US 8,806,480 B2Granted

Virtual machine smart migration

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsNelson Sampaio Araujo, Jr., Robert M. Fries, Michael L. Michael

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Abstract

Migration mechanisms are disclosed herein that smartly transfer data among virtual machines, minimizing the down time of migration of such machines but maximizing the consistent state of data stored thereon. Specifically, data can be classified into three types: low volatility data (such as hard disk data), high volatility data (such a random access memory data), and immutable data (such as read only data). This data can be migrated from a source virtual machine to a target virtual machine by sending the immutable data along with the low volatility data first—before the source virtual machine has stopped itself for the migration process. Then, after the source virtual machine has stopped, high volatility data and (again) low volatility data can be sent from the source to the target. In this latter case, only differences between the low volatility data may be sent (or alternatively, new low volatility data may be sent).

Claims15

Dependent claims

A computer system configured to transfer a virtual machine, comprising:

a processor;
and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including instructions stored thereon that upon execution by the processor cause the computer system to at least:
run a virtual machine, the virtual machine having access to random access memory and a virtual disk;
send, while the virtual machine is running, data indicative of contents stored in the virtual disk and/or contents of the random access memory to a target computer system;
determine that a first change to the data has occurred;
send the target computer system a part of the data corresponding to the first change while the virtual machine is running, in response to determining that an amount of time needed to send the part of the data corresponding to the first change is greater than a threshold amount of time;
determine that a second change to the data has occurred;
determine that an amount of time needed to send a part of the data corresponding to the second change is less than the threshold amount of time;
stop the virtual machine in response to the determination that the amount of time needed to send a part of the data corresponding to the second change is less than the threshold amount of time;
and
send, while the virtual machine is stopped, the part of the data corresponding to the second change to the target computer system.

9 more elements

A computer-readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon that upon execution by a processor of a computer system cause the computer system to at least:

run a virtual machine, the virtual machine having access to random access memory and a virtual disk;
send, while the virtual machine is running, data stored in a virtual disk file and/or stored in the random access memory to a second computer system;
determine that a first change to the data has occurred;
send the target computer system a part of the data corresponding to the first change while the virtual machine is running, in response to determining that an estimated amount of time needed to send the part of the data corresponding to the first change is greater than a threshold time, the threshold time being based on a detected time of day;
determine that a second change to the data has occurred;
determine a second threshold time based on a second detected time of day;
determine that an estimated amount of time needed to send a part of the data corresponding to the second change is less than the determined second threshold amount of time;
stop the virtual machine in response to the determination that the estimated amount of time needed to send the part of the data corresponding to the second change is less than the determined second threshold amount of time;
and
send the part of the data corresponding to the second change to the second computer system.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/772,056Filed 29 Jun 2007
Published: US 2009/0007106 A11 Jan 2009
Granted: 12 Aug 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G06F 9/54
Multiprogramming arrangements: interprogram communication
G06F 9/45558
Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors: hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
G06F 2009/4557
Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects: distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
G06F
Computing and data processing