Autonomic customization of a virtual appliance
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsRiz Amanuddin, Luis Alexandro Garcia
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A customizer autonomically customizes a virtual appliance by retrieving customization values for various customizable properties of a virtual machine from various providers to customize the virtual appliance in order to simplify deployment of the virtual appliance. The customization properties may include CPU properties, memory properties, storage properties, network properties and properties specific to the software in the virtual appliance. The customizer allows an end user to initiate autonomic customization of the virtual appliance at various times prior to deployment of the virtual appliance. The customizer also allows the user to provide additional customization upon execution.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a computer system comprising at least one computer with a processor and a memory coupled to the processor;
- a virtual appliance with customization properties for deployment on a virtual machine;
- a customizer residing in the memory that assists a user to customize the virtual appliance, wherein the customizer determines a customization provider for a plurality of customization properties and retrieves a customization value for each customization property from the determined customization provider.
A computer-implemented method for customizing a virtual appliance in a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
- importing a virtual appliance;
- identifying customization properties of the virtual appliance;
- determining a source for each of the identified customization properties;
- retrieving from a plurality of customization sources customization values for the identified customization properties;
- and
- deploying the virtual appliance with the customization values.
A computer-implemented method for customizing a virtual appliance in a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
- importing a virtual appliance;
- identifying customization properties of the virtual appliance;
- determining a source for the identified customization properties;
- retrieving customization values from a plurality of customization sources for the identified customization properties utilizing an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file to request and retrieve the customization values;
- saving the virtual appliance with the customization values from the customization sources in a virtual appliance repository;
- allowing an end user to update any of the customization values;
- deploying the virtual appliance with the customization values;
- wherein the steps of identifying customization properties of the virtual appliance and determining a source for the identified customization properties includes accessing a customization table with customization properties for the virtual appliance and corresponding providers for the customization properties;
- wherein the customization provider is a server application at a location remote to the customizer;
- and
- wherein the customization properties include number of virtual central processing units, size of memory, an internet protocol address, and a username.
An article of manufacture comprising software stored on tangible computer readable storage medium for execution on a computer processor, the software comprising:
- a customizer that assists a user to customize a virtual appliance with customization properties for deployment on a virtual machine, wherein the customizer determines a customization provider for a plurality of customization properties and retrieves a customization value for each customization property from the determined customization provider.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.