 200.

The system administrator operates the management terminal 400 to input instruction information for the virtual machine management server 100B. The management terminal 400 transmits this instruction information to the virtual machine management server 100B. In the virtual machine management server 100B, the package information storage control unit 150 executes control to store the package list 250 related to the virtual machine 321 _i in the storage device 200 according to the instruction information. Further, the disk image storage control unit 110 executes control to store the disk image of the virtual machine 301 _{i in} the storage device 200 in accordance with the instruction information.

Further, the disk image storage control unit 110 adds a new record (row) to the virtual machine information management table 210B. The disk image storage control unit 110 associates the identifier of the disk image of the virtual machine 321 _i transmitted from the real machine 320 _{i with} the identifier of the package information (package list) corresponding to the virtual machine 321 _i , and creates a new one. Record in a record.

  When there is a package name that is not included in the package information database 240 in the package list 250 stored in the storage device 200, the disk image storage control unit 110 or the package information storage control unit 150 determines the package name. Is added to the package information database 240.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing a communication sequence showing a procedure for storing virtual computer information. Hereinafter, this procedure will be described in detail along the steps shown in FIG.

First, the system administrator operates the management terminal 400 and inputs virtual computer information storage instruction information to the management terminal 400 (step S151). The management terminal 400 transmits this instruction information to the virtual machine management server 100B. In the virtual machine management server 100B, the package information storage control unit 150 receives the instruction information via the network service interface 140. The instruction information only needs to specify the identifier of the virtual machine 321 _i (for example, the name of the virtual machine 301 _i ).

  Prior to the operation input by the system administrator in step S151, the system administrator performs an operation on the management terminal 400 to call an operation screen for storing virtual machine information. In response to this operation, the management terminal 400 acquires information for displaying an operation screen from the network service interface 140. In this embodiment, in order to call up the operation screen, the system administrator performs an operation of inputting a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to the web browser activated on the management terminal 400. In this case, the information for displaying the operation screen may be described in, for example, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).

Next, the package information storage control unit 150 transmits a package list acquisition request to the package information transmission unit 305 on the virtual machine 321 _i corresponding to the given identifier (step S152). The package information transmission unit 305 of the virtual machine 321 _i transmits information indicating the package list in response to the package list acquisition request. As a result, the package information storage control unit 150 acquires the package list. The package list is a list composed of names (package names) of all packages already installed in the OS on the virtual machine 321 _i at a certain time.

When this step S152 is executed, the virtual machine 321 _i needs to be in an operating state. Although not clearly shown in FIG. 8, when the virtual machine 321 _i is in a stopped state, the virtual machine 321 _i is activated prior to the transmission of the package list acquisition request. This activation process is performed when the package information storage control unit 150 transmits an activation request to the virtual machine control unit 330 _i . In response to the activation request, the virtual machine controller 330 _i activates the virtual machine 321 _i . Thus, system administrators real machine 320 is not necessary to start the virtual machine 321 _i to the real machine on 320 _i directly operated or remotely to _i, the burden of the system administrator is reduced significantly .

The package information transmission unit 305 uses a package management function command (package management command) prepared on the OS on the virtual machine 321 _i in order to acquire a package list. For example, in the case of a guest OS adopting RPM as a package management function, a list of all installed packages can be acquired by executing the “rpm -qa” command.

  Next, the package information storage control unit 150 refers to the package information database 240 and examines the package list acquired in step S152 for a package name that is not included in the record corresponding to the package information database 240 (step S153). .

  FIG. 9 shows an example of the contents of the package information database 240. In this example, each row (record) in the table indicates information about one package. One record includes a list of package names and names of other packages (package names) on which the package depends. For example, the package “shopping-3.2-3” depends on three packages “library-1.2-1”, “webserver-2.2.1-2”, and “scriptor-1.8.0-3”. This indicates that these three packages need to be installed in advance in order to introduce “shopping-3.2-3”. A package whose dependent package name is blank means that there is no dependent package, that is, it can be installed regardless of the installation status of other packages.

