Virtual appliance

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Virtual appliances are pre-installed, preconfigured and ready-to-use applications and software solutions that are already put together with an operating system in the virtual machine . Virtual devices are fundamentally changing the way business software is developed, distributed, and managed . So-called Independent Software Vendors ( ISVs ) only develop their applications for a single platform , thereby reducing the costs and complexity of software development and product management. Software manufacturers can thus distribute their virtual appliances efficiently and securely in the OVF standard ( Open Virtualization Format , industry standard).

Areas of application

Using software as a virtual appliance makes installation and management easier . Business software also makes it much easier for IT departments to configure and ensure availability, which can reduce the costs of resources and labor.

Since the software manufacturers only have to update and adapt their virtual devices centrally, their costs for customer service and maintenance of the programs also decrease. The users in turn benefit from this cost reduction.

Users benefit from higher availability and less time required for installation, configuration, updating, troubleshooting and administration of the application programs . Since the virtual devices are managed centrally in the data center , the appliances can be distributed and put into operation quickly, reliably and quickly worldwide.

File formats

Virtual appliances are made available to the user or customer as files, either through electronic downloads or physical distribution. The most commonly used file format is the Open Virtualization Format (OVF). It can also be sold as an Open Virtual Appliance (OVA); the .ova file format is interchangeable with .ofv. The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) publishes the documentation of the OVF specification. [1] Most virtualization platforms, including those from VMware, Microsoft, Oracle and Citrix, can install virtual appliances from an OVF file.

Grid computing

Virtualization solves a key problem in grid computing - namely the fact that every sufficiently large grid inevitably consists of a large number of heterogeneous hardware and operating system configurations. The addition of virtual appliances enables extremely fast provisioning of grid nodes and, what is important, a clean decoupling of the network operator from the grid consumer by encapsulating all knowledge about the application in the virtual appliance.

Infrastructure as a Service

Virtual appliances are critical resources in infrastructure-as-a-service cloud computing. The file format of the virtual appliance is a matter for the cloud provider and is generally not relevant for the cloud user, even if the cloud user can be the owner of the virtual appliance. However, challenges can arise when transferring ownership of the virtual appliance or when transferring virtual appliances between cloud data centers. In this case, virtual appliance copy or export / import functions can be used to solve this problem.

Use

Easier distribution of corporate applications

Because the software applications are pre-installed and preconfigured, include an operating system and are packaged in an executable format, virtual appliances avoid complex, expensive, lengthy and error-prone installation and configuration processes. Simple distribution mechanisms offer great advantages when distributing new software versions and applications to remote branches and branches.

Simplified bug fixes and updates

Virtual devices support the distribution of error corrections that are supplied directly by the software manufacturer. The updates provided can be applied directly to the applications and operating system . This eliminates the problems of incompatibilities in the application programs that arise from different versions. Any improvements or changes to virtual devices are managed directly by the software manufacturers.

Portability and operating system independence

OVF -formatted virtual appliances offer a high degree of flexibility on the part of users who use company software . Companies can choose to run an OVF-formatted virtual device on different virtualization platforms. As a result, the company remains independent of the provider and can select the platform that is adapted to the requirements.

Examples

References

  1. ↑ VMware Virtual Marketplace, https://www.vmware.com/appliances/
  2. ↑ Open Virtualization Format Specification. Retrieved April 24, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ Changelog - Oracle VM VirtualBox. Retrieved April 24, 2020 .
  4. ↑ cloud. In: IBM Developer. Retrieved April 24, 2020 (American English).

Web links