APPARATUS AND COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR CONTROLLING MIGRATION OF A VIRTUAL MACHINE

• US 20110016468A1
• Filed: 09/07/2009
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company), Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: SINGH, Sukhvinder
• Granted Patent: US 8,489,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Migration of a virtual machine from a source host to a destination host is controlled by referring to a graph data structure wherein one or more hosts are associated with at least some of the nodes of the graph data structure, a source node being associated with the source host and a destination node being associated with the destination host, and in which each link of the graph data structure is ascribed at least a permission value associated with the virtual machine, to determine if traversal of a path from the source node to the destination node is permitted by the permission values of the links in the path. Migration of said virtual machine is allowed if traversal from said source node to said destination node along the path is permitted.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for controlling migration of a virtual machine from a source host to a destination host, comprising:

referring to a graph data structure wherein one or more hosts are associated with at least some of the nodes of the graph data structure, a source node being associated with the source host and a destination node being associated with the destination host, and in which each link of the graph data structure is ascribed at least a permission value associated with the virtual machine, to determine if traversal of a path from the source node to the destination node is permitted by the permission values of the links in the path; and

allowing migration of said virtual machine if traversal from said source node to said destination node along the path is permitted.

2. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the graph is a tree.

3. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the permission value can take a first value allowing traversal along a path including the node or a second value not permitting traversal along a path including the node.

4. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a permission value is defined for each path direction.

5. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a permission value is defined for each virtual machine at least for each link in the graph.

6. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 comprising maintaining a matrix comprising source nodes, destination nodes and permission values.

7. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the matrix is maintained at each of a plurality of hosts.

8. Apparatus for controlling migration of a virtual machine from a source host to a destination host, comprising:

a graph data structure wherein one or more hosts are associated with at least some of the nodes of the graph data structure, a source node being associated with the source host and a destination node being associated with the destination host, and in which each link of the graph data structure is ascribed at least a permission value associated with the virtual machine;

program code elements for determining if traversal of a path from the source node to the destination node is permitted by the permission values of the links in the path; and

program code elements for signalling that migration of said virtual machine is allowed if traversal from said source node to said destination node along the path is permitted.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein the graph is a tree.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein the permission value can take a first value allowing traversal along a path including the node or a second value not permitting traversal along a path including the node.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein a permission value is defined for each path direction.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein a permission value is defined for each virtual machine at least for each link in the graph.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 comprising a stored representation of a matrix comprising source nodes, destination nodes and permission values.

14. A computer program product for controlling migration of a virtual machine from a source host to a destination host, comprising program code elements for:

maintaining a graph data structure wherein one or more hosts are associated with at least some of the nodes of the graph data structure, a source node being associated with the source host and a destination node being associated with the destination host, and in which each link of the graph data structure is ascribed at least a permission value associated with the virtual machine,

referring to the graph structure to determine if traversal of a path from the source node to the destination node is permitted by the permission values of the links in the path; and

signalling that migration of said virtual machine is allowed if traversal from said source node to said destination node along the path is permitted.

15. A computer program product as claimed in claim 14 in the form of cluster management software for installation on nodes of a computer cluster.