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US 7,680,919 B2Granted
Virtual machine migration
AssigneeVMware, Inc.
InventorMichael Nelson
Life of this patent
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AssigneeVMware, Inc.
InventorMichael Nelson
Estimating the term…
A source virtual machine (VM) hosted on a source server is migrated to a destination VM on a destination server without first powering down the source VM. After optional pre-copying of the source VM's memory to the destination VM, the source VM is suspended and its non-memory state is transferred to the destination VM; the destination VM is then resumed from the transferred state. The source VM memory is either paged in to the destination VM on demand, or is transferred asynchronously by pre-copying and write-protecting the source VM memory, and then later transferring only the modified pages after the destination VM is resumed. The source and destination servers preferably share common storage, in which the source VM's virtual disk is stored; this avoids the need to transfer the virtual disk contents. Network connectivity is preferably also made transparent to the user by arranging the servers on a common subnet, with virtual network connection addresses generated from a common name space of physical addresses.
In a networked system of computers, including a source computer and a destination computer and a source virtual machine (VM) installed on the source computer, a virtualization method for migrating the source VM to a destination VM, the method comprising:
A method for migrating a source virtual machine (VM) installed on a source computer to a destination computer, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors: hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
Horizontal data movement in storage systems, i.e. moving data in between storage devices or systems: migration mechanisms
In-line storage system: plurality of storage devices
Term ended 12 Dec 2022 (estimated)
This invention relates to a computer architecture, in particular, to an architecture that coordinates the operation of multiple virtual machines.
The advantages of virtual machine technology have become widely recognized. Among these advantages is the ability to run multiple virtual machines on a single host platform. This makes better use the capacity of the hardware, while still ensuring that each user enjoys the features of a “complete,” isolated computer.
General virtualized computer system: As is well known in the field of computer science, a virtual machine (VM) is a software abstraction—a “virtualization”—of an actual physical computer system. FIG. 1 illustrates, in part, the general configuration of a virtual machine 200, which is installed as a “guest” on a “host” hardware platform 100.
FIG. 1 illustrates the main components of a server that includes one or more virtual machines running on a system-level kernel.
FIG. 2 illustrates a farm of interconnected servers according to the invention, with each server hosting a plurality of virtual machines.
FIG. 3 illustrates the steps the invention takes to migrate a virtual machine from a source to a destination.
In broadest terms, the invention provides a farm of servers, each of which may host one or more virtual machines (VMs), as well as mechanisms for migrating a VM from one server (the source server) to another (the destination server) while the VM is still running. There are many reasons why efficient, substantially transparent VM migration is beneficial. Load-balancing is mentioned above, as is the possibility that a machine may need to be taken out of service for maintenance.
Another reason may be to add or remove resources from the server. This need not be related to the requirements of the hardware itself, but rather it may also be to meet the desires of a particular user/customer. For example, a particular user may request (and perhaps pay for) more memory, more CPU time, etc., all of which may necessitate migration of his VM to a different server.
The general configuration of the server farm according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 2, in which a plurality of users 900, 902, 904, . . . , 906 access a farm of servers 1000, 1002, . . . , 1004 via the network 700. Each of the servers is preferably configured as the server 1000 shown in FIG. 1, and will include at least one and possibly many VMs. Thus, server 1000 is shown in both FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.