Next, the package information storage control unit 150 transmits a package dependency relationship information acquisition request to the package information transmission unit 305 of the virtual machine 321 _i (step S154). In response to this package dependency relationship information acquisition request, the package information transmission unit 305 transmits dependency relationship information about the package to the package information storage control unit 150 for each package name acquired in step S153. As described above, the package dependency information is the name of another package that is required when the package is introduced, or a combination of a function provided by the package and a function that the package depends on. In step S153, if the target package name does not exist in the record in the package information database 240, the execution of step S154 is omitted.

  Next, the package information storage control unit 150 controls the storage device 200 to store the package list 250 acquired in step S152 in the storage device 200, and the package dependency relationship information acquired in step S154 as a new record. It adds to the package information database 240 (step S155). Here, the new record to be added includes a package name and dependency information of the package.

In step S155, a package list name that is unique within the storage device 200 is assigned to the package list 250 to be stored. The package list name is given, for example, by concatenating a fixed character string, an identifier of the virtual machine 321 _i (for example, the name of the virtual machine 321 _i ), and a version number.

Next, the package information storage control unit 150 makes a disk image storage request to the disk image storage control unit 110 (step S156). Along with this disk image storage request, the name of the virtual machine 321 _i is given to the disk image storage control unit 110. In response to this disk image storage request, the disk image storage control unit 110 executes steps S111 to S123. The operations in steps S111 to S123 are as described above.

  When the processing from steps S111 to S113 is completed, control returns to the package information storage control unit 150.

Thereafter, the package information storage control unit 150 stores the virtual computer information in the storage device 200 (step S125). That is, the package information storage control unit 150, the identifier of the package list 250 stored in the storage unit 200, the identifier of the disk image 220 of the virtual machine 321 _i, the identifier of the virtual machine 321 _i, version of the virtual machine 321 _i The number is associated with and added to the virtual machine information management table 210B. At this time, the package information storage control unit 150 provides a new record in the virtual machine information management table 210B, and in this new record, the identifier of the package list 250, the identifier of the disk image 220, and the identifier of the virtual machine 321 _i The version number of the virtual machine 321 _i is recorded.

Here, the above-mentioned new record needs to be uniquely identified by the identifier of the virtual machine 321 _i and its version number. Further, for example, arbitrary information that contributes to specifying the virtual computer 321 _i such as the name of the OS (OS name) operating on the virtual computer 321 _i and the amount of physical memory may be added to the new record.

  In the present embodiment, in the series of operation procedures shown in FIG. 8, a common version number is assigned to the identifier of the disk image 220, the identifier of the package list 250, and the new record added to the virtual machine information management table 210B. Is granted.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the virtual machine information management table 210B. As shown in FIG. 9, in addition to “virtual machine name”, “version number”, “disk image name”, and “package list name”, “OS name” and “ Additional information “physical memory amount” is recorded. In addition, there are two records including the same name “shop”. Among these records, the version number of one record is “52”, and the version number of the other record is “53”. Therefore, information on two types of disc images with different version numbers is recorded.

  Next, a phase called “reference to virtual machine information” will be described.

  The package information comparison unit 160 of the virtual machine management server 100B compares the contents of the disk images stored in the storage device 200 and outputs the result. As in the case of the first embodiment, the system administrator operates the management terminal 400 and inputs instruction information for the virtual machine management server 100, so that the virtual machine related to the disk image stored in the storage device 200. Information can be referenced. The system administrator performs an operation (for example, input of URL to the web browser) for calling the operation screen for referring to the virtual machine information on the management terminal 400. In response to this operation, the management terminal 400 acquires information (for example, an HTML document) for displaying the corresponding operation screen from the network service interface 140.

In the virtual machine management server 100B, when the instruction information related to the comparison of the execution environments of the two virtual machines 321 _i and 321 _j (i ≠ j) is received from the management terminal 400, the package information comparison unit 160 The contents of the package lists 250 and 250 corresponding to the computers 321 _i and 321 _j are compared, and the result is output to the network service interface 140. At this time, the package information comparison unit 160 outputs a comparison result in a form including the dependency relationship between the added packages.

