An appliance is an individual virtual machine that emulates physical hardware, such as servers, switches, routers, and load balancers. It represents the basic building block for more complex applications. Each appliance executes in its own virtualized environment, boots its own operating system, application services, and other required software. The boundary of the appliance isolates the interior of the appliance from the exterior. This defines both the appliance structure and how it interacts with other components, including the grid.
Appliance classes are re-usable objects with boundary attributes that you can modify to define the functionality of the appliance. You can store your appliances in the local or global catalog where they can used to create new instances.
Prior to creating appliances, you should begin the planning process by creating a class datasheet and class test plan as deliverables with your appliance. This allows you to set the end goals of the development project and tie the technical terms used throughout the development phase directly to the deliverables.
You can then decide your approach by deciding to:
The boundary of the appliance class is then defined and the bindings set between the class boundary and the appliance internals. This defines the functionality of the appliance and includes everything necessary to configure the appliance, bind data to the external storage volumes, and connect other appliances.
You can define the function of your appliance by uploading and installing your application-specific software on the appliance. As you configure your appliance, you separate the configuration and data from the code and tie the boundary to the interior. The final steps include testing your appliance, cleaning up any extraneous files, and moving the appliance to the local or global catalog and performing a final test to confirm the functionality.
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