Patent ID: 7856439
Filing Date: 2010-12-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for performing software operations on virtual machine images, comprising: receiving a first virtual machine image that includes a mapping from a first file name to first file content; reformatting the first virtual machine image by: creating a unique ID for the first file content; and decoupling the mapping of the first virtual machine image by creating an image manifest that maps the first file name to the unique ID, and creating a store that contains the first file content and that maps the unique ID to the first file content; and performing a software operation on the first virtual machine image using the reformatted first virtual machine image, wherein the software operation is a search for specified file content in a virtual machine image, the method further comprising: building a table that maps the unique IDs to a list of image manifests for virtual machine images that contain files corresponding to the unique IDs; determining a unique ID for the specified filed content; and performing a table look-up to identify virtual machine images that contain the specified file content.