Dynamic migration of virtual machine computer programs upon satisfaction of conditions

• US 20050251802A1
• Filed: 05/08/2004
• Published: 11/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stephens, Robert E., Bozek, James J., Wooldridge, James L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,156,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system of an embodiment is disclosed that includes a number of server computing devices and a management server computing device. Each server computing device has a virtual host computer program running thereon to support one or more virtual machine computer programs. Each virtual machine computer program is able to execute an instance of an operating system on which application computer programs are executable. The management server computing device monitors the server computing devices, and causes the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of a first server computing device to dynamically migrate to the virtual host computer program of a second server computing device, upon one or more conditions being satisfied. The conditions may include the first server being predicted as failure prone, the first server consuming power less than a threshold, and the first server having resource utilization less than a threshold.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a network;

a plurality of server computing devices communicatively coupled to the network, each server computing device having a virtual host computer program running thereon to support one or more virtual machine computer programs, each virtual machine computer program able to execute an instance of an operating system on which application computer programs are executable; and

,

a management server computing device communicatively coupled to the network to monitor the server computing devices and cause the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of one of the server computing devices to migrate to the virtual host computer program of another of the server computing devices upon one or more conditions being satisfied.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management server computing device is to cause the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of one of the server computing devices to dynamically migrate to the virtual host computer program of another server computing device, such that the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program are migrated without restarting.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprises one of the server computing devices having the virtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migrated being predicted as failure prone.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprises the one of the server computing devices having the virtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migrated being determined as having resource utilization less than a threshold.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more conditions comprises one of the server computing devices having the virtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migrated being determined as having power consumption less than a threshold.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a coordinator server computing device communicatively coupled to the network to coordinate the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of each server computing device, such that the management server computing device is to cause the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of the one of the server computing devices to migrate to the virtual host computer program of the other of the server computing devices by sending commands to the coordinator server computing device.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a management agent computer program running on the management server computing device through which the management server computing device communicates with the coordinator server computing device.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a management agent computer program running on the virtual host computer program of each server computing device, through which the management server computing device is to monitor and control the server computing device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the management server computing device is to cause the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of the one of the server computing devices to migrate to the virtual host computer program of the other of the server computing devices through the management agent computer program running on the one of the server computing devices and the management agent computer program running on the other of the server computing devices.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the management agent computer program running on the virtual host computer program of each server computing device is to monitor predictive failure of the server computing device for the management server computing device.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a resource consumption monitor agent computer program running on the virtual host computer program of each server computing device, through which the management server computing device is to monitor at least one of power consumption and resource utilization of the server computing device.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a resource consumption monitor service computer program running on the management server computing device through which the management server computing device communicates with the resource consumption monitor agent computer program running on the virtual host computer program of each server computing device.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a remote supervisor adapter for each server computing device communicatively coupled to the network to enable the management server computing device to power down the server computing device as needed.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server blade chassis, each server computing device implemented as a server blade insertable into and controllable by the server blade chassis.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a hardware management module for the server blade chassis through which the management server computing device is able to control the server computing devices of the server blade chassis.

16. A system comprising:

a network;

a plurality of server computing devices communicatively coupled to the network, each server computing device having a virtual host computer program running thereon to support one or more virtual machine computer programs, each virtual machine computer program able to execute an instance of an operating system; and

,

means for dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of one of the server computing devices to the virtual host computer program of another of the server computing devices upon one or more conditions being satisfied.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more conditions comprises at least one of:

the one of the server computing devices having the virtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migrated being predicted as failure prone;

the one of the server computing devices having the virtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migrated being determined as having resource utilization less than a threshold; and

,

the one of the server computing devices having the virtual host computer program from which the virtual machine computer programs are to be migrated being determined as having power consumption less than a threshold.

