Anti-malware scan management in high-availability virtualization environments

A computer-implemented method of managing anti-malware scanning in a virtualization environment, the method comprising:

• a first host machine hosting a first plurality of virtual machines, each virtual machine in the first plurality of virtual machines executing programs like a physical machine;
• the first host machine hosting a first security virtual machine that initiates anti-malware scanning on a first virtual machine, the first security virtual machine and the first virtual machine being virtual machines in the plurality of virtual machines;
• a second host machine hosting a second plurality of virtual machines, each virtual machine in the second plurality of virtual machines executing programs like a physical machine, the first host machine being separate from the second host machine;
• the first host machine migrating the first virtual machine to the second virtual before completion of the anti-malware scanning on the first virtual machine initiated by the first security virtual machine in the first host machine;
• the second host machine receiving the first virtual machine together with a scan state of the first virtual machine before the anti-malware scanning on the first virtual machine initiated by the first security virtual machine in the first host machine has completed, the scan state indicating status of the anti-malware scanning on the first virtual machine initiated by the first security virtual machine in the first host machine;
• the second host machine scheduling anti-malware scanning on the first virtual machine in the second host machine;
• and
• the second host machine hosting a second security virtual machine that resumes the anti-malware scanning on the first virtual machine initiated by the first security virtual machine in the first host machine, the second security virtual machine being a virtual machine in the second plurality of virtual machines.