CLIAMS:We claim:
1. A method for enabling offline migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to a target cloud environment, the method comprising of
extracting configurations of the virtual application by a configuration module, on the configuration module identifying the virtual application and the configurations of the virtual application;
converting the configurations of the virtual application to a standard network configuration by a packaging module;
constructing a source package by the packaging module, wherein the source packaging comprises of the virtual application; and standard network configuration;
creating an offline target package from the source package by the packaging module, on the packaging module receiving a request; and
applying the offline target package by the packaging module to the target cloud environment.
2. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the configurations of the virtual application comprises of at least one of network configurations of the virtual application and security configurations of the virtual application.
3. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the standard network configuration comprises at least one of IP (Internet Protocol) address configurations; Access control Configurations; Scalability Configurations; High availability Configurations; Firewall configurations; NAT (Network Address Translation) configurations; VPN (Virtual Private Network) configurations; and Network Load Balancing configurations.
4. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises of the packaging module storing the source package.
5. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein creating an offline target package from the source package by the packaging module comprises of
analysing support of the target cloud environment by the packaging module; and
mapping contents of the source package to the corresponding features of the target cloud environment by the packaging module.
6. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the packaging module highlighting features in the source package which can be configured from external sources.
7. A system for enabling offline migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to a target cloud environment, the system comprising of
a configuration module configured for
extracting configurations of the virtual application, on the configuration module identifying the virtual application and the configurations of the virtual application; and
a packaging module configured for
converting the configurations of the virtual application to a standard network configuration;
constructing a source package, wherein the source packaging comprises of the virtual application; and standard network configuration;
creating an offline target package from the source package, on the packaging module receiving a request; and
applying the offline target package to the target cloud environment.
8. The system, as claimed in claim 7, wherein the packaging module is configured for storing the source package.
9. The system, as claimed in claim 7, wherein the packaging module is configured for creating an offline target package from the source package by
analysing support of the target cloud environment; and
mapping contents of the source package to the corresponding features of the target cloud environment.
10. The system, as claimed in claim 7, wherein the packaging module is configured for highlighting features present in the source package which can be configured from external sources.
11. A configuration module configured for extracting configurations of a virtual application present in a source cloud environment, on the configuration module identifying the virtual application and the configurations of the virtual application, wherein the virtual application is to be migrated from the source cloud environment in an offline manner to a source cloud environment.
12. A packaging module configured for converting extracted configurations of a virtual application to a standard network configuration, wherein the virtual application is to be migrated from the source cloud environment in an offline manner to a source cloud environment;
constructing a source package, wherein the source packaging comprises of the virtual application; and standard network configuration;
creating an offline target package from the source package, on the packaging module receiving a request; and
applying the offline target package to the target cloud environment.
13. The packaging module, as claimed in claim 12, wherein the packaging module is configured for storing the source package.
14. The packaging module, as claimed in claim 12, wherein the packaging module is configured for creating an offline target package from the source package by
analysing support of the target cloud environment; and
mapping contents of the source package to the corresponding features of the target cloud environment.
15. The packaging module, as claimed in claim 12, wherein the packaging module is configured for highlighting features present in the source package which can be configured from external sources.
,TagSPECI:FORM 2
The Patent Act 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules, 2005

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(SEE SECTION 10 AND RULE 13)

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

“A method and system for offline packaging of multi-tier virtual application”

APPLICANTS:
Name : HCL Technologies Limited
Nationality : Indian
Address : HCL Technologies Ltd., 50-53 Greams
Road,Chennai – 600006, Tamil Nadu, India

