System and method for upgrading kernels in cloud computing environments

A method, comprising:

• comparing, by instructions of a temporary file system provided on a ramdisk, a machine image of a file system of an Operating System (OS) used by a Virtual Machine (VM) against a running file system of a cloud processing environment when the VM is loaded into a cloud processing environment from the ramdisk;
• identifying, by the instructions of the temporary file system, at least one file present in the machine image and missing from the running file system in response to the comparing;
• injecting, by the instructions of the temporary file system, a kernel module into the OS that supports the file in response to the identifying after an initial boot sequence for the VM into the cloud processing environment;
• managing and maintaining, by the instructions of the temporary file system, a cloud processing environment machine image independently from the ramdisk for the VM and a kernel for the OS of the cloud processing environment;
• updating, by the instructions of the temporary file system, the running file system with the at least one file without rebuilding the running file system and without recreating or rebuilding the cloud processing environment machine image and without changing the ramdisk by dynamically modifying the running file system to include the kernel module without the rebuilding of the running file system.

A system, comprising:

• a cloud computing environment;
• a plurality of Virtual Machines (VMS) configured to process within the cloud computing environment;
• and
• at least one physical processor within the cloud computing environment configured to execute program instructions representing a ram disk process of a temporary file system provided on a ramdisk, which when executed cause the at least one physical processor to:
• identify a modification to an operating system (OS) used by at least one of the VMs during a load of the at least one VM from the ramdisk;
• obtain a directory hierarchy not supported in a root file system of the cloud processing environment;
• inject a kernel module into the OS that supports the directory hierarchy after an initial boot sequence for the VM;
• manage and maintain a machine image for the cloud processing environment independently from the ramdisk for the at least one VM and a kernel for the OS with respect to the kernel module of the cloud processing environment;
• update the root file system with the directory hierarchy without rebuilding the root file system of the cloud processing environment and without recreating or rebuilding the machine image for the cloud processing environment and without changing the ramdisk by dynamically modifying the root file system to include the kernel module without the rebuilding of the root file system.