Patent ID: 8341625

Claim:
A method comprising: instantiating, by a management server device of a cloud computing system, a set of virtual machines in computing devices of the cloud computing system; inserting, by the management server device, a single token ID which is not an identifier used to identify a virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, the single token ID to designate the virtual machine as a management instance virtual machine of the set of virtual machines, wherein the presence of the single token ID in the management instance virtual machine allows the management server device to directly configure, manage, store, and track the management instance virtual machine; registering, by the management server device, the management instance virtual machine to a database of the management server device; storing, by the management server device, an image of the management instance virtual machine to the database in order to record a configuration record of the set of virtual machines; and changing, by the management server device, a configuration of the management instance virtual machine, wherein changing the configuration comprises at least one of setting an operating system, changing one or more applications, adding one or more applications, deleting one or more applications, updating processing level, or updating bandwidth.