The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:-
FIELD OF INVENTION
[001] This invention relates to cloud environment, and more particularly to applying configuration from an entity in the cloud to at least one target environment in the cloud.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
[002] A cloud environment has become popular for a variety of purposes, such as deploying virtual applications. For a deployed virtual application, the properties of the virtual application are maintained and managed in different layers and levels in the cloud environment, like hypervisor level, virtual application level, management level and so on. These properties at various levels are essential for meeting the performance requirements and ensuring the required level of access and security for the deployed virtual application. Examples of these properties comprise of system configurations like storage, CPU etc. (stored in as virtual machine properties), application level properties like boot order, component dependencies etc. (stored in virtual application level), network and security configurations (stored in the management layer) (networking and security configurations of a virtual application can comprise of IP Address policies (DHCP, Static Pool etc), Access Control Policy (what all the components of the applications are accessible from outside the application), NAT (Network Address Translation), firewall etc. to restrict/control the access of the application components as per the security requirements, VPN and Load Balancing configurations and so on).
[003] As cloud computing is being more widely adopted, multiple vendors are developing their cloud infrastructure/virtualization (hypervisor) platforms. However, each vendor has defined their own way of implementing the levels and layers. Also, each vendor follows different formats for virtual machines and configurations. Since the vendors have their own way of implementation, one cannot directly migrate a multi-tier application with its configurations at various cloud infrastructure levels like hypervisor level, application level or management level from one cloud vendor to another.

OBJECT OF INVENTION
[004] The principal object of this invention is to provide a method and system for defining a standard cloud independent way for offline packaging the multi-tier virtual application, the application properties, and the deployment and environment properties like its networking and security configurations as single entity.
[005] Another object of the invention is to provide an on-demand conversion of this offline package to the decided target cloud environment by creating a target cloud specific deployment package and deploying the package into the target cloud.
[006] Another object is to provide inputs on the configuration support which are not available in the target cloud.
[007] A further object of the invention is to provide conversion of configurations from all cloud levels.

