OPTIMIZED DEPLOYMENT AND REPLICATION OF VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20120240110A1
• Filed: 03/16/2011
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Breitgand, David, Loy, Irit, Nagin, Kenneth, Rochwerger, Benny, Silvera, Ezra
• Granted Patent: US 8,793,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions

Abstract

Systems and methods for deploying a virtual machine (VM) on a host are provided. An exemplary method comprises notifying a host to download a master copy of a VM image from a remotely located network storage device, in response to a service provider providing a definition manifest for a service request supported by the VM, wherein the host deploys the VM directly from the VM image downloaded to a storage medium locally connected to the host machine, wherein deployment of the VM allows the host to locally service the service request associated with the definition manifest, wherein the host replicates copies of the VM image, in response to receiving additional service requests to create one or more VM clones; wherein the host customizes the one or more VM clones based on the definition manifest.

Claims

1. A method for deploying a virtual machine (VM) on a host, the method comprising:

notifying a host to download a master copy of a VM image from a remotely located network storage device, in response to a service provider providing a definition manifest for a service request supported by the VM,

wherein the host deploys the VM directly from the VM image downloaded to a storage medium locally connected to the host machine,

wherein deployment of the VM allows the host to locally service the service request associated with the definition manifest,

wherein the host replicates copies of the VM image, in response to receiving additional service requests to create one or more VM clones;

wherein the host customizes the one or more VM clones based on the definition manifest.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on the storage medium locally connected to the host machine, in response to determining that the network bandwidth is less than a threshold level.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on a shared storage device, in response to determining that the network bandwidth is greater than a threshold level.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more VM clones are cloned by the host by way of copy-on-write procedure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more VM clones are created from a single master image.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein a background synchronization policy is implemented to maximize chances of having blocks of the one or more VM clones when the blocks are referenced for writing.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one copy of the VM image is cloned by the host by way of copy-on-write procedure prior to receiving an additional service request for services provided by the VM deployed by the host.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on a direct attached storage (DAS) device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on a shared storage area network (SAN) device or a shared network attached storage (NAS) device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the host determines how often or how many copies of the VM image are to be cloned.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more VM clones are synchronized in the background after the copy-on-write procedure is initiated.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the master copy of the VM image is copied by the host from one or more peer hosts.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein two or more hosts download concurrently and independently download the master copy of the VM image.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the master copy of the VM image is downloaded from one or more peer hosts.

15. A method for deploying a virtual machine (VM) on a host, the method comprising:

downloading a master copy of a VM image from a remotely located network storage device to a proxy host coupled to one or more other hosts, in response to a service provider providing a definition manifest for a service request supported by the VM;

notifying the one or more other hosts to download the master copy of the VM image from the proxy host,

wherein the proxy host deploys the VM directly from the VM image downloaded to a storage medium locally connected to the host machine,

wherein deployment of the VM allows the proxy host to locally service the service request associated with the definition manifest,

wherein the proxy host replicates copies of the VM image, in response to receiving additional service requests to create one or more VM clones;

wherein the proxy host customizes the one or more VM clones based on the definition manifest.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on the storage medium locally connected to the host machine, in response to determining that the network bandwidth is less than a threshold level.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on a shared storage device, in response to determining that the network bandwidth is greater than a threshold level.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more VM clones are cloned by the host by way of copy-on-write procedure.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more VM clones are created from a single master image.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein a background synchronization policy is implemented to maximize chances of having blocks of the one or more VM clones when the blocks are referenced for writing.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one copy of the VM image is cloned by the host by way of the copy-on-write procedure prior to receiving an additional service request for services provided by the VM deployed by the host.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on a direct attached storage (DAS) device.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more VM clones are cached by the host on a shared storage area network (SAN) device or a shared network attached storage (NAS) device.

24. A system for deploying a virtual machine (VM) on a host, the system comprising:

a logic unit for notifying a host to download a master copy of a VM image from a remotely located network storage device, in response to a service provider providing a definition manifest for a service request supported by the VM,

wherein the host deploys the VM directly from the VM image downloaded to a storage medium locally connected to the host machine,

wherein deployment of the VM allows the host to locally service the service request associated with the definition manifest,

wherein the host replicates copies of the VM image, in response to receiving additional service requests to create one or more VM clones;

wherein the host customizes the one or more VM clones based on the definition manifest.

25. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

notify a host to download a master copy of a VM image from a remotely located network storage device, in response to a service provider providing a definition manifest for a service request supported by the VM,

wherein the host deploys the VM directly from the VM image downloaded to a storage medium locally connected to the host machine,

wherein deployment of the VM allows the host to locally service the service request associated with the definition manifest,

wherein the host replicates copies of the VM image, in response to receiving additional service requests to create one or more VM clones;

wherein the host customizes the one or more VM clones based on the definition manifest.