Server management apparatus and server management method

A server management apparatus for managing a physical server group including physical servers rendering operative thereon a virtual server group having a plurality of virtual servers and for managing, when putting into practice a cluster system containing therein said plurality of virtual servers placed in said physical server group, a placement state of said virtual servers depending on a load state of said virtual server group, wherein said server management apparatus comprises:

• one or more computers configured with the following components:
• a load information collection unit which collects load information of the virtual server group constituting said cluster system;
• a configuration information collection unit which collects configuration information indicating that said virtual server group is presently assigned to which one of said physical servers;
• a configuration change judgment unit which determines from the collected load information whether the virtual servers constituting said cluster system are reducible in number;
• a configuration change target selection unit which selects from the collected configuration information a physical server which is least in operative virtual server number;
• and
• a configuration change execution unit which deactivates a virtual server operating on the selected physical server;
• a load variation similarity calculation unit which derives from the load information which has been collected by said load information collection unit a degree of similarity of load variation between a plurality of cluster systems,
• wherein said configuration change judgment unit is configured to judge from said collected load information whether scale-out for virtual server addition is necessary or not,
• wherein the configuration change target selection unit is configured so that when a result of the judgment indicates that the scale-out is necessary, said configuration change target selection unit selects a physical server containing a larger number of virtual servers constituting a cluster system which is high in the derived degree of load variation similarity;
• and
• said configuration change execution unit determines the selected physical server to be a scale-out destination and then executes the scale-out,
• wherein said load information collection unit is configured to collect, when said physical server is registered to said server management apparatus, the configuration information containing therein the computing resource amount and registers it to a storage device,
• said configuration change judgment unit is configured to acquire, at a time of scale-out target judgment, the computing resource amount of a physical server under suspension and determines a scale-out destination while letting the physical server under suspension be included therein,
• said configuration change target selection unit is configured such that said server management apparatus activates the physical server under suspension when the server under suspension is specified as the scale-out destination by the judgment, and
• said configuration change execution unit is configured to activate a virtual server on the activated physical server to thereby perform the scale-out.

A server management method for use in a server management apparatus operative to manage a physical server group including physical servers for rendering operative thereon a virtual server group having a plurality of virtual servers, said method being for managing a placement state of the virtual servers depending on a load state of said virtual server group when handling for practical use a cluster system containing therein said plurality of virtual servers placed in said physical server group, said method comprising the steps of:

• collecting load information of the virtual server group constituting said cluster system;
• collecting configuration information indicating that said virtual server group is currently assigned to which one of said physical servers;
• determining from the collected load information whether scale-in processing for deactivating a virtual server is executable or not;
• selecting from the collected configuration information a physical server which is least in number of operative virtual servers;
• selecting a virtual server operating on the selected physical server as a target to be deactivated after execution of the scale-in and then executes the scale-in;
• deriving from the load information collected in past times a degree of similarity of a load variation between a plurality of cluster systems;
• judging from the collected load information whether the scale-out for virtual server addition is needed or not;
• when the judgment indicates that the scale-out is needed, selecting a physical server on which a larger number of virtual servers constituting a cluster system being high in the derived load variation similarity exist thereon;
• and
• determining the selected physical server to be a scale-out destination to thereby execute the scale-out.