Patent ID: 8914785

Claim:
A host machine, comprising: a central processing unit (CPU); a storage area connected to the CPU wherein the storage area includes: a first virtual operating system (OS) image, the first virtual OS image includes: a virtual appliance image including application data and operating system libraries associated with a virtual appliance, and a kernel corresponding to the virtual appliance image, wherein the kernel is mapped the application data and the operating system libraries of the virtual appliance, wherein a modification to the application data or to the operating system libraries provides a second virtual OS image, the second virtual OS image including an updated kernel updated in response to a modification in the virtual appliance and an updated virtual appliance image provided in response to the modification in the virtual appliance; and memory in communication with the CPU and the storage area, the memory including a boot loader configured to: initialize start-up using the kernel, and load either the first virtual OS image or the second virtual OS image into the virtual appliance.