SEMESTER 2 2012 - Week 3

1:07 AM |

Research on Virtual appliances

A virtual appliance is a virtual machine image designed to run on a virtualization platform or in my case it run on Proxmox VE.Virtual appliances are a subset of the broader class of software appliances. Installation of a software appliance on a virtual machine creates a virtual appliance. Like software appliances, virtual appliances are intended to eliminate the installation, configuration and maintenance costs associated with running complex stacks of software.

A virtual appliance is not a complete virtual machine platform, but rather a software image containing a software stack designed to run on a virtual machine platform which may be a Type 1 or Type 2 hypervisor. Like a physical computer, a hypervisor is merely a platform for running an operating system environment and does not provide application software itself.

Many virtual appliances provide a Web page user interface to permit their configuration. A virtual appliance is usually built to host a single application; it therefore represents a new way to deploy applications on a network.

Reasons for using a Virtual Appliance :

For developing and testing Web applications on multiple platforms.
For quickly rolling back changes to a known state or creating a “read-only” environment.
For internal deployment of custom Web applications.
For customer demos during the sales process.
For training employees and customers.
For creating a flexible and open development environment whilst keeping the primary OS compliant with a locked down IT policy.