Catalog based discovery of virtual machine appliances

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon:

• first program instructions programmed to collect a set of virtual machine (VM) descriptor set(s), where each VM descriptor(s) set includes one, or more VM descriptors and corresponds to one of the following:
• a VM appliance or a sealed VM image;
• second program instructions programmed to for each VM descriptor set, determine whether there is a match to an entry in a VM descriptor set/software application mapping data set;
• and
• third program instructions programmed to for each VM descriptor set, on condition that there is a match, determine an identity of a set of software application(s) in the VM appliance or sealed VM image corresponding to the VM descriptor set based on the respectively matching entry in the VM descriptor set/software application mapping data set.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor(s) set;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium;
• wherein:
• the processor set is structured, located, connected and/or programmed to run program instructions stored on the computer readable storage medium;
• and
• the program instructions include:
• first program instructions programmed to collect a set of virtual machine (VM) descriptor set(s), where each VM descriptor set includes one, or more VM descriptors and corresponds to one of the following:
• a VM appliance or a sealed VM image;
• second program instructions programmed to for each VM descriptor set, determine whether there is a match to an entry in a VM descriptor set/software application mapping data set;
• and
• third program instructions programmed to for each VM descriptor set, on condition that there is a match, determine an identity of a set of software application(s) in the VM appliance or sealed VM image corresponding to the VM descriptor set based on the respectively matching entry in the VM descriptor set/software application mapping data set.