Dynamically provisioning storage
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorKattiganehalli Y. Srinivasan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A “just in time” feedback-driven strategy for provisioning storage in a cloud computing environment is described. An agent miming in a guest virtual machine can monitor the storage needs of the guest virtual machine. When a specified threshold for the guest virtual machine is reached, the host can be notified of the changing storage needs. The host can respond by re-sizing the storage device and notifying the guest virtual machine of the changed storage capacity.
Claims20
A computer comprising:
- at least one processor of a computing device;
- a memory of the computing device;
- storage capacity allocated to at least one guest virtual machine running on a host, the at least one guest virtual machine executing at least one process;
- at least one module loaded into the memory causing the at least one processor to:
- receive via a private channel by the host, a storage alert from the at least one guest virtual machine running on the host,
- in response to determining that a current size of a virtual storage device specified in the storage alert matches a size of a storage device allocated to the at least one guest virtual machine by the host, re-size the virtual storage device allocated to the at least one guest virtual machine, while the at least one guest process is executing without interrupting execution of the at least one guest process.
A method comprising:
- monitoring usage of a virtual storage device allocated to a guest virtual machine executing at least one process on a host;
- in response to detecting a threshold utilization of the virtual storage device, sending a storage alert to the host via a private channel between the guest virtual machine and the host;
- in response to the guest virtual machine receiving a re-sizing notification from the host, re-detecting storage capacity of the virtual storage device by the guest virtual machine.
A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions which when executed cause at least one processor of a computing device to:
- monitor usage of a virtual storage device allocated to a guest virtual machine executing at least one process on a host computer;
- in response to detecting a threshold utilization of the virtual storage device, send a storage alert to a host executing on the host computer, via a private channel between the guest virtual machine and the host;
- receive via a private channel by the host the storage alert from the at least one guest virtual machine running on the host,
- in response to the host determining that a current size of the virtual storage device specified in the storage alert matches a size of the storage device allocated to the at least one guest virtual machine by the host, re-size the virtual storage device allocated to the at least one guest virtual machine, while the at least one process is executing without interrupting execution of the at least one process;
- and
- send a notification from the host to the guest virtual machine, the notification indicating the re-sizing operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.