Abstract: Systems, products, and methods are disclosed for performing a method of allocating services (functionalities of software applications) across several computing devices that make up various domains of a data center so that the functional aspects will continue to be available to remote users even when, from time to time, different sets of computing devices are unavailable.

Abstract: Systems, products, and methods are disclosed for performing a method of allocating services (functionalities of software applications) across several computing devices that make up various domains of a data center so that the functional aspects will continue to be available to remote users even when, from time to time, different sets of computing devices are unavailable.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for deploying an updated image to nodes propagated throughout a distributed computing platform are provided. Upon receiving an indication to install a patch to an operating system residing on the nodes, an existing image of the operating system is accessed at a staging service. The staging service generates the updated image by applying the patch to the existing image. The process of applying the patch includes mounting the existing image of the operating system to a virtual machine, copying the patch to the mounted existing image, setting a command within the existing image that executes upon activating the virtual machine, and activating the virtual machine, thereby executing the command. This directs the patch to be installed. The updated image is pushed to the nodes. The nodes are configured to utilize the updated image as the operating system without performing an individual installation of the patch.

Abstract: A computing device is configured to assemble and boot an operating system in stages. A primary boot image is first obtained that includes enough of the operating system to support basic networking. Once the primary boot image is obtained, either through download or from storage on the device, the primary boot image is booted to start the networking. Once the networking is active, the boot activity for the device is suspended and one or more secondary operating system images are downloaded by the device. These images are chained to the primary boot image thereby creating a single/cohesive operating system. These secondary operating system images are successively booted in “stages” with each successive stage building upon the functionality of the previous stage.

Abstract: Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for model-based data center management. In embodiments, a request to perform a management operation on a device in a data center is received and available paths to the device are determined. The paths are determined based on an artifact storing a topology of the data center. Further, a current favored path that is one of the available paths is determined based on a policy and the device is bound for performance of the management operation using the current favored path. In embodiments, the model-based data center management is configured to provide a generic description of the data center architecture and a generic description for one or more devices in the data center. The generic description provides for dynamic runtime data center configuration.

Abstract: Software deployment to server nodes within large-scale networked systems is provided using image-based deployment. A mostly immutable image is provided at a central service and transferred from the central service to the server nodes. The image includes a base image, which is immutable, and a delta image, which is writable and provides role-specific and/or node-specific state to the base portion. When a server node receives an image from the central server, the server node stores the image intact without installation. The server node then runs software directly from the stored image.

Abstract: A computing device is configured to assemble and boot an operating system in stages. A primary boot image is first obtained that includes enough of the operating system to support basic networking. Once the primary boot image is obtained, either through download or from storage on the device, the primary boot image is booted to start the networking. Once the networking is active, the boot activity for the device is suspended and one or more secondary operating system images are downloaded by the device. These images are chained to the primary boot image thereby creating a single/cohesive operating system. These secondary operating system images are successively booted in “stages” with each successive stage building upon the functionality of the previous stage.

Abstract: Individual files within a FAT volume may be compressed while other files remain uncompressed. A FAT Compression Filter (FCF) intercepts calls to the file system, performs the compression and decompression tasks relating to the files on the FAT volume. The use of individual file compression with the FAT file system helps to ensure that the flash memory has a long life and does not quickly fail while still providing the benefits of individual file compression. The FAT Compression Filter allows individual files within a volume to be excluded from being compressed.