Patent ID: 9223610
Filing Date: 2015-12-29
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; memory coupled to the at least one processor; plurality of hardware resources; a plurality of software resources; a plurality of virtual machines executed by the at least one processor, each virtual machine comprising at least two of the plurality of hardware resources and at least two of the plurality of software resources; and a virtual machine snapshot mechanism executing on the apparatus that generates a first snapshot of a first of the plurality of virtual machines that indicates state of the first virtual machine at a first given point in time, determines which of the plurality of hardware resources and which of the plurality of software resources correspond to the first snapshot by being executed by the first virtual machine, generates a first plurality of relationships between the first snapshot and the corresponding hardware and software resources, generates a second snapshot of a second of the plurality of virtual machines that indicates state of the second virtual machine at a second given point in time, determines which of the plurality of hardware and software resources correspond to the second snapshot by being executed by the second virtual machine, generates a second plurality of relationships between the second snapshot and the corresponding hardware and software resources, displays the first snapshot and the second snapshot with the hardware and software resources corresponding to the first snapshot and the second snapshot and the first plurality of relationships and the second plurality of relationships in a graphical display in a graphical user interface, where each hardware resource and each software resource in the first and second snapshots is displayed only once in the graphical display, where the graphical display indicates by the displayed first plurality of relationships which hardware and software resources correspond to the first snapshot and indicates by the displayed second plurality of relationships which hardware and software resources correspond to the second snapshot, wherein the first plurality of relationships is represented by a first plurality of lines that connect the first snapshot in the graphical display to each of the first corresponding hardware and software resources in the graphical display and the second plurality of relationships is represented by a second plurality of lines that connect the second snapshot in the graphical display to each of the second corresponding hardware and software resources in the graphical display, wherein the virtual machine snapshot mechanism allows a user to enter search criteria, and in response, indicates in the graphical display one of a plurality of snapshots that includes the first and second snapshots that matches the search criteria, wherein the one of the plurality of snapshots does not exactly match the search criteria and is a closest match to the search criteria, wherein the user selects one of the plurality of snapshots in the graphical display and selects to deploy the selected snapshot on a target system.