Automatically Managing the Storage of a Virtual Machine

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system, causes the data processing system to:

• monitor, by a virtual machine, a usage of the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• determine, by the virtual machine, based on the monitoring of the usage of the virtual storage, whether to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• and
• execute, by a virtual machine manager, in response to the virtual machine determining to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine, an operation to expand the virtual storage.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• monitor, by a virtual machine, a usage of the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• determine, by the virtual machine, based on the monitoring of the usage of the virtual storage, whether to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• and
• execute, by a virtual machine manager, in response to the virtual machine determining to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine, one or more operations to expand the virtual storage.

A method, in a data processing system, for automatically expanding a virtual storage of a virtual machine executing in the data processing system, comprising:

• monitoring, by an agent executing with the virtual machine, a usage of the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• determining, by the agent, based on the monitoring of the usage of the virtual storage, whether to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• sending, by the agent, in response to determining to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine, an authorization request to an authorization engine executing on a separate computing device to request authorization to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine;
• receiving an authorization response from the authorization engine;
• and
• in response to the authorization response providing authorization to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine, executing, by a virtual machine manager, an operation to expand the virtual storage of the virtual machine.