diff --git a/modules/misc/deployment.nix b/modules/misc/deployment.nix
index 91a0e9040dd1..3a95e89ea5e6 100644
--- a/modules/misc/deployment.nix
+++ b/modules/misc/deployment.nix
@@ -4,12 +4,92 @@ with pkgs.lib;
 
 {
   options = {
+  
+    deployment.targetEnv = mkOption {
+      default = "none";
+      example = "ec2";
+      description = ''
+        This option specifies the type of the environment in which the
+        machine is to be deployed by
+        <command>nixos-deploy-network</command>.  Currently, it can
+        have the following values. <literal>"none"</literal> means
+        deploying to a pre-existing physical or virtual NixOS machine,
+        reachable via SSH under the hostname or IP address specified
+        in <option>deployment.targetHost</option>.
+        <literal>"ec2"</literal> means that a virtual machine should be
+        instantiated in an Amazon EC2-compatible cloud environment
+        (see <option>deployment.ec2.*</option>).
+        <literal>"adhoc-cloud"</literal> means that a virtual machine
+        should be instantiated by executing certain commands via SSH
+        on a cloud controller machine (see
+        <option>deployment.adhoc.*</option>).  This is primarily
+        useful for debugging <command>nixos-deploy-network</command>.
+      '';
+    };
+
     deployment.targetHost = mkOption {
       default = config.networking.hostName;
       description = ''
-        This option specifies a hostname or IP address which can be used by nixos-deploy-network
-        to execute remote deployment operations.
+        This option specifies a hostname or IP address which can be
+        used by <command>nixos-deploy-network</command> to execute
+        remote deployment operations.
       '';
     };
+
+    # EC2/Nova/Eucalyptus-specific options.
+        
+    deployment.ec2.url = mkOption {
+      example = "https://ec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com:443/";
+      description = ''
+        URL of an Amazon EC2-compatible web service, used to create virtual machines.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    deployment.ec2.ami = mkOption {
+      example = "ami-ecb49e98";
+      description = ''
+        EC2 identifier of the AMI disk image used in the virtual
+        machine.  This must be a NixOS image providing SSH access.
+      '';
+    };
+    
+    deployment.ec2.instanceType = mkOption {
+      default = "m1.small";
+      example = "m1.large";
+      description = ''
+        EC2 instance type.  See <link
+        xlink:href='http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/'/> for a
+        list of valid Amazon EC2 instance types.
+      '';
+    };
+
+    # Ad hoc cloud options.
+
+    deployment.adhoc.controller = mkOption {
+      example = "https://ec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com:443/";
+      description = ''
+        Hostname or IP addres of the machine to which
+        <command>nixos-deploy-network</command> should connect (via
+        SSH) to execute commands to start VMs or query their status.
+      '';
+    };
+    
+    deployment.adhoc.startVMCommand = mkOption {
+      default = "create-vm";
+      description = ''
+        Remote command to create a NixOS virtual machine.  It should
+        print an identifier denoting the VM on standard output.
+      '';
+    };
+    
+    deployment.adhoc.queryVMCommand = mkOption {
+      default = "query-vm";
+      description = ''
+        Remote command to query information about a previously created
+        NixOS virtual machine.  It should print the IPv6 address of
+        the VM on standard output.
+      '';
+    };
+    
   };
 }