METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATED DEPLOYMENT PLANNING FOR VIRTUAL APPLIANCES

• US 20090222560A1
• Filed: 02/28/2008
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Korupolu, Madhukar R., Gopisetty, Sandeep
• Granted Patent: US 10,108,460 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• 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

Abstract

A method and system for integrated server-storage deployment planning for virtual appliances is provided. One implementation involves determining a performance cost in deploying the virtual appliance to different pairings of candidate host and storage subsystems. A host and storage subsystem pair is preferentially selected among the candidate pairings, a pairing of a host and storage subsystem with certain performance cost to satisfy performance requirements of the virtual appliance. Deployment planning may further involve deploying a virtual appliance on one or more appropriate spatially proximate hosts and storage subsystems that exhibit certain preferable connectivity and path capacity to satisfy the performance requirements of the virtual appliance.

Claims

1. A method for integrated server-storage deployment planning for virtual appliances, comprising:

determining a performance cost in deploying the virtual appliance to different pairing of candidate host and storage subsystems; and

preferentially selecting among the candidate pairings, a pairing of a host and storage subsystem with certain performance cost to satisfy performance requirements of the virtual appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein preferentially selecting among the candidate pairings includes selecting a pairing of a host and storage subsystem with lowest performance cost to satisfy processing and volume access requirements of the appliance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a performance cost further includes, for each candidate host and storage subsystem pair, determining storage volume connectivity and/or spare path capacity between the host and storage subsystem, to satisfy the requirements of the appliance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining a performance cost further includes, for each candidate host and storage subsystem pair, determining access latency from the host to appliance-required storage volumes in the storage subsystem, and determining the performance cost based on said access latency.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining a performance cost further includes, for each host and storage subsystem pair:

determining a maximum performance threshold that may be reached for any of the path components for the host and subsystem pair, if the appliance were deployed to that host and subsystem pair and;

determining performance cost based on the said threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 further including determining candidate host and storage subsystem pairs for deployment of the appliance.

7. The method of claim 6 determining candidate host and storage subsystem pairs further includes:

selecting storage subsystems that possess sufficient space and performance capacity available to meet the storage requirements of the appliance; and

selecting hosts that posses sufficient resource availability to meet resource requirements of the appliance.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting a storage subsystem includes utilizing a performance-based volume planner to determine the amount of additional appliance workload that can be deployed on the storage subsystem without a performance load of the subsystem'"'"'s internal components exceeding a threshold.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting hosts includes selecting hosts that possess sufficient resource availability in processing, memory and network bandwidth.

10. The method of claim 1 further including determining performance requirements of a virtual appliance.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of deploying the appliance to the preferentially selected host and storage subsystem pair.

12. An appliance deployment planning apparatus, comprising:

an integrated deployment planner configured for planning deployment of the virtual appliance on one or more appropriate spatially proximate hosts and storage subsystems that exhibit certain preferable connectivity and path capacity to satisfy the performance requirements of the virtual appliance.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for planning deployment by:

determining a performance cost in deploying the virtual appliance to different pairing of candidate host and storage subsystems; and

preferentially selecting among the candidate pairings, a pairing of a host and storage subsystem with certain performance cost to satisfy performance requirements of the virtual appliance.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for preferentially selecting a pairing of a host and storage subsystem with lowest performance cost to satisfy processing and volume access requirements of the appliance.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for determining a performance cost by, for each candidate host and storage subsystem, determining storage volume connectivity and/or spare path capacity between the host and storage subsystem, to satisfy the requirements of the appliance.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for determining a performance cost by, for each candidate host and storage subsystem, determining access latency from the host to appliance-required storage volumes in the storage subsystem, and determining the performance cost based on said access latency.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for determining candidate host and storage subsystem pairs for deployment of the appliance.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for determining candidate host and storage subsystem pairs by:

selecting storage subsystems that posses sufficient space and performance capacity available to meet the storage capacity requirements of the appliance; and

selecting hosts that posses sufficient resource availability to meet resource requirements of the appliance.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the integrated deployment planner is further configured for selecting candidate hosts that posses sufficient resource availability in processing, memory and network bandwidth.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 further including a volume planner configured for storage volume allocation for workload of the appliance to meet the throughput and bandwidth requirements of the appliance.

21. An appliance deployment planning system, comprising:

a management module configured for determining performance requirements of a virtual appliance; and

an integrated deployment planner configured for deploying the virtual appliance on one or more appropriate spatially proximate hosts and storage subsystems that exhibit certain preferable connectivity and path capacity to satisfy the performance requirements of the virtual appliance.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the management module is configured for determining performance requirements of the virtual appliance determining storage volume requirements and host resource requirements.

23. The system of claim 22 further including a deployment module configured for deploying the appliance to the preferentially selected host and storage subsystem pair.

24. The system of claim 23 further including a volume planner configured for storage volume allocation for workload of the appliance to meet the throughput and bandwidth requirements of the appliance.

25. The system of claim 24 further comprising multiple hosts and storage subsystems, and a library including multiple virtual appliances, wherein each appliance comprises an application module and an operating system module, and wherein one or more appliances further include resource definition information indicating resource requirements of the appliance.