System and method for managing a virtual machine environment

Abstract

A system and method for providing an abstraction of the VM environment for management and control of one or more VMs without being tied to a particular hardware platform or construct.

1 . A method for abstracting a VM environment. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a GUI (graphical user interface). 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising abstracting said VM environment without being tied to a specific hardware platform or construct. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein said abstraction is of both the hardware and software components of the VM environment. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the VM environment is graphically represented in a similar manner to a regular hardware environment. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein said VM machine comprises a software construct selected from the group consisting of full virtualization and para-virtualization. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising managing said VM machine through said abstraction. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said managing comprises one or more of activating or deactivating said VM machine, showing status, connecting or disconnecting from a VM network, managing one or more attributes for a VM machine, password management and adding or removing one or more users. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein said managing one or more attributes comprises one or more of number of available virtual storage devices, how much storage is being used, pages in virtual memory, storage type, or CPU use. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising discovering a new VM machine on a VM network connected to said VM machine. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising adding a new VM machine to a VM network connected to said VM machine. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising managing at least one user of said VM machine through said abstraction. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said managing said at least one user further comprises determining at least one user permission or scope, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising cloning an instance of a VM machine according to a template or from another VM Machine. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein a plurality of VM machines is operated by a single hardware device and wherein said abstraction enables a user to communicate with each VM machine as though each VM machine is a separate hardware device. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein said VM machine is operated according to System z and wherein said abstraction is provided as an interface layer over System z. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein said interface layer communicates with one or more APIs (application programming interfaces) of System z. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising supporting bare metal installation of a VM environment. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , performed on a plurality of VM machines. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein said plurality of VM machines is selected by the user. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein execution of a process on said plurality of VM machines is performed in the background. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the user is notified upon completion of said execution. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the user selects to view progress of operation of said process. 
     
     
         24 . A method for providing communication-less connection to a VM machine in a VM environment, such that the VM machine does not require a separate direct TCP/IP connection. 
     
     
         25 . A method for managing a VM machines network with a plurality of VM machines, comprising providing a GUI to an administrator, such that the administrator alters at least one aspect of the VM machines network by drawing on said GUI. 
     
     
         26 . A system for managing a VM machine, the VM machine being operated on a hardware computing platform through a hypervisor, comprising:
 a. a management module for interacting with the hypervisor; and   b. a user interface for receiving information from said management module and for passing user input to said management module.