Balancing virtual machine loads

An apparatus for balancing virtual machine loads comprising:

• a hardware processor;
• and
• a memory storing machine readable instructions that when executed by the hardware processor cause the hardware processor to:
• configure a preset affinity factor of each virtual machine;
• monitor load information of each of physical hosts and virtual machines operating on the physical hosts;
• calculate a load index of each of the physical hosts and the virtual machines according to the monitored load information;
• obtain the calculated load index of each physical host, and determine a source physical host on which any virtual machine needs to be migrated so as to reduce the load index of the source physical host;
• based on determination of the source physical host, obtain the calculated load index of each of virtual machines currently operating on the source physical host, and determine a target virtual machine to be migrated according to a preset affinity factor of each configured virtual machine and respective load index, wherein the preset affinity factor of a virtual machine indicates a degree of dependency of the virtual machine on a physical host in which the virtual machine resides;
• based on determination of the source physical host, obtain the calculated load index of each of the physical hosts, and determine a destination physical host into which the target virtual machine is to be migrated;
• and
• migrate the target virtual machine into the destination physical host.

A method for balancing virtual machine loads comprising:

• monitoring load information for physical hosts and virtual machines operating on the physical hosts;
• calculating a load index for each physical host of the physical hosts and each virtual machine of the virtual machines based on the load information;
• choosing a virtual machine to be migrated, based on the load indexes of the virtual machines and an affinity factor indicating a degree of dependency of the virtual machine on the physical host on which it resides;
• determining a physical host as a destination physical host to migrate the virtual machine to, wherein the destination physical host is determined by at least one of
• selecting a physical host with a smallest load index as the destination physical host,
• selecting a physical host with a load index smaller than a preset threshold as the destination physical host, and
• selecting a physical host whose load index is smallest and smaller than the preset threshold as the destination physical host;
• and
• migrating the chosen virtual machine to the destination physical host.