Method and apparatus for implementing virtual proxy to support heterogeneous systems management

1. A computer system apparatus, comprising:

a) a first virtual machine hosted by a first physical machine;

b) a virtual proxy executing on the first virtual machine;

(c) a target machine communicatively coupled to the first virtual machine, wherein the target machine is a second physical machine, wherein the virtual proxy executing on the first virtual machine serves as the virtual proxy for the target machine;

(d) a virtual machine management tool; and

(e) the virtual proxy enables management of a virtual machine of the target machine by the virtual machine management tool in heterogeneous environments that are not compatible with the virtual machine management tool.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

the virtual proxy code executing on the first virtual machine, wherein the virtual proxy contains code that determines whether to communicate a request from a requester to the target machine.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first virtual machine communicates a response to the requester without communicating the request to the target machine.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the first virtual machine forwards the request to the target machine for execution.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the target machine transforms the request into a target machine compatible request prior to execution on the target machine.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein upon receipt of a response from the target machine, the first virtual machine forwards the response to the requester.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the virtual proxy caches the response as a cached response.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein in response to a subsequent request, the virtual proxy responds with the cached response.

9. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the virtual proxy transforms the request into a target machine compatible request prior to communication to the target machine.

10. The apparatus of claim 2 where the request is a system configuration request.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the target machine includes packet-filtering software to allow the target machine to communicate only with the first virtual machine.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first virtual machine serves as the virtual proxy for each of a plurality of target machines.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the target machine is executing a virtual proxy agent.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the target machine is a second virtual machine.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the second virtual machine is hosted by a second physical machine.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the second virtual machine is hosted by the first physical machine.