Machine Image

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Discussion

A Machine Image is a deployable digital representation of the storage content and system configuration required to instantiate a physical or virtual computing machine.

The image may contain an operating system, partitions, filesystems, packages, services, users, security settings, configuration data, drivers, and installed capabilities.

A Machine Image may serve as the source for a virtual machine, a cloud compute instance, a physical machine installation, or a later image layer.

Within Crucible, a Machine Image results from a controlled image build and may be hardened, scanned, signed, converted, registered with a provider, and recorded in an image catalog.

Definition

image that packages the software, configuration, files, metadata, and other content required to instantiate a Virtual Machine

Source

Generalized from virtualization, cloud computing, operating-system deployment, and machine-image engineering usage and specialized for the Crucible architecture and operational model.

Note

A Machine Image differs from an Image Baseline. The Image Baseline defines the controlled inputs and process used to produce the image, while the Machine Image is the resulting deployable artifact.

A Machine Image may require provider-specific conversion or registration before deployment to a particular platform.

Example

Crucible builds a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 Machine Image containing an installed operating system, configured filesystems, required packages, security settings, and compliance remediation. A Provider Plugin uploads and registers the image for use by a cloud deployment.

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