In addition, referring to the virtual machine information, there are a case where information on a single disk image 220 is targeted, and a case where information on two different disk images 220 and 220 are compared with each other. When the information of the two disk images 220 and 220 is compared with each other, when two different virtual machines 301 _i and 301 _j (i ≠ j) are compared, different versions of the same virtual machine 301 _i ( Version).

When referring to virtual machine information with a single disk image 220 as a comparison target, a pair of the name of the virtual machine 321 _i and its version number is passed from the management terminal 400 to the package information comparison unit 160. On the other hand, the package information comparison unit 160 acquires the corresponding record from the virtual machine information management table 210B, reads the contents of the package list 250 corresponding to the package list name included in the record, and reads the contents. The data is transmitted to the management terminal 400 via the network service interface 140. The management terminal 400 displays the contents of the installed package list corresponding to the specified virtual machine 321 _i and version number pair in a form that can be understood by humans.

  On the other hand, when comparing virtual machine information using two different disk images 220 and 220 as comparison targets, the system administrator operates the management terminal 400 to provide instruction information for specifying the comparison target disk images 220 and 220. input. This instruction information is transmitted to the package information comparison unit 160 via the network service interface 140. At this time, in order for the system administrator to specify the disk images 220 and 220 to be compared, an operation screen similar to the operation screen shown in FIG. 5 may be used.

  When the system administrator operates the management terminal 400 to specify two disk images 220 and 220 and input instruction information for instructing comparison between the disk images 220 and 220, the management terminal 400 displays the instruction information. Sent to the network service interface 140. In response to this instruction information, the network service interface 140 issues a virtual machine information comparison request to the package information comparison unit 160. This virtual machine information comparison request includes a pair of a virtual machine name and a version number for each disk image 220 to be compared.

  Upon receiving the virtual machine information comparison request, the package information comparison unit 160 compares the contents of the package lists 250 and 250 corresponding to the two specified disk images 220 and 220, respectively, and outputs the comparison result. Here, the package information comparison unit 160 generates the comparison result based on the dependency relationship information stored in the storage device 200 in a form classified for each group of packages having a mutual dependency relationship. The network service interface 140 receives the output of the package information comparison unit 160 and transmits it to the management terminal 400. Then, the management terminal 400 outputs data representing the difference between the two disk images 220 and 220 in a form classified for each package group.

  The processing contents of the package information comparison unit 160 will be described below. FIG. 10 is a flowchart schematically showing a processing procedure by the package information comparison unit 160.

  Referring to FIG. 10, the package information comparison unit 160 first compares two package lists 250 and 250 to be compared with each other, and a set of package names included in only one of the package lists 250 and 250, that is, Differences in the package list are extracted (step S161). The difference between the package lists is information representing the difference between the disk images 220 and 220 corresponding to the two package lists 250 and 250 to be compared.

  In step S161, in order to obtain the package list 250 to be compared, the package information comparison unit 160 uses the virtual machine name and version number pair included in the virtual machine information comparison request as a search condition to search the virtual machine information management table. A record is extracted from 210B. Then, the package information comparison unit 160 acquires the package list 250 corresponding to the package list name included in the extracted record.

  In step S161, the package information comparison unit 160 may acquire not only the difference between package lists but also a set of package names included in common in the two package lists 250 and 250 to be compared. Further, when a version number is assigned to each package name, the package information comparison unit 160 can also extract a set of package names classified for each version number.

For convenience of explanation, the two package list 250 and 250 having different compared, respectively, the package list _G A, and _{G B.} At this time, (if the package list G _B is a subset of the package list G _A) all the elements of the package list G _B (package name) may first included in the package list G _A, package list G _A (the package list G _a, if a subset of the package list G _B) a second case where all the elements of (the package name) is included in the package list G _B, and, except in the case of the first and second the third case (i.e., a subset that is included only in the package list G _a, if there is a subset that is included only in the package list G _B) may have. Hereinafter, a procedure assuming the first and second cases will be described.

Set of package name extracted in step S161 (the difference between the package list) _{G p} as a processing target, the processing of the following steps S162~S166 are performed.

