virtual appliance

A virtual appliance is a virtual machine image file consisting of a preconfigured operating system environment and a single application. The purpose of a virtual appliance is to simplify delivery and operation of the application. To this end, only necessary operating system components are included.

Deploying an application as a virtual appliance eliminates problems with installation and configuration, such as software or driver compatibility issues. Users can simply download a single file and run the application. Resources required for maintenance are also reduced. Developers can include a Web interface for custom configurations or delivering patches and updates.

A virtual appliance is often deployed as a subset of a virtual machine running on Virtualization technology, such as VMware Workstation.

Virtual appliances have proven useful in deploying network applications. They are also helpful in grid computing, where they can solve the problem introduced by heterogeneous hardware and operating systems, and in Software as a Service (SaaS), where the simplicity of the virtual appliance can help leverage economies of scale.

Virtual appliances are a subset of the broader class of software appliances.

Read more about virtual appliance: - Jack Loftus interviews Linux consultant and 'virtualization hobbyist' John Frey about virtual appliances. - Sander van Vugt explains using Ubuntu JeOS to create a virtual appliance. - The VMware website offers a FAQ list about virtual appliances. - Wikipedia has an entry about virtual appliances. - The Linux website provides a virtual appliance tutorial.

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