Method for forking or migrating a virtual machine

• US 20040010787A1
• Filed: 07/11/2002
• Published: 01/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Vega, Rene A., Traut, Eric P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,313,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence

Abstract

A method is provided for increasing the efficiency of virtual machine processing. A parent virtual machine is provided on a host computer. The parent virtual machine is temporarily or permanently suspended. A child virtual machine is created at a new location by forking the parent virtual machine. The child virtual machine may not initially include all the stored data that is associated with the parent virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method for increasing the efficiency of virtual machine processing, comprising the steps of:

providing on a first host system a parent virtual machine;

temporarily suspending the parent virtual machine;

forking the parent virtual machine to create at least one child virtual machine at an at least one new location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one new location is on the first host computer system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one new location is on a second host computer system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of temporarily suspending the parent virtual machine and forking the parent virtual machine are executed in a time duration of about one millisecond.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the parent virtual machine is a network server.

6. A method for increasing the efficiency of virtual machine processing, comprising the steps of:

providing on a first host system a parent virtual machine associated with stored data;

temporarily suspending the parent virtual machine;

forking the parent virtual machine to create at least one child virtual machine at an at least one new location without a first portion of the stored data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one new location is on the first host computer system.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one new location is on a second host computer system.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the steps of temporarily suspending the parent virtual machine and making the copy of the parent virtual machine are executed in a time duration of about one millisecond.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the parent virtual machine is a network server.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

using demand paging to send subportions of the first portion of the stored data to the at least one child virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of using demand paging comprises the step of:

if the at least one child virtual machine is accessing a first subportion of the first portion, temporarily suspending the at least one child virtual machine and sending the first subportion to the at least one child virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of using demand paging further comprises the step of:

if not all of the first portion of the stored data associated with the parent virtual machine has been sent to the at least one child virtual machine, sending a second subportion of the first portion to the at least one child virtual machine.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of using demand paging comprises the step of:

if the at least one child virtual machine is not accessing the at least one memory of the parent virtual machine, sending memory pages of the first portion to the at least one child virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 6, wherein the first portion is all the stored data associated with the parent virtual machine.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of using demand paging comprises the step of:

if the parent virtual machine attempts to modify a first subportion, sending the first subportion to the at least one child virtual machine before the first subportion is modified by the parent virtual machine.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of using demand paging further comprises the step of:

if not all of the first portion of the stored data associated with the parent virtual machine has been sent to the at least one child virtual machine, sending a second subportion of the first portion to the at least one child virtual machine.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of using demand paging comprises the step of:

if the parent virtual machine attempts to modify a first subportion, making a copy of the first subportion before the first subportion is modified by the parent virtual machine.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the copy of the first subportion is a temporary copy.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of using demand paging further comprises the step of:

if not all of the first portion of the stored data associated with the parent virtual machine has been sent to the at least one child virtual machine, sending a second subportion of the first portion to the at least one child virtual machine.

21. A method for increasing the efficiency of virtual machine processing, comprising the steps of:

providing on a first host system a parent virtual machine associated with stored data;

permanently suspending the parent virtual machine;

migrating the parent virtual machine to create at least one child virtual machine without a first portion of the stored data at an at least one new location.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one new location is on the first host computer system.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one new location is on a second host computer system.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the steps of permanently suspending the parent virtual machine and migrating the parent virtual machine are executed in a time duration of about one millisecond.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the parent virtual machine is a network server.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of:

deleting the parent virtual machine.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of:

using demand paging to send the first portion of the stored data to the at least one child virtual machine.