SYNCHRONIZING VIRTUAL MACHINE AND APPLICATION LIFE CYCLES

摘要

A virtual environment can be configured to coordinate life cycles of virtual machines and application programs executing therein. In one implementation, the virtual environment includes an application layer and a virtual machine layer. The application layer communicates with the virtual machine layer to coordinate and directs virtual machine creation and deletion in a coordinated fashion with application programs. For example, the application layer receives a request to initiate an application program. The application layer determines from associated application properties the type and/or number of virtual machines to be created. The application layer then directs creation of the appropriate virtual machines (through the virtual machine layer), and further directs installation of the requested application programs therein. When detecting removal of the application program from the created virtual machines, the application layer can automatically direct removal or decommissioning of the corresponding virtual machine.