Computer image capture, customization and deployment
AssigneeVMware, Inc.
InventorsBich C. Le, Dilip Khandekar, Sirishkumar Raghuram
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A source image of the hardware and software configuration of a source computer, including the state of at least one source disk, is automatically captured. The source computer may remain unprepared and requires no program for facilitating computer cloning and reconfiguration. The source image is automatically analyzed and the hardware configuration of a destination computer is determined. The source image is modified as needed for either compatibility with the destination computer, or for customization, and after possible modification the source image is deployed on the destination computer. Either or both of the source and destination computers may be virtual machines.
Claims12
A method of deploying a system disk from a first machine to a second machine, the method comprising:
- reading a source image from a data storage device, the source image containing hardware configuration information and installed software, the installed software including at least an installed operating system, the installed operating system being configured to be executed by the first machine;
- creating a destination image;
- mounting the destination image in a computer system, the destination image being mounted in loop-back mode using a destination loop-back driver such that the destination image functions as a simulated local destination disk, and appears as a physical disk to the operating system of the computer system;
- copying the files and directories from the source image to the destination image;
- mounting a disk image defined by the logical image onto the second machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.