Dynamic service registry for virtual machines

• US 20040128670A1
• Filed: 03/21/2003
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Knauerhase, Robert C., Robinson, Scott H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45566 Nested virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/462 Lookup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A traditional registry, such as a global UDDI server, is not designed to accommodate transitory devices, e.g., devices that may frequently attach and detach from a network, often-times without warning, such as virtual machines offering or desiring services that are periodically instantiated and then suspended or destroyed. To accommodate such transitory devices, a dynamic resource/service registry may be implemented that leverages lower-level protocols or state to determine appropriate registry updates to keep the registry state consistent with currently-active virtual machines. For example, a virtual machine monitor (VMM) may track creation and suspension or deletion of a virtual machine (VM), and resources advertised by the VM, where the VMM appropriately adds or removes registry entries for the VM as the state of the VM changes or provides hooks (e.g. notifications) or other instrumentation based on said state or protocols to enable other associated modules or agents (e.g. management modules or the registry) to take appropriate actions.

Claims

1. A method for registering virtual machines with a first registry, the first registry being searchable for registrants advertising a service or a resource, the method comprising:

monitoring for instantiation of a virtual machine;

determining a service or resource advertised by the virtual machine;

automatically registering the virtual machine'"'"'s service or resource with the first registry, the registering including creating a registration for the device identifying the advertised service or resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically deregistering the virtual machine'"'"'s service or resource from the first registry if the virtual machine becomes unavailable.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

monitoring the virtual machine for a change in operational state indicating unavailability of the virtual machine;

performing the automatically deregistering the virtual machine'"'"'s service or resource from the first registry responsive to the change in operational state.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the change in operational state is a selected one of the virtual machine being:

suspended, or destroyed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating a time-to-live for registry registrations of virtual machines;

monitoring for communication by the virtual machine or a service provider therein; and

automatically deregistering the virtual machine from the first registry if the virtual machine or a service provider therein fails to communicate within the time-to-live.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the registry maintains the time-to-live, the method further comprising:

the registry receiving a communication from the virtual machine, and responsive thereto, the registry resetting the time-to-live.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disposing the registry and the virtual machine in a single device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the single device comprises a management partition, virtual machine monitor, and hooks allowing the management partition to query the virtual machine monitor for operational status of its virtual machines.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disposing the registry and the virtual machine in a single device having an operating system, a virtual machine monitor, and communication hooks allowing the operating system to query the virtual machine monitor for operational status of its virtual machines.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disposing the registry and the virtual machine in a single device having an operating system, a virtual machine monitor, and communication hooks allowing the operating system to be notified by the virtual machine monitor of operational status of its virtual machines.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

disposing the registry and the virtual machine in a single device having a host operating system, a virtual machine monitor, and communication hooks allowing the virtual machine to query the host operating system for services registered by the virtual machine with the registry;

logging by the virtual machine monitor services registered by the virtual machine with the registry after instantiation of the virtual device; and

determining by the virtual machine monitor of unavailability of the virtual machine; and

notifying the host operating system to deregister the virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deregistering the virtual machine'"'"'s service or resource from the first registry;

migrating the virtual machine to a new hosting device; and

re-registering, with the first registry, the virtual machine'"'"'s service or resource with respect to the new hosting device.

13. A system, comprising:

a first device having a registry disposed therein;

a second device having disposed therein a first virtual machine operable to advertise a service or a resource for registration with the registry, and a virtual machine monitor configured to notify the registry to deregister the virtual machine if the virtual machine is unavailable.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the virtual machine is unavailable when suspended or destroyed.

15. A system, comprising:

a first device having disposed therein a registry, a first virtual machine, and a first virtual machine monitor;

a second device having disposed therein a second virtual machine and a second virtual machine monitor; and

wherein the first and second virtual machines are operable to advertise services or resources for registration with the registry, and wherein the first and second virtual machine monitors are operable to notify the registry to deregister the virtual machine if their respective first or second virtual machines become unavailable.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first and second virtual machines are deemed unavailable when suspended or destroyed by their virtual machine monitor.

17. An article comprising a machine-accessible media having associated data, wherein the data, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

monitoring for instantiation of a virtual machine;

determining a service or resource advertised by the virtual machine;

automatically registering the virtual machine with the first registry, the registering including creating a registration for the device identifying the advertised service or resource.

18. The article of claim 17 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

automatically deregistering the virtual machine from the first registry if the virtual machine becomes unavailable.

19. The article of claim 17 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

monitoring the virtual machine for a change in operational state indicating unavailability of the virtual machine; and

performing the automatically deregistering the virtual machine from the first registry responsive to the change in operational state.

20. The article of claim 19, wherein the change in operational state is a selected one of the virtual machine being:

suspended, or destroyed.

21. The article of claim 17 wherein the machine-accessible media further includes data, when accessed, results in the machine performing:

associating a time-to-live for registry registrations of virtual machines;

monitoring for communication by the virtual machine; and

automatically deregistering the virtual machine from the first registry if the virtual machine fails to communicate within the time-to-live.