IP Library › Granted Patent US 12711098
Granted Patent B2
US 12711098 · App. 18/410,013 · Granted Aug 18, 2026

Methods and systems for preloading containers via secondary disks

Inventors: Tao He (Seattle, WA); Samuel Benjamin Karp (Lynnwood, WA); Daniel Vega-Myhre (Seattle, WA); Ibrahim Aboulfetouh (Bellevue, WA); Benjamin Hosein Kazemi (Redmond, WA); Ruiwen Zhao (Seattle, WA)
Assignee: Google LLC
G06F16/128G06F16/164
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12711098
App. No.
18/410,013
Granted
Aug 18, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

The disclosure provides a container orchestration system for preloading containers via secondary disks. The container orchestration system includes creating a disk image with preloaded containers. The disk image can include a container image pre-downloaded and pre-unpacked, ready to be used by container runtime. The container orchestration system includes creating a node with the disk image and attaching the disk to a node when a node is created. The container orchestration system further includes reading a container image from the disk. When the node creator configures the disk mode as a local cache, the container orchestration system can read the container image by caching the image from the disk without the image-pulling process.

Claims (50)

1 . A method of preloading container images via secondary disks on a node, comprising:

creating a first disk for temporary storage;

pulling one or more container images from an external repository to the first disk;

unpacking the one or more container images to the first disk;

generating, with one or more processors, a disk image of the first disk including a preloaded container for a secondary disk;

creating, with the one or more processors, a node attached to the secondary disk containing the disk image; and

reading, with the one or more processors, the preloaded container from secondary disk during container runtime; and

installing the preloaded container onto the node from the disk image.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary disk is a persistent disk.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary disk is a secondary boot disk.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the disk image is binary data, encapsulating an application and software dependencies.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the disk image of the first disk including the preloaded container comprises:

mounting the secondary disk; and

creating a snapshot of the container image from the first disk.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the creating the snapshot of the container image from the first disk comprises:

creating a temporary view of a container image layer;

copying the snapshot into a specific location on the secondary disk; and

creating a metadata file related to the snapshot and the specific location on the secondary disk.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the metadata includes a snapshot identifier and a snapshot path.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising attaching the secondary disk to the node by updating a workload of the node.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the updating the workload of the node comprises specifying a disk identifier (ID) of the secondary disk on a specification of the node.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein attaching the secondary disk to the node comprises:

specifying a disk mode of the secondary disk as a local cache; and

appending a mount path of the disk with the specified disk mode on a specification of the node pool.

11 . A system for preloading container images via secondary disks on a node, comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors in communication with the memory, the one or more processors configured to:

create a disk for temporary storage;

pull one or more container images from an external repository to the first disk;

unpack the one or more container images to the first disk;

generate a disk image of the first disk including a preloaded container to a secondary disk;

create a node attached to the secondary disk containing the disk image; and

read the preloaded container from the disk image on the secondary disk during node runtime; and

install the preloaded container onto the node.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the secondary disk is a persistent disk.

13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the secondary disk is a secondary boot disk.

14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the disk image is binary data, encapsulating an application and software dependencies.

15 . The system of claim 11 , wherein in generating the disk image of the first disk including the preloaded container the one or more processors are configured to:

mount the secondary disk; and

create a snapshot of the container image from the first disk.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

create the snapshot by creating a temporary view of a container image layer;

copy the snapshot into a specific location on the secondary disk; and

create a metadata file related to the snapshot and the specific location on the secondary disk.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the metadata includes a snapshot identifier and a snapshot path.

18 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to attach the secondary disk to the node by updating a workload of the node.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to specify a disk identifier (ID) of the secondary disk on a specification of the node.

20 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

specify a disk mode of the secondary disk as a local cache; and

append a mount path of the disk with the specified disk mode on a specification of the node.