Apparatus and method for network driver injection into target image

1. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processing system to perform a method for providing network driver injection into a target image to transform the target image to be compatible with one or more source machines, the instructions comprising code for:

facilitating access to a source system registry file of a source machine, without copying a source image;

facilitating access to a target system registry file of a target machine, without copying a target image, wherein the target image comprises an operating system, and wherein the target machine is distinct from the source machine;

determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image; and

if the one or more source network interface cards are not compatible with the target image, performing network interface driver injection, wherein the operation of performing network interface driver injection comprises:

determining one or more source network components associated with the one or more source network interface cards;

determining source network configuration of the one or more source network components;

determining target network configuration of one or more target network components of the target image;

determining whether the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, wherein determining whether the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration comprises:

booting the target machine using the target image;

extracting first system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the target image, the first system registry information comprising configuration values for the target network components;

booting the target machine using the source image, wherein the source image is compatible with the target machine and the source machine;

extracting second system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the source image, the second system registry information comprising configuration values for the target network components and the source network components based on the source image;

if the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, adjusting the source network configuration so that the source network configuration does not conflict with the target network configuration; and

injecting, to the target system registry file, the source network configuration of the one or more source network components.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise code for:

facilitating access to one or more files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine;

wherein the method is for facilitating operating system streaming over a network;

wherein the operation of facilitating access to a target system registry file of a target machine, without copying a target image, comprises:

facilitating access to the target system registry file of the target image, without copying the target image onto a development machine; and

wherein the operation of facilitating access to a source system registry file of a source machine, the operation of facilitating access to a target system registry file of the target image, the operation of determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image, and the operation of performing network interface driver injection are performed by the development machine.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise code for:

selecting at least one of the one or more target network components as a reference network component;

determining a binding relationship between the reference network component and one or more network services for the target image; and

establishing a binding relationship between at least one of the one or more source network components and the one or more network services.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise code for:

determining whether an operating system of the source machine is compatible with an operating system of the target image; and

determining whether a hardware abstraction layer for the target image is lower than, or the same as, a hardware abstraction layer of the source machine; and

if the operating system of the source machine is compatible with the operating system of the target image and if the hardware abstraction layer for the target image is lower than, or the same as, the hardware abstraction layer of the source machine, performing the following operations:

the operation of determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image; and

if the one or more source network interface cards are not compatible with the target image, the operation of performing network interface driver injection.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the operation of performing network interface driver injection, further comprises:

facilitating copying of one or more files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine onto the target image, wherein the target image is on the target machine;

wherein the operation of determining one or more source network components associated with the one or more source network interface cards is to be performed, by a development machine, based solely on the source system registry file of the source machine;

wherein the operation of determining source network configuration of the one or more source network components is to be performed, by the development machine, based on the source system registry file of the source machine and based on the one or more files associated with the one or more network components of the source machine; and

wherein the operation of determining target network configuration of one or more target network components of the target image is to be performed, by the development machine, based on the target system registry file of the target image and based on one or more files associated with the one or more target network components of the target image.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the operation of facilitating access to a target system registry file of a target machine, without copying a target image, comprises:

facilitating mounting of the target image as a drive volume on a development machine, without copying the entire target image onto the development machine; and

loading the target system registry file to a registry of the development machine, wherein the instructions further comprise code for: unloading the target system registry file from the registry of the development machine, after the operation of performing network interface driver injection; and facilitating unmounting of the target image from the development machine.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further comprise code for:

facilitating streaming of the target image from the target machine to the source machine over a network.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the operation of facilitating access to a target system registry file of a target machine, without copying a target image, comprises:

facilitating copying, onto a development machine, of the target system registry file of

the target image, without copying the entire target image onto the development machine;

and loading the target system registry file to a registry of the development machine,

wherein the instructions further comprise code for:

unloading the target system registry file from the registry of the development machine, after the operation of performing network interface driver injection; and

facilitating removal of the target system registry file from the development machine.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:

the target image resides on the target machine, and the source machine is located remotely from the target machine over a network;

the one or more source network components comprises at least a network interface card driver and an operating system streaming driver; and

the target image is a virtual disk image.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the operation of determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image, comprises:

