Running a virtual machine directly from a physical machine using snapshots

1. A computer program product for implementing a method for a computing system to run a virtual machine directly from a physical machine using snapshots of the physical machine, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to perform the method, the method comprising:

an act of a snapshot component taking a snapshot of a physical system volume of the physical machine while the physical system volume is in an operational state; and

an act of the virtual machine initializing using the physical system volume snapshot, thereby allowing the physical system volume snapshot to be a snapshot of a virtual system volume of the virtual machine representing an initial state of the virtual system volume, wherein the virtual machine accesses the same system volume as the physical machine;

an act of the virtual machine updating the virtual system volume from the initial state as a result of a software update or patch installation;

an act of testing the software update or patch on the virtual machine for expected functionality;

an act of the snapshot component taking a snapshot of the virtual system volume while the virtual system volume is in an operational state;

an act of the physical machine initializing using the snapshot of the virtual system volume thereby allowing the virtual system volume to be a physical system volume snapshot representing an initial state of the physical system volume, wherein:

the virtual machine has the same operating system as the physical machine.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

an act of the snapshot component taking a snapshot of a virtual data volume of the virtual machine while the virtual data volume is in an operational state;

querying the virtual data volume snapshot to determine which files or sectors have changed since the virtual data volume snapshot was taken.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises selectively merging changes made to the physical system volume after the physical system volume snapshot is taken into the virtual system volume before the virtual system volume is used to initialize the physical machine.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises an act of the snapshot component taking a snapshot of a physical data volume of the physical machine while the physical data volume is in an operational state, wherein:

the physical data volume snapshot and the physical system volume snapshot are taken at approximately the same time;

the physical data volume snapshot includes instances of at least a portion of files within the physical data volume at the time the snapshot was taken.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the method further comprises an act of selectively overwriting one or more of the files in the physical data volume with at least a portion of the file changes made by the virtual machine to the files of the physical data volume snapshot upon reinitialization of the physical machine.

6. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the method further comprises merging changes made by the virtual machine into files on the physical machine.

7. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the method further comprises unmounting and remounting the physical data volume to reinitialize the physical data volume with the changes made to the physical data volume snapshot.

8. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the method further comprises rebooting the physical machine to reinitialize the physical system volume with the changes made to the physical system volume snapshot.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises an act of using virtualization software to create and run the virtual machine.

10. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises storing snapshots in a snapshot storage.

11. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein

the method further comprises executing one or more files on the virtual machine and evaluating whether the executed files executed as expected or whether the execution indicated virus activity.

12. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine is run on the same physical machine on which the physical system volume is located.

13. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine is run on an additional physical machine distinct from the physical machine on which the physical system volume is located.

14. On a computer system, a method for running a virtual machine directly from a physical machine using snapshots of the physical machine, the method comprising:

an act of a snapshot component taking a snapshot of a physical system volume of the physical machine while the physical system volume is in an operational state;

an act of the virtual machine initializing using the physical system volume snapshot, thereby allowing the physical system volume snapshot to be a snapshot of a virtual system volume of the virtual machine representing an initial state of the virtual system volume, wherein the virtual machine accesses the same system volume as the physical machine;

an act of updating the virtual system volume from the initial state as a result of a software update or patch installation; and

an act of testing a software update or patch on the virtual machine for expected functionality;

an act of the snapshot component taking a snapshot of the virtual system volume while the virtual system volume is in an operational state;

an act of the physical machine initializing using the snapshot of the virtual system volume thereby allowing the virtual system volume to be a physical system volume snapshot representing an initial state of the physical system volume, wherein

the virtual machine has the same operating system as the physical machine.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

executing one or more files on the virtual machine; and

evaluating whether the executed files executed as expected or whether the execution indicated virus activity.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein at least one of the physical system volume and the virtual system volume include data or a data volume.

17. On a computer system, a method for running a virtual machine directly from a physical machine using snapshots of the physical machine, the method comprising:

an act of a snapshot component taking a snapshot of a physical data volume of the physical machine and a physical system volume of the physical machine while the physical data volume and the physical system volume are in an operational state;

an act of the virtual machine initializing using the physical system volume snapshot, thereby allowing the physical system volume snapshot to be a snapshot of a virtual system volume of the virtual machine representing an initial state of the virtual system volume, wherein the virtual machine accesses the same system volume and the same data volume as the physical machine while the system volume and the data volume are in an operational state on the physical machine;

an act of the snapshot component taking a snapshot of the virtual system volume while the virtual system volume is in an operational state;

an act of the physical machine initializing using the snapshot of the virtual system volume thereby allowing the virtual system volume to be a physical system volume snapshot representing an initial state of the physical system volume, but continuing to use the physical data volume.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

updating the virtual system volume from the initial state as a result of a software update or patch installation; and

testing a software update or patch on the virtual machine for expected functionality.