System and method for portable and flexible deployment of servers

摘要

A system of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated and virtual servers comprises a plurality of geographically-dispersed data centers comprising a plurality of dedicated servers, a plurality of hosts operable to host a plurality of virtual servers, a management workstation operable to capture dedicated and virtual server images, an image repository operable to store the captured server images, and an intra-data center networking infrastructure enabling communication within the data center. An integrated management system is operable to control and manage deployment of server images to dedicated and virtual servers located in a user-specified data center, and an inter-data center networking infrastructure enables communication between the plurality of data centers.

主权项

1. A method of portable and flexible deployment of dedicated and virtual servers comprising:
receiving, at a user interface, a user input of an order requesting the deployment of a dedicated or virtual server at a specified data center location; receiving, at a first screen at the user interface, a user input of a selection of a server image pertaining to the server to be deployed from a list of server image templates presented to the user in the first screen, said server image templates being stored at an image template repository; in response to said receiving the selection of a server image, presenting to the user at the user interface a second screen enabling the user to select one or more geographic locations, from a menu displayed on the second screen of two or more distinct geographic locations, for storing and deploying the selected server image in a data center at each selected geographic location; creating, at an integrated management system, a deployment transaction based on data relating to the server image and collected from the user as a response by the user to an option presented to the user at the user interface for capturing the server image; automatically selecting a server according to the user input of the selected server image; automatically deploying the selected server including a specification of an operating system to the selected server in response to having deployed the selected server image; and automatically booting the selected server using the specified operating system.