Patent ID: 7984125

Claim:
A system to deploy virtual machines, the system comprising: a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server constructed and arranged to receive a set of reserved address assignments, each reserved address assignment including a unique media access control (MAC) address and a reserved Internet Protocol (IP) address which are associated with each other via that reserved address assignment; and a set of hosts coupled to the DHCP server, the set of hosts being constructed and arranged to: maintain a base virtual machine image, receive a set of unique MAC addresses, and generate multiple virtual machines from the base virtual machine image and the set of unique MAC addresses, each virtual machine being constructed and arranged to (i) provide a particular unique MAC address of the set of unique MAC addresses to the DHCP server and obtain a particular reserved IP address from the DHCP server via an exchange of DHCP messages between that virtual machine and the DHCP server, the particular reserved IP address being associated with the particular unique MAC address via a particular reserved address assignment of the set of reserved address assignments, and (ii) operate as a networked standalone computer using the particular unique MAC address and the particular reserved IP address.