determining one or more source network interface card drivers bound to one or more source operating system streaming drivers for the source machine;

determining one or more target network interface card drivers bound to one or more target operating system streaming drivers for the target image;

determining whether the one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are the same as the one or more target network interface cards for the target image;

wherein the operation of determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image, is to be performed based on the source system registry file and the target system registry file; and

wherein the operation of determining whether the one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are the same as the one or more target network interface cards for the target image, comprises:

determining whether a first one of the one or more source network interface cards and a first one of the one or more target network interface cards are from the same manufacturer, have the same model, have the same revision, and are for the same bus slot.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:

the operation of determining one or more source network components associated with the one or more source network interface cards, comprises:

determining an instance of a first source intermediate network driver bound to an upper edge of an instance of a source network interface card driver for one of the one or more source network interface cards; and

determining an instance of a second source intermediate network driver bound to an upper edge of the instance of the first source intermediate network driver;

the one or more source network components comprise the instance of the source network interface card driver, the instance of the first source intermediate network driver, and the instance of the second source intermediate network driver;

the operation of determining source network configuration of the one or more source network components, comprises: determining, based on the source system registry file, a driver installation file name and location, a driver binary file name and location, a services name, and a global unique identifier, for each of the one or more source network components; and

the operation of, if the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, adjusting the source network configuration, comprises:

changing an installation file name, if a conflict exists with the installation file name; changing an instance index value, if a conflict exists with the instance index value; and

determining instance numbers of the one or more source network components.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:

the operation of performing network interface driver injection, further comprises facilitating copying of one or more files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine onto the target image, wherein the target image is on the target machine;

the operation of facilitating copying of one or more files, comprises:

facilitating copying of one or more driver installation files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine onto the target image; and

facilitating copying of one or more driver binary files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine onto the target image; and

the operation of injecting, to the target system registry file, the source network configuration of the one or more source network components, comprises:

facilitating copying of registry values of the source network configuration of the one or more source network components into the target system registry file; and

updating registry values of the target system registry file.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 2 , wherein the development machine is the source machine.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 2 , wherein the operation of facilitating access to one or more files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine, comprises:

facilitating access to the one or more files associated with the one or more source network components of the source machine, without copying the one or more files onto the development machine.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:

the operation of determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image, comprises:

performing the operation of determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image based on the source system registry file and the target system registry file;

facilitating selecting of the one or more source network interface cards of the source machine; and

determining whether the one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are the same as the one or more target network interface cards for the target image,

wherein the operation of determining whether the one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are the same as the one or more target network interface cards for the target image, comprises:

determining whether a first one of the one or more source network interface cards and a first one of the one or more target network interface cards are from the same manufacturer, have the same model, have the same revision, and are for the same bus slot.

16. A method for providing network driver injection into a target image to transform the target image to be compatible with one or more source machines, the method comprising:

facilitating access to a source system registry file of a source machine, without copying a source image;

facilitating access to a target system registry file of a target machine, without copying a target image, wherein the target image comprises an operating system, and wherein the target machine is distinct from the source machine;

determining, using a processor, whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image; and

if the one or more source network interface cards are not compatible with the target image, performing network interface driver injection, wherein the operation of performing network interface driver injection comprises:

determining one or more source network components associated with the one or more source network interface cards;

determining source network configuration of the one or more source network components;

determining target network configuration of one or more target network components of the target image;

determining whether the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, wherein determining whether the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration comprises:

booting the target machine using the target image;

extracting first system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the target image, the first system registry information comprising configuration values for the target network components;

booting the target machine using the source image, wherein the source image is compatible with the target machine and the source machine

extracting second system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the source image, the second system registry information comprising configuration values for the target network components and the source network components based on the source image;

if the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, adjusting the source network configuration so that the source network configuration does not conflict with the target network configuration; and

injecting, to the target system registry file, the source network configuration of the one or more source network components.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing system; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by the processing system, wherein the instructions comprise code for:

facilitating access to a source system registry file of a source machine, without copying a source image;

facilitating access to a target system registry file of a target machine, without copying a target image, wherein the target image comprises an operating system, and wherein the target machine is distinct from the source machine;

determining whether one or more source network interface cards of the source machine are compatible with the target image; and

