Patent ID: 8478902

Claim:
A method performed by a computing system having at least one processor core, the method comprising: receiving via a management interface information specifying a virtual data center configuration comprising at least one networking parameter specified for the virtual data center; in response to the receiving: with one or more of the processor cores of the at least one processor core, causing to be instantiated a plurality of virtual machines as nodes in the virtual data center; with one or more of the processor cores of the at least one processor core, causing to be instantiated a virtual machine as a router for connecting at least a portion of the plurality of virtual machines instantiated as nodes; with one or more of the processor cores of the at least one processor core, causing the virtual machine caused to be instantiated as a router to be loaded with a general-purpose operating system comprising a network routing component; with one or more of the processor cores of the at least one processor core, configuring in accordance with the at least one networking parameter specified for the virtual data center the network routing component of the general-purpose operating system loaded with which the virtual machine caused to be instantiated as a router is caused to be loaded; and with one or more of the processor cores of the at least one processor core, after the configuring, causing the virtual machine caused to be instantiated as a router to operate as a router for the at least a portion of the plurality of virtual machines instantiated as nodes.