Patent ID: 8898668

Claim:
A method for redeploying a baseline virtual machine to a child virtual machine, comprising: identifying a child virtual machine as being associated with a baseline virtual machine; and redeploying the baseline virtual machine to the child virtual machine, comprising: gathering virtual drive information for the baseline virtual machine, the virtual drive information specifying a location of a datastore for the child virtual machine; interrogating a baseline virtual machine drive, used by the baseline virtual machine to store data, to identify a partition, in a partition table, as configured to allow a file system of the datastore to align with a controller comprising the baseline virtual machine; responsive to the file system of the datastore being aligned with the controller comprising the baseline virtual machine, creating a temporary directory on the datastore; creating a replacement virtual drive within the temporary directory based upon the virtual drive information, the replacement virtual drive comprising a clone of the baseline virtual machine drive; and replacing an existing child virtual machine drive, used by the child virtual machine to store data, with the replacement virtual drive utilizing a single operation.