Provisioning a virtual machine from one or more VM images

摘要

An embodiment of the invention directed to a method for provisioning a specified virtual machine from one or more selected images, sent over the network, includes the step of decomposing each of the selected VM images to provide a group of components, each component having specified information associated with it. The method further includes using a predetermined selection criterion to select components from the group for assembly into a specified VM image, and using the selected components of the specified VM image to provision the specified virtual machine at one or more locations.

主权项

1. A method for provisioning a specified virtual machine (VM) from components represented by nodes of one or more selected VM image graphs, the method comprising:
decomposing each of the one or more selected VM image graphs to provide a set of subgraphs representing a group of components, each component in the group of components represented by a node and having specified information associated with it, wherein the one or more selected VM image graphs are decomposed to provide the set of subgraphs representing the group of components within a VM image catalog, each subgraph in the set of subgraphs included within the VM image catalog represents one or more of the group of components as nodes and edges between nodes represent respective dependencies, and each subgraph having one or more specified attributes, wherein the one or more specified attributes associated with each subgraph in the set of subgraphs include at least one attribute selected from an attribute group that comprises a component owner, an identity of the component owner, the component owner's authentication signature, a component description, component license terms, and component performance, and wherein servers containing each of the selected subgraphs are identified, and wherein each selected subgraph is downloaded from its respective server via a network; using one or more selection criteria to select components from the group of components represented by the set of subgraphs within the VM image catalog for assembly into a specified VM image based on the specified information associated with each component, wherein the one or more selection criteria comprise a set of attributes specified by a user used to select subgraphs from the VM image catalog for assembling the specified VM image; and using the selected components assembled in the specified VM image to provision the specified virtual machine at one or more locations.