STATEMENT OF INVENTION
[008] Accordingly the invention provides a system for enabling offline migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to a target cloud environment, the system comprising of a configuration module configured for extracting configurations of the virtual application, on the configuration module identifying the virtual application and the configurations of the virtual application; and a packaging module configured for converting the configurations of the virtual application to a standard network configuration; constructing a source package, wherein the source packaging comprises of the virtual application; and standard network configuration; creating an offline target package from the source package, on the packaging module receiving a request; and applying the offline target package to the target cloud environment.
[009] There is also provided a method for enabling offline migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to a target cloud environment, the method comprising of extracting configurations of the virtual application by a configuration module, on the configuration module identifying the virtual application and the configurations of the virtual application; converting the configurations of the virtual application to a standard network configuration by a packaging module; constructing a source package by the packaging module, wherein the source packaging comprises of the virtual application; and standard network configuration; creating an offline target package from the source package by the packaging module, on the packaging module receiving a request; and applying the offline target package by the packaging module to the target cloud environment.
[0010] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES
[0011] This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, through out which like reference letters indicate corresponding parts in the various figures. The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following description with reference to the drawings, in which:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a logical diagram illustrating a source cloud environment and a target cloud environment connected through a configuration module and a packaging module, according to embodiments as disclosed herein;
[0013] FIG. 2 depicts a configuration module, according to embodiments as disclosed herein;
[0014] FIG. 3 depicts a packaging module, according to embodiments as disclosed herein;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the process of depicting the process of creating a source package, which enables migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to a target cloud environment, according to embodiments as disclosed herein; and
[0016] FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting the process of implementing a source package in a target cloud environment, according to embodiments as disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
[0017] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
[0018] The embodiment disclosed herein describes a method and system which enables migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to any target cloud environment, independent of the nature of the target cloud environment. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through 5, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown preferred embodiments.
[0019] FIG. 1 is a logical diagram illustrating a source cloud environment and a target cloud environment connected through a configuration module and a packaging module, according to embodiments as disclosed herein.
[0020] The source cloud environment 101 is the cloud from where a multi-tier virtual application, the application properties, and the deployment and environment properties like its networking and security configurations and related information needs to be packaged into an offline package. The source cloud environment 101 comprises of means for collecting the required information from each layer of the source cloud environment 101.
[0021] The configuration module 102 processes and retrieves the configurations of virtual application, with its configurations at various cloud infrastructure levels like hypervisor level, application level or management level from the source cloud environment 101. The configuration module 102 identifies the multi-tier virtual applications and its network and security configurations to be converted into offline package in the source cloud environment 101. This application may have multiple virtual machines with application specific network and security properties. For example, in the case of typical 3-tier application, the application can have 3 virtual machines, each for Web component, App component and DB component. The App and DB components should not have any accessibility from the external network. The web component may need to have an internal private IP address and required to NAT routed to a public IP Address. The public IP of Web component should have accessibility from the external network and so on. These configuration settings can be applied/available from any level like Hypervisor level, Cloud Management level or virtual application level. The configuration module 102 extracts the network and security configurations and other virtual application configurations from the source cloud environment 101. The configuration module 102 stores the extracted configuration and virtual application information in a suitable location.
[0022] The packaging module 103 retrieves the extracted network, security and other configurations. The packaging module 103 converts the retrieved network, security and other configurations to a standard network configuration. This standard configuration will be in a cloud agnostic format and will represent the typical network and security requirements of an application like IP address configurations, Access control Configurations, Scalability Configurations, High availability Configurations, Firewall configurations, NAT configurations, VPN configurations, Network Load Balancing configurations and so on. The packaging module 103 constructs a cloud independent source package by combining the identified multi-tier virtual application, its network and security configurations and the standard network configuration. The packaging module 103 stores the source package in a suitable location.
[0023] The packaging module 103 initiates the conversion of the source package to the target cloud environment 104, on receiving a request. The packaging module 103 may receive the request from an authorized person. The packaging module 103 converts the standard configurations present in the source package to specific configurations of the target cloud environment 104 and create an offline target package which can be deployed onto the target cloud environment 104. The packaging module 103 analyzes support of the target cloud environment 104 and appropriately maps the standard Network and security configurations to the corresponding features or configurations of the target cloud environment 104. For features which does not have any support from the target cloud (such as the Network and security feature), the packaging module 103 highlights those features which can be configured from external sources, such as third party products. The packaging module 103 applies the offline target package to the target cloud environment 104.
[0024] FIG. 2 depicts a configuration module, according to embodiments as disclosed herein. The configuration module 102 comprises of a controller 201, an agent application module 202,an agent hypervisor module 203 and an agent management module 204. The controller 201 identifies the multi-tier virtual applications and its network and security configurations to be converted into offline package in the source cloud environment 101. These configuration settings can be applied/available from any level like Hypervisor level, Cloud Management level or virtual application level. The controller 201 extracts the network and security configurations and other virtual application configurations from the source cloud environment 101. The controller 201 stores the extracted configuration and virtual application information in a suitable location.