First, the package information comparison unit 160 determines whether or not there is an unprocessed package name in the set G _p (step S162). If there is a package name unprocessed (YES in step S162), the package information comparing unit 160 selects one package name _{N p} from among the set _{G p} (step S163).

Next, the package information comparison unit 160 refers to the package information database 240, and acquires dependency information about the package name _{N p} of the selected processing target at step S163 (step S164).

Next, the package information comparing unit 160 based on the acquired dependency information in step S164, in the set G _p, determine whether the package name exists with the package name N _p and interdependence (Step S165). In the set _{G p,} if the package name _{N pd} with the package name _{N p} and interdependent relationship exists (YES in step S165), the package information comparing unit 160, the package and the package name N with the package name _{N p A} dependency link is set with the package having _pd (step S166). The dependency relationship link can be expressed as an arrow from one package to another package on which the package depends. A specific example of the dependency link creation in step S166 will be described later.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S165 that there is no package name having a mutual dependency relationship with the package name N _p in the set G _p (NO in step S165), the package information comparison unit 160 performs the process. Return to S162.

  Note that in step S162, package names that differ only in version number may be included in both of the comparison target package lists. The package information comparison unit 160 includes the package name as an updated package name in a part of an output in step S167 described later.

  When it is determined in step S162 that there is no unprocessed package name (NO in step S162), that is, when the processes in steps S162 to S166 are completed for all package names in the package list difference, the package information comparison unit 160 outputs information indicating a difference (a set of package names) in the package list to the network service interface 140, and outputs the differences in a form grouped by dependency links. Package names connected by dependency links are classified into the same group. Since at least one package name that does not depend on other package names (that is, there is no arrow indicating a package having the package name) exists in one group, this package name is designated as the representative package of the group. Name.

In order to introduce a package having a representative package name of a certain group (hereinafter referred to as a representative package), all the packages other than the representative package need to be installed in the virtual machine in advance. Therefore, if the package information comparison unit 160 detects representative package names introduced into two different virtual machines 321 _i and 321 _j (i ≠ j), the disk images of the virtual machines 321 _i and 321 _j are detected. All packages representing differences between 220 and 220 can be identified.

  With reference to FIGS. 11 and 12, a specific example of creation of dependency link and grouping of package list differences will be described. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing dependency information about five packages “pkg-11”, “pkg-12”,..., “Pkg-15”. Since the package “pkg-11” depends on “pkg-12”, an arrow is added from “pkg-11” to “pkg-12”. Similarly, an arrow is added from the package “pkg-13” to “pkg-11”.

  FIG. 12 shows a package name group. In the left column of the table of FIG. 11, five packages with package names “pkg-11”, “pkg-12”,..., “Pkg-15” are shown. In the right column of the table of FIG. 11, the names of packages (package names) depending on the packages shown in the left column are displayed. Since there are no packages that depend on "pkg-13" and "pkg-14", these can be representative package names. “Pkg-15”, “pkg-7”, and “pkg-8” have no dependencies on other elements in the package list, so they form a group, and “pkg-15” is the representative package. Become a name.

The above procedure is based on the condition that one of the package lists G _A and G _B is a subset of the other. If this condition is not satisfied, a set of package names contained only in G _A, there is a set of only the package name G _B. In this case, they may be handled as individual package list differences, and the procedures of steps S162 to S167 may be applied to each package list difference.

  Hereinafter, the display content of the difference of the package list displayed on the management terminal 400 will be described. FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B are diagrams showing the contents of disk images named “pkglist-shopping-52” and “pkglist-shopping-53”, respectively. A case where a difference between these disk images is acquired will be described below.

  First, when these package lists are simply compared, only “pkglist-shopping-53” includes “memorydb-0.8-1” and “cache-1.1.1-3”. Next, if the dependency information between package lists is as shown in FIG. 14, the package “cache-1.1.1-3” depends on “memorydb-0.8-1”, and “cache-1.1.1” There are no packages that depend on. Therefore, “cache-1.1.1” and “memorydb-0.8-1” belong to the same group, and “cache-1.1.1” is the representative package name.

