Storage and server provisioning for virtualized and geographically dispersed data centers

• US 20090055507A1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Oeda, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,970,903 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/216
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Geographically dispersed data centers each include servers and storage systems and are in communication with each other. An application is installed on a guest operating system on a virtual machine set up on a server at a first data center. The application accesses a logical unit on a storage system at the first data center. When migration of the application is initiated, the process determines whether any of the data centers has server resources and storage resources required to receive migration of the application. A destination data center is selected from candidate data centers meeting requirements for migration of the application. The application and guest operating system are migrated from the first data center to a second virtual machine set up on a second server at the destination data center. If a replica of the LU is not already present at the destination data center, the LU is also replicated.

Claims

1. A method of migrating an application, comprising:

installing the application on a first server by setting up a first virtual machine running a guest operating system at a first data center, said application accessing a first logical unit (LU) on a first storage system at said first data center;

initiating migration by searching for available resources in a plurality of remote data centers;

identifying a candidate remote data center from among said plurality of remote data centers; and

migrating said application and said guest operating system to a second virtual machine installed on a second server located at said candidate remote data center.

2. A method according to claim 1,

wherein said step of identifying a candidate remote data center includes steps of:

determining whether there is a replica of said first LU already existing in any of said plurality of remote data centers,

when there is there is a replica, determining whether the remote data center at which the replica exists has server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application, and

when the remote data center at which the replica exists has server resources that meet the requirements for migration of the application, identifying the remote data center at which the replica exists as the candidate remote data center for receiving the migration.

3. A method according to claim 1,

wherein said step of identifying a candidate remote data center includes steps of:

determining whether there is a replica of said first LU already existing in any of said plurality of remote data centers,

when there is no replica, determining whether any of the remote data centers have storage resources and server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application, and

when one of said remote data centers has available storage resources and server resources that meet the requirements for migration of the application, identifying the one of the remote data centers as the candidate remote data center for receiving the migration.

4. A method according to claim 1, further including the step of

initiating the migration by first searching said local data center for available resources by determining if a replica of said first LU exists at the local data center and is accessible by available server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application;

when a replica of the first LU does not exist at the local data center, determining whether the local data center has storage resources and server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application, and

when a replica of the first LU does not exist at the local data center and the local data center does not have storage resources and server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application, searching for available resources in the plurality of remote data centers.

5. A method according to claim 1, further including the step of

creating said first LU as a virtual LU, wherein data stored to said virtual LU on said first storage system is stored by said first storage system to an actual LU in another storage system that maps to the virtual LU, said other storage system being located at the local data center and storing the data to physical storage devices from which the actual LU is configured.

6. A method according to claim 1,

wherein said step of identifying a candidate remote data center includes examining power consumption information for the candidate remote data center to determine whether power consumption for the candidate remote data center is within a specified limit.

7. A method according to claim 1, further including the step of

replicating the first LU to the candidate remote data center when a replica of the first LU is not already present at the candidate remote data center using a remote copy function, so that the replica of the first LU at the candidate remote data center is synchronized with the first LU when the application is suspended at the local data center and the migrated application at the remote data center is able to use the replica of the first LU to take over for the suspended application.

8. An information system comprising:

a plurality of data centers located geographically remotely from each other, said data centers each including one or more servers and one or more storage systems, said data centers being in communication with each other via a network; and

a first virtual machine running on a first server having a guest operating system with an application installed thereon at a first said data center, said application accessing a first logical unit (LU) on a first storage system at said first data center,

wherein, when migration of said application is initiated, said first data center is configured to determine whether one of said plurality of data centers has server resources and storage resources required to receive migration of the application,

wherein a destination data center is selected from one or more candidate data centers meeting requirements for migration of the application, and

wherein said first data center is configured to migrate the application and the guest operating system to a second virtual machine set up on a second server at the destination data center.

9. The information system according to claim 8,

wherein the first data center is configured to determine whether there is a replica of said first LU already existing in any of said plurality of data centers,

wherein, when there is there is a replica, the first data center determines whether the data center at which the replica exists has server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application,

wherein, when the data center at which the replica exists has server resources that meet the requirements for migration of the application, the first data center identifies the data center at which the replica exists as one of said candidate data centers for receiving the migration,

wherein, when there is no replica, the first data center is configured to determine whether any of the data centers have storage resources and server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application, and

wherein, when one of said data centers has available storage resources and server resources that meet the requirements for migration of the application, identifying the one of the data centers as one of said candidate data centers for receiving the migration.

