Abstract: A method, apparatus and system for transparently unifying virtual machines (“VMs”) is disclosed. An embodiment of the present invention enables a user to interact with various applications on a VM host while unaware of the VM structure on the VM host. The user may be presented with a unified desktop interface representing a composite and/or unified view of the VM host. Via this unified desktop interface, the user may perform all necessary commands and/or receive output. Invisible to the user, the unified desktop interface represents a unification console. The unification console may be an independent component (e.g., an enhanced VM) and/or a subset of a virtual machine manager (“VMM”) component on the VM host.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to a network of peer-to-peer communication devices controlled by a central controller. Using respective peer-to-peer communication devices, users can submit customized program schedules to the central controller, for media broadcasts that the users wish to record and view at a later time. The central controller maintains a global schedule of individual user-entered program schedules, and directs the peer-to-peer communication devices to record and re-play the content as requested in the schedules. The requested content may be recorded locally by any peer-to-peer communication device and transmitted upon request to a different peer-to-peer communication device of the network.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for correlating physical and logical attributes of devices include associating logical-tags (L-tags) and physical-tags (P-tags) with electronic devices. A P-tag includes a P-tag identifier, which can be read by a P-tag reading device, regardless of whether power is applied to the electronic device. In one embodiment, a system includes a P-tag comprising a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag having a non-volatile memory to store physical and logical attribute information; and an electronic device associated with the RFID tag, the electronic device having a processor and a bus, and being communicatively coupled to the RFID tag over the bus, the processor to execute instructions to read information from and write information to the non-volatile memory of the RFID tag.

Abstract: A system management request for a system management function is received from a virtual machine. A successful status is returned to the virtual machine in response to the system management request. A system management function is performed in response to the system management request and an aggregation of other system management requests directed to the system management function made by other virtual machines.

Abstract: A device virtual machine (VM) is configured to emulate a hardware device. The device VM includes device emulation code used to emulate the hardware device.

Abstract: A server receives a request for a service. The server determines if a virtual machine already exists that offers the service. If so, the server returns an identifier of the virtual machine to the requesting client so that the client may access the service from the virtual machine. Otherwise, the server attempts to create an image of a virtual machine offering the service. If successful in creating the image, the image is installed as a new virtual machine in a host machine, and the server returns an identifier of the newly created virtual machine to the client.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for correlating physical and logical attributes of devices include associating logical-tags (L-tags) and physical-tags (P-tags) with target devices. A P-tag includes a P-tag identifier, which can be read by a P-tag reading device, regardless of whether power is applied to the target device. The P-tag identifier and other information can be sent to an asset manager, which can determine a location of the device. An L-tag includes an L-tag identifier and may include other L-tag information describing logical attributes of the device. The L-tag information also can be sent to an asset manager. The asset manager maintains a tracking record for the device, which may include the P-tag identifier, the L-tag identifier, information regarding the asset's logical attributes, and information regarding the asset's physical attributes. By maintaining similar tracking records for a plurality of devices, the asset manager can track and manage the plurality of devices.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to the management of virtual machine(s) using information regarding the activity of the virtual machine(s), and, more specifically, to the reallocating of resources amongst virtual machine(s) based, at least in part, upon the activity of the virtual machine(s).

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system may optimize context switching between virtual machines (“VMs”). According to an embodiment of the present invention, separate caches may be utilized to store and retrieve state information for each respective VM on a host. When the virtual machine manager (“VMM”) performs a context switch between a first and a second VM, the VMM may instruct the processor to point from one cache (associated with the first VM) to another (associated with the second VM). Since the caches are dedicated to their respective VMs, the state information for each VM may be retained, thus eliminating the overhead of restoring information from memory and/or disk.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system enable a management virtual machine to act as a proxy for other virtual machines on a virtual machines host. In one embodiment, the management virtual machine may maintain a database of network management information pertaining to each virtual machine on the host. An enhanced virtual machine manager on the host may provide an interface to the management virtual machine to enable the management virtual machine to trap management messages destined for virtual machines on the host. The management virtual machine may respond to the messages based on information in the database and/or issue queries to the virtual machines to obtain the requisite information. In one embodiment, the management virtual machine may aggregate the information from various virtual machines prior to responding to the network management message.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and system may optimize context switching between virtual machines (“VMs”). According to an embodiment of the present invention, a first processor core may execute a first VM while a second processor core may concurrently retrieve information pertaining to the state of a second VM into a processor cache. When the virtual machine manager (“VMM”) performs a context switch between the first and the second VMs, the second processor may immediately begin executing the second VM, while the first processor may save the state information for the first VM. In yet another embodiment, different threads on a processor may be utilized to execute different VMs on a host.

Abstract: Web services, such as UDDI based web services, are intended to operate synchronously, e.g., a client issues a discovery request for availability of a service provider, or the client issues a web service request for service by a discovered service provider, and the client is expected to block/wait until a response is received to the clients request. While this configuration may work effectively when the client has a stable network connection, it is not effective when the client is offline. An environment is disclosed for effectively implementing web services when the client is offline by faking appropriate registry and service provider responses, and then deferring request processing until network connectivity is restored.

Abstract: A method, system, and apparatus are provided for virtual machine management. According to one embodiment, processor state information associated with a processor is evaluated, and the processor state information is used to manage one or more virtual machines.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to a network of peer-to-peer communication devices controlled by a central controller. Using respective peer-to-peer communication devices, users can submit customized program schedules to the central controller, for media broadcasts that the users wish to record and view at a later time. The central controller maintains a global schedule of individual user-entered program schedules, and directs the peer-to-peer communication devices to record and re-play the content as requested in the schedules. The requested content may be recorded locally by any peer-to-peer communication device and transmitted upon request to a different peer-to-peer communication device of the network.