Grouping and automatically propagating updates to equivalent online and offline virtual machines in a data center

摘要

Techniques, systems, and articles of manufacture for automatically propagating updates in a data center. A method includes dividing multiple virtual machines in a data center into one or more equivalence classes, wherein each equivalence class is based on a signature corresponding to an offline, online and/or manual update, automatically creating an offline and/or online virtual machine manifest for a first virtual machine of the multiple virtual machines based on one or more file system changes during the offline, online and/or manual update for the first virtual machine, wherein said manifest is applicable to each additional virtual machine in the same equivalence class as the first virtual machine, and applying the offline and/or online virtual machine manifest for the first virtual machine to the remaining multiple virtual machines in the same equivalence class to automatically update the remaining multiple virtual machines in the same equivalence class.