[0025] FIG. 3 depicts a packaging module, according to embodiments as disclosed herein. The packaging module 103 comprises of a processing agent 301, a polling agent 302, a conversion engine 303, a configuration table 304 and a cloud feature mapping table 305. The polling agent 302 retrieves the extracted network, security and other configurations from configuration module 102. The processing agent 301 converts the retrieved network, security and other configurations to a standard network configuration. This standard configuration will be in a cloud agnostic format and will represent the typical network and security requirements of an application like IP address configurations, Access control Configurations, Scalability Configurations, High availability Configurations, Firewall configurations, NAT configurations, VPN configurations, Network Load Balancing configurations and so on. The processing agent 301 constructs a cloud independent source package by combining the identified multi-tier virtual application, its network and security configurations and the standard network configuration. The processing agent 301 stores the source package in the configuration table 304.
[0026] The processing agent 301 initiates the conversion of the source package to the target cloud environment 104, on receiving a request. The conversion engine 303 converts the standard configurations present in the source package (which are stored in the configuration table 304) to specific configurations of the target cloud environment 104 and creates an offline target package which can be deployed onto the target cloud environment 104. The processing agent 301 analyzes support of the target cloud environment 104 with the help of the cloud feature mapping table 305 and appropriately maps the standard network and security configurations to the corresponding features or configurations of the target cloud environment 104. For features which does not have any support from the target cloud (such as the Network and security feature), the processing agent 301 highlights those features which can be configured from external sources, such as third party products. The processing agent 301 applies the offline target package to the target cloud environment 104.
[0027] FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the process of depicting the process of creating a source package, which enables migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to a target cloud environment, according to embodiments as disclosed herein. The configuration module 102 identifies (401) the multi-tier virtual applications and its network and security configurations to be converted into offline package in the source cloud environment 101. The configuration module 102 extracts (402) the network and security configurations and other virtual application configurations from the source cloud environment 101. The packaging module 103 retrieves and converts (403) the network, security and other configurations to a standard network configuration. This standard configuration will be in a cloud agnostic format and will represent the typical network and security requirements of an application like IP address configurations, Access control Configurations, Scalability Configurations, High availability Configurations, Firewall configurations, NAT configurations, VPN configurations, Network Load Balancing configurations and so on. The packaging module 103 constructs (404) a cloud independent source package by combining the identified multi-tier virtual application, its network and security configurations and the standard network configuration. The packaging module 103 stores (405) the source package in the packaging module 103. The various actions in method 400 may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some embodiments, some actions listed in FIG. 4 may be omitted.
[0028] FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting the process of implementing a source package in a target cloud environment, according to embodiments as disclosed herein. The packaging module 103 initiates (502) the conversion of the source package to the target cloud environment 104, on receiving (501) a request. The packaging module 103 converts (503) the standard configurations present in the source package to specific configurations of the target cloud environment 104 and creates (504) an offline target package which can be deployed onto the target cloud environment 104. The packaging module 103 analyzes (505) support of the target cloud environment 104 and appropriately maps (506) the contents of the source package such as the standard Network and security configurations to the corresponding features or configurations of the target cloud environment 104. For features which does not have any support from the target cloud (such as the Network and security feature), the packaging module 103 highlights those features which can be configured from external sources, such as third party products. The packaging module 103 applies (507) the offline target package to the target cloud environment 104. The various actions in method 500 may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some embodiments, some actions listed in FIG. 5 may be omitted.
[0029] Embodiments herein disclose a standardized cloud independent deployable package (covering all levels in the source cloud environment such as Hypervisor, VM, virtual application and management layer) (interoperable across various cloud platforms) that will be interoperable to any target cloud, wherein an on-demand conversion of this package to the decided target cloud environment by creating the target cloud specific deployment package and deploying into the target cloud environment.
[0030] Embodiment disclosed herein enable acceleration of the cloud adoption across heterogeneous platforms by enabling easy migration across different cloud platforms, hereby avoiding vendor lock.
[0031] Embodiments herein enable a reduction of service downtime resulting due to migration of cloud platforms. Embodiments herein also enable an elimination of manual labor in the migration of cloud platforms.
[0032] The embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented through at least one software program running on at least one hardware device and performing network management functions to control the network elements. The network elements shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 include blocks which can be at least one of a hardware device, or a combination of hardware device and software module.
[0033] The embodiment disclosed herein describes a method and system which enables migration of a virtual application from a source cloud environment to any target cloud environment, independent of the nature of the target cloud environment. Therefore, it is understood that the scope of the protection is extended to such a program and in addition to a computer readable means having a message therein, such computer readable storage means contain program code means for implementation of one or more steps of the method, when the program runs on a server or mobile device or any suitable programmable device. The method is implemented in a preferred embodiment through or together with a software program written in e.g. Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) another programming language, or implemented by one or more VHDL or several software modules being executed on at least one hardware device. The hardware device can be any kind of portable device that can be programmed. The device may also include means which could be e.g. hardware means like e.g. an ASIC, or a combination of hardware and software means, e.g. an ASIC and an FPGA, or at least one microprocessor and at least one memory with software modules located therein. The method embodiments described herein could be implemented partly in hardware and partly in software. Alternatively, the invention may be implemented on different hardware devices, e.g. using a plurality of CPUs.
[0034] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.