Execution of an application in a runtime environment installed in a virtual appliance

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed in a computing device, execute an application in a runtime environment by performing the steps of:

• receiving, at a processor, a request to provision a virtual appliance having installed therein a guest operating system and the runtime environment, which provides an application execution framework isolated from the guest operating system;
• generating, by operation of the processor, an application package comprising an application configured to be executed in the runtime environment and using one or more settings of the runtime environment that control operation of the runtime environment, the one or more settings including a garbage collection policy for the runtime environment based on an amount of guest physical memory allocated to a heap for the runtime environment;
• and
• transmitting, from the processor to the virtual appliance, the application package that is to be executed by the virtual appliance using the runtime environment and the settings for the runtime environment.

A computer system for executing an application in a runtime environment, the computer system comprising a system memory and a processor programmed to carry out the steps of:

• receiving, at the processor, a request to provision a virtual appliance having installed therein a guest operating system and a runtime environment, which provides an application execution framework isolated from the guest operating system;
• generating, by operation of the processor, an application package comprising an application configured to be executed within the runtime environment and one or more settings of the runtime environment that control operation of the runtime environment, the one or more settings including a garbage collection policy for the runtime environment based on an amount of quest physical memory allocated to a heap for the runtime environment;
• and
• transmitting, from the processor to the virtual appliance, the application package that is to be executed by the virtual appliance in the runtime environment and using the settings for the runtime environment.