Patent ID: 7996414
Filing Date: 2011-08-09
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for performing software operations on virtual machine images, comprising: receiving a virtual machine image that includes data; reformatting the virtual machine image by reclassifying the data into a plurality of parts, wherein a first part of the data includes file content with a unique ID, a second part of the data includes a mapping of the unique ID to the file content, and a third part of the data includes at least one of a size of the virtual machine image and partition information about the virtual machine image; and performing a software operation on the reformatted virtual machine image, wherein the software operation is performed without running a virtual machine and is a search for specified file content in the virtual machine image, the search including determining a unique ID for the specified file content and searching the reformatted virtual machine image to find a matching unique ID.