Dynamic provisioning environment (DPE) is a simplified way to explain a complex networked server computing environment where server computing instances or

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardw ...

s (VMs) are provisioned (deployed or instantiated) from a centralized administrative console or

client application In computing, a client is a piece of computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server as part of the client–server model of computer networks. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in ...

by the

server administrator :''This article concentrates on server administration in the context of computer gaming. For generic server administration, see system administrator. For the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator product see OpenManage.'' A server administrator, or ...

, network administrator, or any other enabled user. The server administrator or network administrator has the ability to parse out control of the provisioning environment to users or accounts in the network environment (end users, organizational units, network accounts, other administrators). The provisioned servers or VMs can be inside the

firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...

, outside the firewall, or hosted depending on how the supporting pool of networked server computing resources is defined. From the perspective of the end user/client the requested server is deployed automatically. From an easy-to-use client or desktop application, any administrator or designated

end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops, system administrat ...

is able to easily instantiate a server instance or virtual machine (VM) instance. The server instance is provisioned for the eligible administrator or end user without anyone having to physically touch the supporting server infrastructure. While defining the server or VM to instantiate the client application gives the end user or administrator the ability to define the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

and applications that will run within the server instance to be provisioned automatically. Desktop dynamic provisioning environment (desktop DPE) or client dynamic provisioning environment (client DPE) is the scenario where a DPE is being used to provision client computing or desktop computing instances. Origin of DPE (dynamic provisioning environment): First documented in 2007;

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. DPE can be a vendor independent environment or an environment defined by a specific vendor. A dynamic provisioning environment (DPE) is flexible and can be defined as supporting a set of heterogeneous applications, defined as supporting a single application, or could be created in an appliance model to deploy a discrete application customized for a specific usage scenario. From an

perspective, a DPE server infrastructure can exist on one server operating system (homogeneous server infrastructure) or exist as on a defined set of servers with different operating systems (heterogeneous server infrastructure). The server instances or VMs provisioned by the DPE could be one specific server operating system or multiple server operating systems. Same idea for client systems instantiated by the DPE. The client instantiated by the DPE could be one or multiple client/desktop operating systems. Components of a DPE will vary based on the density of the computing environment. Would commonly include, servers or virtual server instances,

directory server In computing, a directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. It is a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administering and organizing everyday items and network r ...

, network connectivity(

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...

), management layer, virtual machine management tools, server provisioning tools, client application, client interface.

References

{{reflist Computer networking