Cisco Systems, Inc.
Method of tracking usage of virtual machines

Abstract:

A method for tracking virtual machine usage includes deploying, by a client machine with a client Internet Protocol (IP) address, an instance of a virtual machine. The client machine generates an identification for the instance of the virtual machine and requests a domain name system (DNS) lookup for a domain name string from a tracker server specified by a tracker IP address, where the domain name string comprises the identification. The tracker server receives the DNS lookup from the client machine and records the identification and the client IP address.