US Patent 9996381 Live application management workflow using metadata capture

Techniques for configuring virtual machine instances are described herein. A virtual machine instance is instantiated and the virtual machine instance is monitored to receive notifications of configuration events associated with that virtual machine instance. Each configuration event, which specifies configuration changes to the virtual machine instance, includes a set of metadata associated with the configuration event. The metadata is extracted from the configuration event and the configuration changes are applied to the virtual machine instance. A new virtual machine image is then produced from the virtual machine instance and the extracted metadata is associated with the new virtual machine image.