10. The information system according to claim 8,

wherein said first data center is configured to initiate the migration of the application when a load on the first data center exceeds a predetermined load threshold set for the first data center.

11. The information system according to claim 8,

wherein said first data center is configured to initiate the migration of the application when an amount of power consumed at the first data center exceeds a predetermined power consumption threshold set for the first data center.

12. The information system according to claim 8,

wherein said first LU is a virtual LU configured on said first storage system, said virtual LU mapping to an actual LU on a second storage system at said data center,

wherein data stored to said virtual LU on said first storage system is stored by said first storage system to the actual LU in the second storage system in the first data center, which stores the data to physical storage devices.

13. The information system according to claim 8,

wherein said first data center is configured to identify a candidate data center for receiving migration of the application, at least in part, by examining power consumption information for the data centers to determine whether the power consumption for the candidate data center is below a specified threshold.

14. The information system according to claim 8,

wherein said first data center is configured to replicate the first LU to the destination data center when a replica of the first LU is not already present at the destination data center using a remote copy function, so that the replica of the first LU at the destination data center is synchronized with the first LU, such that, when the application is suspended at the local data center, the migrated application at the destination data center takes over for the suspended application.

15. An information system comprising:

a local data center having one or more local servers in communication with one or more local storage systems;

a plurality of remote data centers located geographically remotely from each other and said local data center, said remote data centers each including one or more remote servers and one or more remote storage systems in communication with each other;

said local data center and said plurality of remote data centers being in communication with each other via a network;

a first virtual machine having a guest operating system configured and having an application operational thereon on a first said local server at said local data center, said application conducting input/output (I/O) operations to a first logical unit on a first said local storage system at said first data center;

wherein, when migration of said application is initiated, said local data center is configured to determine whether said local data center has server resources that meet requirements of the migration of the application;

wherein, when said local data center does not have server resources to meet requirements of the migration of the application, the local data center is configured to determine whether one of said plurality of remote data centers has server resources that meet the requirements of the migration of the application;

wherein a destination data center is selected from one or more candidate data centers meeting the requirements for migration of the application; and

wherein said local data center is configured to migrate the application and the guest operating system to a second virtual machine configured on the destination data center.

16. The information system according to claim 15,

wherein the local data center is configured to determine whether there is a replica of said first LU already existing in any of said plurality of data centers,

wherein, when there is there is a replica, the local data center determines whether the data center at which the replica exists has server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application,

wherein, when the data center at which the replica exists has server resources that meet the requirements for migration of the application, the local data center identifies the data center at which the replica exists as one of said candidate data centers for receiving the migration,

wherein, when there is no replica, the local data center is configured to determine whether any of the data centers have storage resources and server resources that meet requirements for migration of the application, and

wherein, when one of said data centers has available storage resources and server resources that meet the requirements for migration of the application, said local data center is configured to identify one of the data centers as one of said candidate data centers for receiving the migration.

17. The information system according to claim 15,

wherein said local data center is configured to initiate the migration of the application when an amount of power consumed at the local data center exceeds a predetermined power consumption threshold or when a load on the local data center exceeds a predetermined load threshold.

18. The information system according to claim 15,

wherein said first LU is a virtual LU configured on said first local storage system said virtual LU mapping to an actual LU on a second local storage system at said local data center,

wherein data stored to said virtual LU on said first local storage system is transferred by said first storage system to the actual LU in the second local storage system in the local data center, which stores the data to physical storage devices.

19. The information system according to claim 15,

wherein said local data center is configured to identify a candidate data center for receiving migration of the application by examining power consumption information for the data centers to determine whether the power consumption for the candidate data center is below a specified threshold.

20. The information system according to claim 15,

wherein said local data center is configured to replicate the first LU to the destination data center when a replica of the first LU is not already present at the destination data center using a remote copy function, so that the replica of the first LU at the destination data center is synchronized with the first LU, such that, when the application is suspended at the local data center, the migrated application at the destination data center uses the replica of the first LU to take over for the suspended application.