  A package named “monitor” is included in both package lists, but the version numbers added to the package names are different from “3.0.1-4” and “3.0.1-5”, respectively. Therefore, these package names are output as updated package names. As a result, the comparison result output to the management terminal 400 is, for example, as shown in FIG.

  The effects exhibited by the virtual machine management system of the second embodiment are as follows.

As described above, in each of the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N , the package information transmission unit 305 indicates the identification information of a plurality of software packages installed in each virtual machine and the interdependencies of the software packages. The dependency relationship information is transmitted as package information to the virtual machine management server 100B. The package information comparison unit 160 can generate data indicating the update status of the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N based on the package information.

Therefore, the virtual machine management system according to the present embodiment can acquire accurate detailed information regarding the execution environment of a large number of virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N distributed on the communication network 500, and updates the execution environment. Data indicating the situation can be provided to the system administrator. Therefore, the management burden on the system administrator is greatly reduced.

Since the package information comparison unit 160 records the disk image identifiers of the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N and the package information corresponding to these virtual machines in association with each other and records them in the virtual machine information management table 210B, the package information The comparison unit 160 may generate data indicating an update history of the same disk image 220 or data indicating a difference between two different disk images 220 and 220 using the virtual machine information management table 210B. it can. Based on the update history and data indicating the difference, the system administrator can quickly and easily grasp the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N through the network service interface 140.

Further, the package information comparison unit 160 generates data indicating the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machines 321 _{1 to} 321 _N based on the dependency relationship information in a form classified for each group of software packages. The administrator can easily and quickly grasp the update status.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the drawings. The virtual machine management system of the first and second embodiments can be applied to a use as a system for centrally managing the execution environment of a virtual machine in the construction of an in-house computer system composed of virtual machines. .

  Also, the virtual machine management systems of the first and second embodiments described above are used for the purpose of a plurality of system managers using virtual machines having slightly different contents in a data center composed of virtual machines. The present invention can also be applied as a system for centrally managing information about computers.

  The above embodiment is an exemplification of the present invention, and various configurations other than the above can also be adopted. For example, in the first embodiment (FIG. 1), the virtual machine management server 100A and the storage device 200 are interconnected via the communication network 500, but the present invention is not limited to such a form. There may be a form in which the virtual machine management server 100A and the storage device 200 are incorporated in the same device. Similarly, the management terminal 400 and the virtual machine management server 100A are interconnected via the communication network 500, but are not limited to this form. There may be a form in which the management terminal 400 is directly connected to the virtual machine management server 100A.

  Also in the second embodiment (FIG. 7), the virtual machine management server 100B and the storage device 200 are interconnected via the communication network 500, but the present invention is not limited to such a form. There may be a form in which the virtual machine management server 100B and the storage device 200 are incorporated in the same device. Similarly, the management terminal 400 and the virtual machine management server 100B are interconnected via the communication network 500, but are not limited to this form. There may be a form in which the management terminal 400 is directly connected to the virtual machine management server 100B.

  In the first embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the virtual machine management server 100A includes a plurality of functional blocks 110, 120, 130, and 140. These functional blocks 110, 120, 130, and 140 may be incorporated in a single device, or may be distributed and incorporated in a plurality of cooperating devices. Similarly, in the second embodiment as well, the functional blocks 110, 140, 150, and 160 that constitute the virtual machine management server 100B may be incorporated in a single device, or may cooperate with each other. The devices may be incorporated in a distributed manner.

  This application claims priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-052603 (filing date: March 5, 2009) filed with the Japan Patent Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Incorporation herein by reference.

