US 8,621,460 B2Granted

Endpoint-hosted hypervisor management

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsJames B. Evans, Jonathan S. Fan, Dennis S. Goodrow, Benjamin J. Kus, Peter B. Loer, Jason E. Mealins, Gregory M. Toto, Amrit T. Williams

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Abstract

A client hypervisor comprises a virtual agent that runs outside of a system OS and that allows device management independent of the OS and user. The virtual agent is tied to a device and not a specific instance of the OS. Such client hypervisors expose new functionality to ease managing systems. Some of these capabilities come from the persistence and privileges outside the OS. In some embodiments of the invention, this new management functionality is exposed to allow device management via new virtualization concepts, such as multiple VMs per system, VM replacement, snapshot/rollback, etc.

Claims19

Dependent claims

An apparatus for endpoint-hosted hypervisor management, comprising:

a processor running a hypervisor-resident, policy-based, virtual management agent in a privileged context, said processor, via said agent, managing at least one host OS from outside said OS, said host OS comprising a virtual machine (VM) running on an underlying hardware-based device;
said processor, via said agent, executing virtual machine management operations for any of provisioning, end-of-life, removable device management, emergency partition, protected process, configuration persistence, multiple VMs, encrypted VMs, or off-line patching;
a client hosted virtual desktop running within said underlying hardware-based device, said client hosted virtual desktop comprising said hypervisor, wherein said hypervisor is configured to support an administrative environment comprising a virtual management appliance, said virtual management appliance comprising said management agent, a virtual relay, and a virtual management platform, said hypervisor also configured to support at least one virtual machine having a respective virtual machine agent;
and
a parent relay configured for inspection, wherein said virtual management platform interfaces with said hypervisor to allow inspection of said hardware-based device, and wherein said virtual management platform interfaces with said hypervisor to allow management of hardware-based device.

2 more elements

A computer implemented method for endpoint-hosted hypervisor management, comprising:

providing a hypervisor-resident, policy-based, virtual management agent;
running said virtual management agent in a privileged context;
configuring said virtual management agent to manage at least one host OS from outside said OS, wherein said host OS comprises a virtual machine (VM) running on an underlying hardware-based device;
and
executing virtual machine management operations for any of provisioning, end-of-life, removable device management, emergency partition, protected process, configuration persistence, multiple VMs, encrypted VMs, or off-line patching:
providing a client hosted virtual desktop running within said underlying hardware-based device, said client hosted virtual desktop comprising said hypervisor, wherein said hypervisor is configured to support an administrative environment comprising a virtual management appliance, said virtual management appliance comprising said management agent, a virtual relay, and a virtual management platform, said hypervisor also configured to support at least one virtual machine having a respective virtual machine agent;
and
providing a parent relay configured for inspection, wherein said virtual management platform interfaces with said hypervisor to allow inspection of said hardware-based device, and wherein said virtual management platform interfaces with said hypervisor to allow management of hardware-based device.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/917,344Filed 1 Nov 2010 · us provisional application
Priority: 2 Nov 2009
Published: US 2011/0107331 A15 May 2011
Granted: 31 Dec 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H04W 4/60
Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor: subscription-based services using application servers or…
G06F 9/45541
Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors: bare-metal, i.e. hypervisor runs directly on hardware
G06F 2009/45587
Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects: isolation or security of virtual machine instances
H04W 4/50
Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor: service provisioning or reconfiguring