SELECTION OF A SUITABLE NODE TO HOST A VIRTUAL MACHINE IN AN ENVIRONMENT CONTAINING A LARGE NUMBER OF NODES

• US 20110029672A1
• Filed: 08/03/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Agneeswaran, Vijay Srinivas
• Granted Patent: US 8,713,182 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

An aspect of the present invention facilitates selecting suitable nodes to host virtual machines (VMs) in an environment containing a large number of nodes (such as a grid). In one embodiment, information indicating corresponding resources available in each machine node (a node capable of hosting VMs) in the grid is maintained distributed over a set of management nodes contained in the grid. On receiving an indication that a VM requiring a set of resources is sought to be hosted, a machine node having available the set of resources is identified based on the distributed information. The VM is then provisioned/hosted on the identified machine node. The maintenance of the resource availability information distributed across multiple management nodes enables the solution to be scaled for use in environments having a large number of nodes.

Claims

1. A method of selecting suitable nodes to host virtual machines (VMs) in a grid containing a plurality of nodes, wherein said plurality of nodes includes a set of machine nodes capable of hosting VMs, said method comprising:

maintaining information indicating corresponding resources available for hosting VMs in each of said set of machine nodes, wherein said information is maintained distributed over a set of management nodes contained in said plurality of nodes;

receiving an indication that a first VM requiring a first set of resources is sought to be hosted;

identifying based on said distributed information a first machine node having available said first set of resources, wherein said first machine node is contained in said set of machine nodes; and

provisioning said first VM on said first machine node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said maintaining further comprises storing a resource availability data for each machine node on a management node which is determined according to a convention which maps each value of available resources to a corresponding management node,

wherein said identifying comprises:

determining a first management node storing information on machine nodes having said first set of resource according to said convention; and

examining the data stored in said first management node to ascertain said first machine node as having available said first set of resources,

wherein said first management node is contained in said set of management nodes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said convention comprises:

a first hash which generates a corresponding one of a set of hashed identifiers for each value of the available resources; and

a second hash which generates a corresponding one of said set of hashed identifiers for each node identifier, wherein each node identifier uniquely identifies a corresponding one of said set of management nodes,

wherein a first value of available resources is mapped to said first management node, if the same hashed identifier is generated by both of said first hash and said second hash based respectively on said first value and a node identifier of said first management node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said set of hashed identifiers are in a sequential order, wherein said convention further comprises:

if said first management node is unavailable, determining a second management node contained in said set of management nodes whose hashed identifier is a successor to the hashed identifier of said first management node according to said sequential order,

wherein said storing stores said first value in said second management node if said first management node is unavailable, and

wherein said examining examines said second management node if said first management node is unavailable.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said resource availability data for a machine node comprises a maximum size of a VM that can be supported by the machine node and a load factor indicating the load that can be sustained by the machine node under peak usage.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said maximum size is specified as a combination of a measure of the processor time available in the machine node and an amount of memory available in the machine node.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a value of available resource comprises a range of load factors and combinations of the measure of the processor time and the amount of memory.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the value of available resource further comprises a geographical location of the machine node.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending the resource availability data as a corresponding advertisement from each machine node to a corresponding management node,

wherein the corresponding management node determines the specific one of said set of management nodes according to said convention, to store the advertisement.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the advertisement is in the form of a Resource Data Format (RDF) triple containing a subject, a predicate and an object,

wherein said maximum size is specified as the subject of said RDF triple, the load factor is specified as the predicate of said RDF triple and an identifier of said machine node is specified as the object of said RDF triple.

11. A computing system comprising:

a set of machine nodes capable of hosting virtual machines (VMs);

a set of management nodes operable to;

maintain distributed information indicating corresponding resources available for hosting VMs in each of said set of machine nodes,

receive an indication that a first VM requiring a first set of resources is sought to be hosted; and

identify based on said distributed information a first machine node having available said first set of resources, wherein said first machine node is contained in said set of machine nodes; and

a scheduler system to send said indication and to provision said first VM on said first machine node after said identify operation.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein a resource availability data for each machine node is stored on a management node which is determined according to a convention which maps each value of available resources to a corresponding management node,

wherein to perform said identify operation, said set of management nodes are further operable to:

determine a first management node storing information on machine nodes having said first set of resource according to said convention; and

examine the data stored in said first management node to ascertain said first machine node as having available said first set of resources,

wherein said first management node is contained in said set of management nodes.

