Patent attributes
A computer implemented method of converting a serialized virtual machine (VM) for a source virtualized computing environment, the serialized VM being stored in a data file having also metadata for instantiating the serialized VM in the source environment, the method including supplementing the data file with a software adapter including a plurality of executable disk image converters, each disk image converter being suitable for converting the serialized VM between disparate virtualized computing environments; a plurality of metadata mappings, each metadata mapping defining how the metadata is converted between disparate virtual computing environments; and executable code for effecting a conversion by executing an appropriate disk image converter and performing an appropriate metadata conversion to convert the data file for a target virtualized computing environment, such that the supplemented data file is operable to self-convert between the source virtualized computing environment and the target virtualized computing environment by execution of the executable code.