Creating instances of cloud computing environments

摘要

Embodiments of the present invention provide a flexible approach to construct/create instances of cloud computing environments. Specifically, under embodiments of the present invention, an image of a virtual machine instance is created from the following components: image bits; content such as the liner notes, manual, metadata, etc.; end user information (so that the image can be customized for one or more specific end users); values provided to an installer; and cloud based values (e.g., IP address, hostname, etc.). By constructing the virtual machine using this approach, dynamic aspects of the image are managed external to the static binary representation of the image. This would include artifacts such as documentation, install scripts, binary files, etc. Additionally, user supplied data can be captured dynamically and copied to customize the image at the time of instance creation. Still yet, embodiments of the present invention provides system level configuration to construct the virtual machine.

主权项

1. A method for creating an instance of a virtual machine in a cloud computing environment, comprising:
customizing a base image; capturing raw bits of the base image; cataloguing the base image using a unique identifier associated with the base image; creating a set of artifacts related to the base image, the set of artifacts comprising documentation, the documentation being managed externally to a stable portion of the base image; identifying, based on the base image and the set of artifacts related to the base image, an image associated with the cloud computing environment; collecting end user data and system configuration information pertaining to the cloud computing environment; receiving a request from a requester for creation of the instance of the virtual machine; copying the set of artifacts to the image; initializing the image to create the instance of the virtual machine in fulfillment of the request; and providing the documentation to the requester.