Patent ID: 8032351

Claim:
A computer program product for implementing a method for a computing system to run a virtual machine directly from a physical machine using snapshots of the physical machine, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising: an act of a snapshot component taking a snapshot of a physical system volume of the physical machine while the physical system volume is in an operational state; and an act of the virtual machine initializing using the physical system volume snapshot, thereby allowing the physical system volume snapshot to be a snapshot of a virtual system volume of the virtual machine representing an initial state of the virtual system volume, wherein the virtual machine accesses the same system volume as the physical machine; an act of the virtual machine updating the virtual system volume from the initial state as a result of a software update or patch installation; an act of testing the software update or patch on the virtual machine for expected functionality; an act of the snapshot component taking a snapshot of the virtual system volume while the virtual system volume is in an operational state; an act of the physical machine initializing using the snapshot of the virtual system volume thereby allowing the virtual system volume to be a physical system volume snapshot representing an initial state of the physical system volume, wherein: the virtual machine has the same operating system as the physical machine.