Autonomic customization of properties of a virtual appliance in a computer system

摘要

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.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising:
a computer system comprising at least one computer with a processor and a memory coupled to the processor; a virtual appliance imported into the memory for deployment on a virtual machine where the virtual appliance has a plurality of customization properties with corresponding customization values; a customizer that assists a user to customize the virtual appliance, the customizer residing in the memory, wherein the customizer residing in memory autonomically determines a source customization provider to provide a customization value for each of the plurality of customization properties in the virtual appliance; and wherein the customizer retrieves the customization value for each of the plurality of customization properties from the determined source customization provider and saves the virtual appliance with the customization value for each of the plurality of customization properties in a virtual appliance repository, wherein the steps of retrieving customization properties of the virtual appliance and determining the source customization provider for the identified customization properties includes accessing the memory having a customization table with customization properties for the virtual appliance and corresponding source customization providers for the customization properties.