Virtual machine memory migration by storage

• US 10,241,814 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2013
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsirkin, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Aquino, Wynuel S
• Application Number:
  US13/753,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215459A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,247 Days
• Field of Search: 718 1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Systems and methods for live migration are provided. A hypervisor receives a request to migrate a virtual machine from a source host machine to a destination host machine, and maps memory of the virtual machine on the source host machine to a storage device accessible by the source host machine and by the destination host machine.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a request to migrate a virtual machine from a source host machine to a destination host machine;

mapping, by a hypervisor executed by a processing device, memory of the virtual machine on the source host machine to a storage device, wherein the storage device is accessible by the source host machine and by the destination host machine;

caching, in cache memory on the source host machine, at least a portion of the memory of the virtual machine;

caching, in the cache memory on the source host machine, changes to the virtual machine on the source host machine that occur over a period of time after the mapping;

determining whether the virtual machine is to access the mapped memory of the storage device or the cached memory;

in response to determining that the virtual machine is to access the cached memory, directing, by the hypervisor, the virtual machine to the cache memory to cause memory accesses of the virtual machine to occur at the cache memory on the source host machine;

in response to determining that the virtual machine is to access the mapped memory on the storage device, accessing the memory of the virtual machine from the storage device;

issuing a synchronization command to synchronize the cache memory on the source host machine with the storage device;

issuing a stop command to stop the virtual machine on the source host machine in response to the changes over the period of time being below a threshold; and

transmitting a remaining portion of a state of the virtual machine from the source host machine to the destination host machine to complete the migration of the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting the state of the memory of the virtual machine using the cache memory on the source host machine and the mapped memory on the storage device, wherein the issuing the stop command is in view of the detecting the state of the memory.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein detecting the state of the memory of the virtual machine comprises:

measuring an amount of existing data on the cache memory on the source host machine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein detecting the state of the memory of the virtual machine further comprises:

measuring an amount of time to synchronize the cache memory with the storage device.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

estimating an amount of downtime during a virtual machine migration in view of at least one of;

a time to synchronize the mapped memory of the virtual machine with the cache memory, or an amount of data stored on the cache memory.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage device is part of a first network and the destination host machine is part of the first network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory of the virtual machine on the source host machine is mapped to the storage device on system boot.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the remaining portion of the state of the virtual machine comprises at least one of:

a CPU register, a register of a network card exposed to the virtual machine, or a device accessible to the virtual machine.

9. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processing device, operatively coupled with the memory, to;

receive a request to migrate a virtual machine from a source host machine to a destination host machine;

map, by a hypervisor executed by the processing device, memory of the virtual machine on the source host machine to a storage device, wherein the storage device is accessible by the source host machine and by the destination host machine;

cache, in cache memory on the source host machine, at least a portion of the memory of the virtual machine;

cache, in the cache memory on the source host machine, changes to the virtual machine on the source host machine that occur over a period of time after mapping memory of the virtual machine;

determine whether the virtual machine is to access the mapped memory of the storage device or the cached memory;

in response to determining that the virtual machine is to access the cached memory, direct, by the hypervisor, the virtual machine to the cache memory to cause memory accesses of the virtual machine to occur at the cache memory on the source host machine;

in response to determining that the virtual machine is to access the mapped memory on the storage device, access the memory of the virtual machine from the storage device;

issue a synchronization command to synchronize the cache memory on the source host machine with the storage device;

issuing a stop command to stop the virtual machine on the source host machine in response to the changes over the period of time being below a threshold; and

transmit a remaining portion of a state of the virtual machine from the source host machine to the destination host machine to complete the migration of the virtual machine.

10. The system of claim 9, the processing device further to:

detect the state of the memory of the virtual machine using the cache memory on the source host machine and the mapped memory on the storage device, wherein issuing of the stop command is in view of detecting of the state of the memory.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein when detecting the state of the memory of the virtual machine, the processing device to:

measure an amount of existing data on the cache memory on the source host machine.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein when detecting the state of the memory of the virtual machine, the processing device further to:

measure an amount of time to synchronize the cache memory with the storage device.

13. The system of claim 10, the processing device further to:

estimate an amount of downtime during a virtual machine migration in view of at least one of;

a time to synchronize the mapped memory of the virtual machine with the cache memory, or an amount of data stored on the cache memory.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the storage device is part of a first network and the destination host machine is part of the first network.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory of the virtual machine on the source host machine is mapped to the storage device on system boot.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the remaining portion of the state of the virtual machine comprises at least one of:

a CPU register, a register of a network card exposed to the virtual machine, or a device accessible to the virtual machine.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

receive a request to migrate a virtual machine from a source host machine to a destination host machine;

map, by a hypervisor executed by the processing device, memory of the virtual machine on the source host machine to a storage device, wherein the storage device is accessible by the source host machine and by the destination host machine;

cache, in cache memory on the source host machine, at least a portion of the memory of the virtual machine;

cache, in the cache memory on the source host machine, changes to the virtual machine on the source host machine that occur over a period of time after the mapping;

determine whether the virtual machine is to access the mapped memory of the storage device or the cached memory;

in response to determining that the virtual machine is to access the cached memory, direct, by the hypervisor, the virtual machine to the cache memory to cause memory accesses of the virtual machine to occur at the cache memory on the source host machine;

in response to determining that the virtual machine is to access the mapped memory on the storage device, access the memory of the virtual machine from the storage device;

issue a synchronization command to synchronize the cache memory on the source host machine with the storage device;

issue a stop command to stop the virtual machine on the source host machine in response to the changes over the period of time being below a threshold; and

transmit a remaining portion of a state of the virtual machine from the source host machine to the destination host machine to complete the migration of the virtual machine.