Desired state model for managing lifecycle of virtualization software

An image of a virtualization software in a plurality of hosts is installed or upgraded by performing the steps of: in response to a user input, generating a software specification that specifies a desired state of the virtualization software; based on the software specification, preparing a desired image of the virtualization software by retrieving metadata of the desired state of the virtualization software and determining components that make up the desired state of the virtualization software; and instructing each of the hosts to install the desired image of the virtualization software or upgrade a current image of the virtualization software to the desired image of the virtualization software. One of the components defines a set of payloads for a core kernel of the virtualization software.