Anatomy of a virtual appliance
Virtual appliances are a key component of the cloud deployment model. The virtual images that are created by the IBM Image Construction and Composition Tool are virtual appliances, from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification point of view.
The Image Construction and Composition Tool (referred to as the tool in this book) automatically handles most of the mundane and error-prone tasks such as creating an OVF, installing an activation engine, and packaging an appliance ...