Deploy Virtual Appliance

The Deploy Virtual Appliance task enables you to deploy a virtual server, and create or update the IBM® Flex System Manager VMControl workload that represents the virtual server and its operating system and software stack.

The following diagram describes graphically how a virtual appliance is deployed to create a new virtual server that is complete with a fully functional operating system and software stack.

A user selects a virtual appliance to deploy, virtual appliance A, from the virtual appliances that are stored by VMControl.
Virtual appliance A contains a reference to Image A that is stored in a VMControl image repository. Image A contains an operating system and software applications.
The user specifies a host system, server system pool, or existing virtual server where they want to deploy virtual appliance A.
When virtual appliance A is deployed, a virtual server is created with the definitions detailed in the metadata of virtual appliance A. Or the user might have selected to deploy virtual appliance A to an existing virtual server, in which case that virtual server is overwritten with the operating system and software applications defined in virtual appliance A.
When virtual appliance A is deployed to a host or to a server system pool, a VMControl workload is also created. When virtual appliance A is deployed to an existing virtual server, the corresponding workload is updated or created.

Image of how a virtual appliance is deployed

In Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and Power Systems™ environments, you can perform the following types of deploy operations:

Deploy a virtual appliance to an existing virtual server. The software image from the virtual appliance is installed on the existing virtual server, and a IBM Flex System Manager VMControl workload is created or updated.
This operation also allows you to deploy a given virtual appliance to multiple existing virtual servers in parallel. This function is supported only for an existing virtual server that is not a member of a server system pool and can only be performed from the command line interface.
Deploy a virtual appliance to a host, resulting in the creation of a new virtual server on that host that has been installed with the software image from the virtual appliance. You can also deploy a virtual applicance to a new virtual server with pre-allocated storage. Furthermore, a IBM Flex System Manager VMControl workload is created.
Note: If you are deploying to a host from an image repository based on a shared storage pool, then that host must contain a VIOS that is a member of that same shared storage pool.
Deploy a virtual appliance to a server system pool, resulting in the creation of a new virtual server on one of the hosts in the server system pool, which has been installed with the software image from the virtual appliance. You can also deploy to server system pool with pre-allocated storage. Furthermore, a IBM Flex System Manager VMControl workload is created.

For more information, see "Deploy support and requirements" for your virtualization environment.