SELECTING A HOST FROM A HOST CLUSTER TO RUN A VIRTUAL MACHINE

• US 20100332658A1
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Elyashev, Vitaly
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

A host controller selects a host from a host cluster to run a virtual machine. In one embodiment, a host controller receives a request to run a virtual machine. The virtual machine may be a newly added virtual machine, or an existing virtual machine that needs to migrate from a currently active host to another host. The host controller selects a host from the host cluster based on current central processing unit (CPU) consumption and expected load to be incurred by the virtual machine. The expected load may be estimated from the number of cores to be used by the virtual machine. The host controller then assigns the virtual machine to run on the host.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a host controller, a request to run a virtual machine on a host cluster that includes a plurality of hosts;

selecting, by the host controller, a host from the host cluster based on current central processing unit (CPU) consumption and expected load to be incurred by the virtual machine, the expected load estimated from the number of cores to be used by the virtual machine; and

assigning, by the host controller, the virtual machine to run on the host.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

estimating the current CPU consumption based on average CPU utilization per core multiplied by the number of cores on the host.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

selecting the host based on a configurable percentage value that estimates the load on a core incurred by a single virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine is a new virtual machine to be added to the host cluster.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine is an existing virtual machine to migrate from a currently active host in the host cluster.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

multiplying a physical memory size of the host by an over-commitment ratio to obtain an estimated memory size; and

confirming that the estimated memory size is sufficient to accommodate the virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

selecting the host that has a utilization level above a deactivation threshold, below which the hosts are to be powered off.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to run a plurality of virtual machines on the host cluster; and

determining, sequentially, one host for each of the plurality of virtual machines.

9. A computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a request to run a virtual machine on a host cluster that includes a plurality of hosts;

selecting a host from the host cluster based on current central processing unit (CPU) consumption and expected load to be incurred by the virtual machine, the expected load estimated from the number of cores to be used by the virtual machine; and

assigning the virtual machine to run on the host.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

estimating the current CPU consumption based on average CPU utilization per core multiplied by the number of cores on the host.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

selecting the host based on a configurable percentage value that estimates the load on a core incurred by a single virtual machine.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

multiplying a physical memory size of the host by an over-commitment ratio to obtain an estimated memory size; and

confirming that the estimated memory size is sufficient to accommodate the virtual machine.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein selecting a host further comprises:

selecting the host that has a utilization level above a deactivation threshold, below which the hosts are to be powered off.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a request to run a plurality of virtual machines on the host cluster; and

determining, sequentially, one host for each of the plurality of virtual machines.

15. A host controller coupled to a host cluster that includes a plurality of hosts to run virtual machines, the host controller comprising:

a virtual machine manager to receive a request to run a virtual machine and to assign the virtual machine to run on a host; and

a host selection module to select the host from the host cluster based on current central processing unit (CPU) consumption and expected load to be incurred by the virtual machine, the expected load estimated from the number of cores to be used by the virtual machine.

16. The host controller of claim 15, wherein the host controller is coupled to a user interface to receive the request from a user to run the virtual machine.

17. The host controller of claim 15, wherein the request is internally generated by the host controller to migrate the virtual machine from a current host to another host.

18. The host controller of claim 15, wherein the host selection module calculates the current CPU consumption based on average CPU utilization per core multiplied by the number of cores on the host.

19. The host controller of claim 15, wherein the host selection module calculates the current CPU consumption based on a configurable percentage value that estimates the load on a core incurred by a single virtual machine.

20. The host controller of claim 15, wherein the host selection module confirms that the host has sufficient memory to accommodate the virtual machine by multiplying a physical memory size of the host by an over-commitment ratio.