VIRTUALIZATION AND DYNAMIC RESOURCE ALLOCATION AWARE STORAGE LEVEL REORDERING

• US 20110283277A1
• Filed: 05/11/2010
• Published: 11/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Isci, Canturk, Castillo, Claris
• Application Number:
  US12/777,394
• Publication Number:
  US 20110283277A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/08 in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/657 Virtual address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• 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 system and method for reordering storage levels in a virtualized environment includes identifying a virtual machine (VM) to be transitioned and determining a new storage level order for the VM. The new storage level order reduces a VM live state during a transition, and accounts for hierarchical shared storage memory and criteria imposed by an application to reduce recovery operations after dynamic resource allocation actions. The new storage level order recommendation is propagated to VMs. The new storage level order applied in the VMs. A different storage-level order is recommended after the transition.

Claims

1. A method for reordering storage levels in a virtualized environment, comprising:

identifying a virtual machine (VM) to be transitioned;

determining a new storage level order for the VM that reduces a VM live state during a transition, and accounts for hierarchical shared storage memory and criteria imposed by an application to reduce recovery operations after dynamic resource allocation actions;

propagating the new storage level order recommendation to VMs and applying the new storage level order in the VMs; and

recommending a different storage-level order after the transition.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the application includes memory intensive applications in the form of in-memory data grids (IMDGs).

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the IMDGs have distinct operation modes for a normal mode, a transition mode when a storage level is reordered, and a recovery mode to return to normal operation after the transition mode.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining a new storage level order includes evaluating storage level conditions by a virtualization resource manager (VRM) using a storage resource manager (SRM), which provides profile information for different storage levels.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the VRM decides on dynamic resource allocation actions, and produces storage level reordering recommendations for different VMs.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

mediating between the IMDG nodes and the VRM using a virtualization- and dynamic-resource-allocation-aware storage level reordering (VSLR) module, wherein the VSLR module propagates VRM recommendations to each IMDG node and monitors IMDG actions and reports current behavior to the VRM.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the IMDGs employ at least one additional intelligent self-regulation mechanism to dynamically choose a storage level order based on VSLR recommendations and local optimality criteria.

8. A computer readable storage medium comprising a computer readable program for reordering storage levels in a virtualized environment, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform the steps of:

identifying a virtual machine (VM) to be transitioned;

determining a new storage level order for the VM that reduces a VM live state during a transition, and accounts for hierarchical shared storage memory and criteria imposed by an application to reduce recovery operations after dynamic resource allocation actions;

propagating the new storage level order recommendation to VMs and applying the new storage level order in the VMs; and

recommending a different storage-level order after the transition.

9. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 8, wherein the application includes memory intensive applications in the form of in-memory data grids (IMDGs).

10. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 9, wherein the IMDGs have distinct operation modes for a normal mode, a transition mode when a storage level is reordered, and a recovery mode to return to normal operation after the transition mode.

11. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 8, wherein determining a new storage level order includes evaluating storage level conditions by a virtualization resource manager (VRM) using a storage resource manager (SRM), which provides profile information for different storage levels.

12. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the VRM decides on dynamic resource allocation actions, and produces storage level reordering recommendations for different VMs.

13. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 12, further comprising mediating between the IMDG nodes and the VRM using a virtualization- and dynamic-resource-allocation-aware storage level reordering (VSLR) module, wherein the VSLR module propagates VRM recommendations to each IMDG node and monitors IMDG actions and reports current behavior to the VRM.

14. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 13, wherein the IMDGs employ at least one additional intelligent self-regulation mechanism to dynamically choose a storage level order based on VSLR recommendations and local optimality criteria.

15. A method for reordering storage levels in a virtualized environment, comprising:

identifying a virtual machine (VM) to be reprovisioned or repositioned to a new location;

retrieving profiling information regarding usage and availability of multiple storage levels and devices;

determining a new storage level order for the VM using the profiling information that reduces a VM live state during a migration transfer or reprovisioning and accounts for at least shared storage memory, VM virtual disk locations and service level agreement (SLA) requirements imposed by an application to reduce recovery operations after dynamic resource allocation actions;

propagating the new storage level order recommendation to VMs and applying the new storage level order in the VMs;

reverting back to an original storage-level order after the reprovisioning or repositioning actions;

computing resource allocation for a current cluster state to determine whether further reprovisioning or repositioning of VMs is needed; and

continuing the method until further VM reprovisioning or repositioning is complete.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the application includes memory intensive applications in the form of in memory data grids (IMDGs), wherein the IMDGs have distinct operation modes for a normal mode, a transition mode when a storage level is reordered, and a recovery mode to return to normal operation after the transition mode.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein determining a new storage level order includes evaluating storage level conditions by a virtualization resource manager (VRM) using a storage resource manager (SRM), which provides profile information for different storage levels, wherein the VRM decides on dynamic resource allocation actions, and produces storage level reordering recommendations for different VMs.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

mediating between the IMDG nodes and the VRM using a virtualization- and dynamic-resource-allocation-aware storage level reordering (VSLR) module, wherein the VSLR module propagates VRM recommendations to each IMDG node and monitors IMDG actions and reports current behavior to the VRM.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the IMDGs employ at least one additional intelligent self-regulation mechanism to dynamically choose a storage level order based on VSLR recommendations and local optimality criteria.

20. A system for dynamically reordering storage levels for applications in virtualized systems, comprising:

a virtual machine to be reprovisioned or repositioned, stored in a memory storage device;

a virtualized resource manager (VRM) configured to recommend a new storage level order in a memory media hierarchy for the VM that reduces a VM live state during reprovisioning or migration, accounts for storage levels based upon profiling information, and reduces recovery operations after dynamic resource allocation actions; and

a virtualization- and dynamic-resource-allocation-aware storage level reordering (VSLR) module configured to propagate and apply the new storage level order recommendation to appropriate memory intensive VMs such that reordering mitigates the performance overhead of VM reprovisioning or repositioning actions.

21. The system as recited in claim 20, wherein the memory intensive VMs are in the form of in memory data grids (IMDGs).

22. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the IMDG includes distinct operation modes including a normal mode, a transition mode when the storage level is reordered, and a recovery mode to return to normal operation after the transition mode.

23. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the VSLR module acts as a mediator between an IMDG node and the VRM such that the VSLR module propagates VRM recommendations to each IMDG node and the VSLR module monitors IMDG actions and reports current behavior to the VRM.

24. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the IMDG node is configured to employ a self-regulation mechanism to dynamically choose its storage level order based on VSLR recommendations and its local optimality criteria.

25. The system as recited in claim 20, further comprising:

a storage resource manager (SRM) configured to provide the profile information for different storage levels to assist the VRM in making its recommendations.