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein said convention comprises:

a first hash which generates a corresponding one of a set of hashed identifiers for each value of the available resources; and

a second hash which generates a corresponding one of said set of hashed identifiers for each node identifier, wherein each node identifier uniquely identifies a corresponding one of said set of management nodes,

wherein a first value of available resources is mapped to said first management node, if the same hashed identifier is generated by both of said first hash and said second hash based respective on said first value and a node identifier of said first management node.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein said set of hashed identifiers are in a sequential order, wherein said convention further comprises:

if said first management node is unavailable, determining a second management node contained in said set of management nodes whose hashed identifier is a successor to the hashed identifier of said first management node according to said sequential order,

wherein said first value is stored in said second management node if said first management node is unavailable, and

wherein said set of management nodes are operable to further examine said second management node if said first management node is unavailable.

15. The computing system of claim 12, wherein said resource availability data for a machine node comprises a maximum size of a VM that can be supported by the machine node and a load factor indicating the load that can be sustained by the machine node under peak usage,

wherein said maximum size is specified as a combination of a measure of the processor time available in the machine node and an amount of memory available in the machine node.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the resource availability data is sent as a corresponding advertisement from each machine node to a corresponding management node,

wherein the corresponding management node determines the specific one of said set of management nodes according to said convention, to store the advertisement.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the advertisement is in the form of a Resource Data Format (RDF) triple containing a subject, a predicate and an object,

wherein said maximum size is specified as the subject of said RDF triple, the load factor is specified as the predicate of said RDF triple and an identifier of said machine node is specified as the object of said RDF triple.

18. A machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for causing a management node to facilitate selection of suitable nodes to host virtual machines (VMs) in a grid containing a plurality of nodes, wherein said plurality of nodes includes a set of machine nodes capable of hosting VMs, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors contained in said management node causes said management node to perform the actions of:

maintaining only a portion of total information indicating corresponding resources available for hosting VMs in each of said set of machine nodes;

receiving a request to indicate a machine node having available a first set of resources;

examining said portion to identify a first machine node having available said first set of resources, wherein said first machine node is contained in said set of machine nodes; and

sending a response indicating that said first machine node has said first set of resources available.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a second request to indicate a machine node having available a second set of resources;

determining that said portion does not identify any machine nodes having available said second set of resources; and

forwarding said second request to another management node maintaining another portion of said total information.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein said portion and said another portion comprises resource availability data for machine nodes which are determined according to a convention which maps each value of available resources to a corresponding management node.

21. The machine readable medium of claim 20, wherein said convention comprises:

a first hash which generates a corresponding one of a set of hashed identifiers for each value of the available resources; and

a second hash which generates a corresponding one of said set of hashed identifiers for each node identifier, wherein each node identifier uniquely identifies a corresponding one of a set of management nodes including said management node and said another management node,

wherein said portion comprises resource availability data for machine nodes having a first value of available resources, wherein the same hashed identifier is generated by both of said first hash and said second hash based respective on said first value and a node identifier of said management node,

wherein said another portion comprises resource availability data for machine nodes having a second value of available resources, wherein the same hashed identifier is generated by both of said first hash and said second hash based respective on said second value and a node identifier of said another management node.

22. The machine readable medium of claim 21, wherein said set of hashed identifiers are in a sequential order, wherein said forwarding forwards said second request to said another management node whose hashed identifier is a successor to the hashed identifier of said management node according to said sequential order,

23. The machine readable medium of claim 20, wherein said resource availability data for a machine node comprises a maximum size of a VM that can be supported by the machine node and a load factor indicating the load that can be sustained by the machine node under peak usage,

wherein said maximum size is specified as a combination of a measure of the processor time available in the machine node and an amount of memory available in the machine node.

24. The machine readable medium of claim 23, wherein the resource availability data is received as a corresponding advertisement from each machine node in the form of a Resource Data Format (RDF) triple containing a subject, a predicate and an object,

wherein said maximum size is specified as the subject of said RDF triple, the load factor is specified as the predicate of said RDF triple and an identifier of said machine node is specified as the object of said RDF triple.