Patent ID: 8429630

Claim:
A system for migrating a virtual appliance from a first server grid to a second server grid via a computer network, the system comprising: at least one processor; at least one interface operable to provide a communication link to at least one network device; and memory; the system being operable to: run a first instance of the virtual appliance at the first server grid, wherein the first server grid has associated therewith a first portion of virtualized computing resources representing computing resources associated with a first plurality of physical servers, wherein the first instance of the virtual appliance has associated therewith a first instance of a virtual machine and a first instance of a virtual volume; store, at the first instance of the virtual volume, a first disk image for use by the first instance of the virtual appliance; establish a connection over the computer network from the first server grid to the second server grid; transfer, to the second server grid, first virtual appliance information relating to the first instance of the virtual appliance, wherein the first virtual appliance information includes virtual appliance descriptor information and virtual appliance configuration information; and start, using the first virtual appliance information, the second instance of the virtual appliance at the second server grid; wherein the second instance of the virtual appliance includes a second instance of the virtual machine.