Claims (14)

A plurality of real machines each having at least one virtual machine;
A virtual machine management device for remotely controlling the virtual machine via a communication network;
A storage device for storing a plurality of update information files prepared respectively corresponding to the plurality of virtual machines;
With
Each of the virtual machines is
A data storage unit for storing update record files;
System update means for recording update information indicating the contents of the update in the update record file when the execution environment of each virtual machine is updated;
Update information transmitting means for transmitting the update information in the update record file to the virtual machine management device;
Including
The virtual machine management device is:
Update information storage control means for recording the update information transmitted from the update information transmission means in the update information file;
Update information comparing means for comparing the update information recorded in the update information file and generating data indicating the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machine;
Including virtual machine management system. The virtual machine management system according to claim 1,
The real computer includes virtual computer control means for transmitting a disk image of the virtual computer to the virtual computer management device,
The virtual machine management device includes disk image storage control means for storing the disk image transmitted from the virtual machine control means in the storage device,
The disk image storage control means associates the identifier of the disk image with the identifier of the update information file prepared corresponding to the virtual machine having the disk image, and records it in a virtual machine management table. Management system.   The virtual machine management system according to claim 2, wherein the virtual machine control unit temporarily stops the operation of the virtual machine and then transmits a disk image of the virtual machine to the virtual machine management apparatus. Virtual computer management system. The virtual machine management system according to claim 2 or 3,
The update information comparison unit refers to the virtual machine management table, selects a target file corresponding to a specified virtual machine disk image from the plurality of update information files, and
The virtual machine management system, wherein the data indicating the update status is generated by comparing update information recorded in the target file. The virtual machine management system according to claim 4, further comprising a management terminal that gives instruction information input by a system administrator to the virtual machine management apparatus,
The virtual machine management device includes an interface that gives the instruction information to the update information comparison unit,
The update information comparison unit selects, as the target file, an update information file corresponding to a disk image of a virtual machine designated by the instruction information from the plurality of update information files.
The virtual interface management system, wherein the interface provides data indicating the update status to the management terminal as a response result to the instruction information.   6. The virtual machine management system according to claim 5, wherein the interface is an interface that provides a web service based on HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol).   The virtual machine management system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the update information comparison unit is data indicating an update history of an execution environment of the same virtual machine among the plurality of virtual machines. Is output as data indicating the update status.   7. The virtual machine management system according to claim 1, wherein the update information comparison unit stores data indicating a difference in execution environment between different virtual machines among the plurality of virtual machines. A virtual machine management system that outputs the data indicating the update status.   9. The virtual machine management system according to claim 1, wherein the update information storage control means is based on the update information transmitted from the update information transmission means. A virtual machine management system that generates a derivation relationship of the disk image by associating the identifier of the current disk image with the identifier of the previous disk image from which the disk image is derived. A plurality of real machines each having at least one virtual machine;
A virtual machine management device for remotely controlling the virtual machine via a communication network;
With
Each of the virtual machines includes identification information of a plurality of software packages introduced into the virtual machines in order to construct an execution environment of the virtual machines, dependency information indicating interdependencies of the software packages, Including package information transmission means for transmitting to the virtual machine management device as package information,
The virtual machine management device is:
Package information storage control means for storing the package information transmitted from the package information transmission means for each virtual computer in a storage device;
Package information comparison means for comparing the package information stored in the storage device and generating data indicating the update status of the execution environment of the virtual machine;
Including virtual machine management system.   11. The virtual machine management system according to claim 10, wherein the package information comparison unit classifies data indicating an update status of the execution environment for each group of the software packages based on the dependency relationship information. A virtual machine management system created in a form. The virtual machine management system according to claim 10 or 11,
The real machine includes virtual machine control means for transmitting a disk image corresponding to the virtual machine to the virtual machine management apparatus,
The virtual machine management device includes disk image storage control means for storing the disk image transmitted from the virtual machine control means in a storage device,
The disk image storage control unit is a virtual machine management system that records the identifier of the virtual machine and the identifier of the disk image corresponding to the virtual machine in a virtual machine management table in association with each other.   The virtual machine management system according to claim 12, wherein the virtual machine control means temporarily stops the operation of the virtual machine and transmits a disk image of the virtual machine to the virtual machine management apparatus. Virtual computer management system.   14. The virtual machine management system according to claim 12, wherein the disk image storage control unit associates an identifier of a disk image of the virtual machine with the package information corresponding to the virtual machine to associate the virtual machine with the virtual machine management system. A virtual machine management system that records in the management table.

Images