if the one or more source network interface cards are not compatible with the target image, performing network interface driver injection, wherein the operation of performing network interface driver injection comprises:

determining one or more source network components associated with the one or more source network interface cards;

determining source network configuration of the one or more source network components;

determining target network configuration of one or more target network components of the target image;

determining whether the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, wherein determining whether the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration comprises:

booting the target machine using the target image;

extracting first system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the target image, the first system registry information comprising configuration values for the target network components;

booting the target machine using the source image, wherein the source image is compatible with the target machine and the source machine

extracting second system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the source image, the second system registry information comprising configuration values for the target network components and the source network components based on the source image;

if the source network configuration conflicts with the target network configuration, adjusting the source network configuration so that the source network configuration does not conflict with the target network configuration; and

injecting, to the target system registry file, the source network configuration of the one or more source network components.

18. A method of building a computer program for providing network driver injection into a target image to transform the target image to be compatible with one or more computing machines, for facilitating operating system streaming over a network, the method comprising:

selecting a target machine and a source machine distinct from the target machine, wherein the target machine comprises a first network interface card, the source machine comprises a second network interface card, wherein configuration of the second network interface card is different from configuration of the first network interface card;

building a first virtual disk image of the target machine;

building a second virtual disk image that is compatible with the target machine and the source machine;

booting the target machine using the first virtual disk image;

extracting first system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the first virtual disk image, the first system registry information comprising configuration values for the first network interface card based on the first virtual disk image;

booting the target machine using the second virtual disk image;

extracting second system registry information of the target machine after booting the target machine using the second virtual disk image, the second system registry information comprising configuration values for the first network interface card and the second network interface card based on the second virtual disk image;

determining network driver injection components based on differences between the first system registry information and the second system registry information and based on registries that do not affect network functionalities;

injecting the network driver injection components into the first virtual disk image;

and producing the computer program based on the network driver injection components.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

determining a registry injection pattern applicable to one or more other computing machines, before the operation of producing the computer program; and

encoding the computer program onto a machine-readable storage medium,

wherein the operation of producing the computer program based on the network driver injection components is based further on the registry injection pattern.

20. The method of claim 18 ,

wherein the network driver injection components comprise registries and one or more files associated with network components of the source computing machine,

wherein the operation of injecting network driver injection components into the first virtual disk image, comprises:

injecting the registries of the network driver injection components into the first virtual disk image;

injecting the one or more files associated with the network components into the first virtual disk image, wherein the operation of injecting the one or more files, comprises:

injecting one or more driver installation files associated with the network components into the first virtual disk image; and

injecting one or more driver binary files associated with the network components into the first virtual disk image.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein the configurations of the first and second network interface cards are different in at least one of the following attributes: a network interface card manufacturer, a network interface card model, a network interface card revision, or a bus slot for a network interface card.

22. The method of claim 18 , wherein:

the operation of determining network driver injection components, comprises:

determining a first set of registries, which is obtained from differences between registries of the first system registry information and registries of the second system registry information; and

determining a second set of registries, obtained by filtering out a third set of registries from the a first set of registries, wherein the third set of registries comprises registries that do not affect network functionalities;

the network driver injection components comprise the second set of registries;

the operation of determining a second set of registries, comprises:

determining a fourth set of registries by removing one or more registries of the first set of registries, from the registries of the second system registry information;

booting the target computing machine using the second virtual disk image with the fourth set of registries without the one or more registries;

booting the source computing machine using the second virtual disk image with the fourth set of registries without the one or more registries;

determining whether the second virtual disk image having the fourth set of registries without the one or more registries is compatible with the target computing machine;

determining whether the second virtual disk image having the fourth set of registries without the one or more registries is compatible with the source computing machine; and

if the second virtual disk image having the fourth set of registries without the one or more registries is compatible with the target computing machine and if the second virtual disk image having the fourth set of registries without the one or more registries is compatible with the source computing machine, excluding the one or more registries from the second set of registries; and

the method further comprises:

booting the target computing machine using the first virtual disk image with the network driver injection components;

booting the source computing machine using the first virtual disk image with the network driver injection components; and

determining whether the first virtual disk image with the network driver injection components is compatible with the target computing machine and the source computing machine.