18. A management system for a plurality of server computing devices having virtual host computer programs running thereon to support virtual machine computer programs able to execute instances of operating systems, comprising:

a coordinator server computing device to communicate with and coordinate the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer programs of the server computing devices; and

,

a management server computing device to cause the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of a first server computing device to migrate to the virtual host computer program of a second server computing device, upon detecting one or more conditions being satisfied,

the management server computing device causing migration by communicating with the coordinator server computing device.

19. The management system of claim 18, wherein the coordinator server computing device monitors the server computing device having the virtual host computer program on which each virtual machine computer program is running.

20. The management system of claim 18, wherein the coordinator server computing device initiates, facilitates, and orchestrates migration of the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device to the virtual host computer program of the second server computing device, as caused by the management server computing device.

21. The management system of claim 18, further comprising a resource consumption monitor service computer program running on the management server computing device through which the management server computing device communicates with resource consumption monitor agent computer programs running on the virtual host computer programs of the server computing devices.

22. The management system of claim 18, further comprising a management agent computer program running on the management server computing device through which the management server computing device communicates with the coordinator server computing device.

23. The management system of claim 18, further comprising a management console computing device via which user interaction with the management server computing device is provided.

24. The management system of claim 18, wherein the one or more conditions comprises at least one of:

the first server computing device being predicted as failure prone;

the first server computing device being determined as having resource utilization less than a threshold; and

,

the first server computing device being determined as having power consumption less than a threshold.

25. A management system for a plurality of server computing devices having virtual host computer programs running thereon to support virtual machine computer programs able to execute instances of operating systems, comprising:

means for coordinating the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer programs of the server computing devices; and

,

means for migrating the virtual machine computer programs supported by the virtual host computer program of a first server computing device to the virtual host computer program of a second server computing device, upon detecting one or more conditions being satisfied.

26. The management system of claim 25, wherein the one or more conditions comprises at least one of:

the first server computing device being predicted as failure prone;

the first server computing device being determined as having resource utilization less than a threshold; and

,

the first server computing device being determined as having power consumption less than a threshold.

27. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer-readable medium; and

,

means in the medium for dynamically migrating virtual machine computer programs supported by a virtual host computer program of a first server computing device to a virtual host computer program of a second server computing device, without restarting the virtual machine computer programs, upon one or more conditions being satisfied, the one or more conditions comprising at least one of;

the first server computing device being predicted as failure prone;

the first server computing device being determined as having resource utilization less than a threshold; and

,

the first server computing device being determined as having power consumption less than a threshold.

28. A method comprising:

predicting a failure at a first server computing device;

correlating the first server computing device with a virtual host computer program supporting one or more virtual machine computer programs; and

,

dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs from the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device to a virtual host computer program of a second server computing device.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising initially specifying one or more conditions corresponding to the failure predicted at the first server computing device.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

stopping execution of the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device; and

,

turning off the first server computing device.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs comprises sending a command from a management server computing device to a coordinator server computing device able to control the virtual host computer programs of the first and the second server computing devices.

32. A method comprising:

detecting resource utilization at a first server computing device less than a threshold;

correlating the first server computing device with a virtual host computer program supporting one or more virtual machine computer programs;

dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs from the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device to a virtual host computer program of a second server computing device.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising initially specifying one or more conditions corresponding to the resource utilization at the first server computing device less than the threshold.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

stopping execution of the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device; and

,

turning off the first server computing device.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs comprises sending a command from a management server computing device to a coordinator server computing device able to control the virtual host computer programs of the first and the second server computing devices.

36. A method comprising:

detecting power consumption of a first server computing device less than a threshold;

correlating the first server computing device with a virtual host computer program supporting one or more virtual machine computer programs;

dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs from the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device to a virtual host computer program of a second server computing device.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising initially specifying one or more conditions corresponding to the power consumption at the first server computing device less than the threshold.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

stopping execution of the virtual host computer program of the first server computing device; and

,

turning off the first server computing device.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein dynamically migrating the virtual machine computer programs comprises sending a command from a management server computing device to a coordinator server computing device able to control the virtual host computer programs of the first and the second server computing devices.