Bare metal computer for booting copies of VM images on multiple computing devices using a smart NIC
AssigneeVMware, Inc.
InventorRenaud B. Voltz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Some embodiments provide a method for operating a physical server in a network. The method stores multiple copies of a virtual machine (VM) image at a network-accessible storage. The method uses a first copy of the VM image as a virtual disk to execute a VM on a hypervisor of a first physical computing device. The method uses a second copy of the VM image as a virtual disk accessible via a smart network interface controller (NIC) of a second physical computing device to execute an operating system of the second physical computing device.
Claims20
A method for operating a server, the method comprising:
- storing a plurality of copies of a virtual machine (VM) image on a network accessible storage;
- booting a virtual machine using a first copy of the VM image to execute on the hypervisor of a first computing device;
- receiving a read request for a second copy of the VM image from a second computing device in a first format;
- sending the read request to the network accessible storage in a second format;
- and
- booting an operating system of the second computing device using the second copy of the VM image.
A method for operating a server, the method comprising:
- storing a plurality of copies of a virtual machine (VM) image on a network accessible storage;
- booting a virtual machine using a first copy of the VM image on a first computing device;
- receiving a first read request for a second copy of the VM image from a second computing device in a first format;
- converting the first read request to a second read request in a second format by a network interface controller;
- sending second read request to the network accessible storage;
- and
- booting the second computing device using the second copy of the VM image.
A system comprising:
- a network accessible storage storing a plurality of copies of a virtual machine (VM) image;
- a first computing device executing a hypervisor on which a first VM runs by storing a first copy of the VM image that is used to boot-up the first VM;
- and
- a second computing device comprising a network interface controller (NIC) and a storage, the NIC being configured to receive a read request for a second copy of the VM image in a first format and send a converted read request in a second format to the network accessible storage to retrieve a second copy of the VM image, the second copy of the VM image being stored in the network accessible storage, the second computing device operating using the second copy of the VM image to boot the second computing device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.