A method and a system for the creation and deployment of a virtual machine appliance on virtualised servers

Simple SummaryContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

This patent describes a method and system for creating, centrally managing, storing, and deploying virtual machine (VM) appliances in data centers. These VM appliances are pre-configured and pre-tested virtual machines—each with its operating system and applications—that can be quickly deployed to any compatible server in the data center. The solution includes a portal for managing appliances, central storage for VM images, and a process for automating their deployment to servers on demand, enhancing the provisioning speed and consistency of IT services.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Rapid provisioning of new servers in data centers for enterprise IT or cloud services.
• Automated deployment of software and OS environments on demand, reducing manual configuration.
• Scaling up application servers (e.g., web, database, CRM) quickly to meet demand spikes.
• Disaster recovery—fast re-deployment of validated VM environments in the case of hardware failures.
• Managed hosting providers offering customers the ability to clone, customize, and launch server appliances efficiently.
• Test/staging environments for software development, allowing quick resets to known states.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Significantly reduces the time and manual labor needed to provision and configure servers in a data center.
• Improves reliability and system robustness by deploying pre-tested and validated server images.
• Centralized management and storage increase consistency, security, and control over IT resources.
• Supports customization and searching of appliances to fit specific customer or workload needs.
• Enhances scalability and flexibility by enabling on-demand VM deployment across multiple servers.
• Facilitates compliance, versioning, and rollback by using defined, versioned VM images.
• Reduces operational costs by streamlining server setup and minimizing physical intervention.

Technical Classifications (CPCs)

Inventors & Applicants

Patent Abstract

A method and a system is provided for creating, centrally managing, centrally storing and deploying VM appliances on a multitude of servers (120 1 to 120 n ) in a data center system (5). VM appliances are pre-configured instances of operating systems with pre-installed applications, which are tested and validated. The system (5) includes a VM appliance creator component (20), which runs on a validation server (10) and captures the configuration of a running and tested VM that is to be turned into an appliance. It also comprises a management portal (50) which centrally handles the naming, storage, retrieval, and customization of VM appliance descriptors (110). The system (5) further includes storage systems (60, 65), which centrally store the file systems and O/S kernels used by the VM appliances. It provides further a management daemon (122), running on the managed servers (120 1 to 120 n ) of the data center system (5), which allows deploying and starting VM appliances on the VMMs of the managed servers on demand, through the management portal.