SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TRIGGERING WORKLOAD MOVEMENT BASED ON POLICY STACK HAVING MULTIPLE SELECTABLE INPUTS

• US 20120311154A1
• Filed: 05/31/2011
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Morgan, Christopher Edwin
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,723 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for triggering workload movement based on a policy stack having multiple selectable inputs. A set of aggregate usage history data can record consumption of processor, software, or other resources subscribed to by one or more users in a or clouds. An entitlement engine can analyze the usage history data to identify a subscription margin and other trends or data reflecting short-term consumption trends. An associated policy management tool can receive, build, and update a migration policy stack containing a set of configurable policies that can be applied to the conditions of the workload to determine whether, when, and where to migrate the workload or portions thereof to a new cloud host or hosts. In aspects, the policy stack can include user-selectable policy parameters, such as resource consumption thresholds and/or subscription time periods, which can dynamically vary and/or which can be expressed as functions of other policies or resource-consumption variables. In aspects, the policy stack can have different depths and different individual policies at different times and/or under different operating conditions.

Claims

1. A method of managing workload migration policies, comprising:

accessing a set of usage history data for a set of resources consumed by a set of virtual machines executing a workload in at least one host cloud;

generating a migration policy stack based on a set of user-selected policy parameters, wherein the set of user-supplied policy parameters comprises a set of multiple selectable inputs; and

scheduling the migration of the workload to the at least one target cloud based on the migration policy stack and the set of usage history data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the migration policy stack comprises a set of resource consumption thresholds.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the migration policy stack comprises the exceeding of at least two of the set of resource consumption thresholds over time different time periods.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of resource consumption thresholds comprises at least one resource consumption threshold that is a function of a workload performance parameter.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the workload performance parameter comprises a transaction rate by at least one of the set of virtual machines configured as a transaction server.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of resource consumption thresholds is time-time-dependent.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of multiple selectable inputs comprises a set of multiple selectable inputs presented to a user via a graphical interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the set of user-selected policy parameters is a function of at least one other of the set of user-selected policy parameters.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising an updated migration policy stack based on an updated set of usage history data incorporating resource consumption in the migrated workload.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of user-selected policy parameters comprises at least one policy parameter automatically generated based on the set of usage history data.

11. A system for distributing cloud workloads, comprising:

an interface to data store storing a set of usage history data for a set of virtual machines consuming a set of resources executing a workload in at least one host cloud; and

a processor, communicating with the data store via the interface and being configured to

access the set of usage history data for a set of resources consumed by the set of virtual machines executing the workload,

generate a migration policy stack based on a set of user-selected policy parameters, wherein the set of user-supplied policy parameters comprises a set of multiple selectable inputs, and

schedule the migration of the workload to the at least one target cloud based on the migration policy stack and the set of usage history data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the migration policy stack comprises a set of resource consumption thresholds.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the migration policy stack comprises the exceeding of at least two of the set of resource consumption thresholds over time different time periods.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of resource consumption thresholds comprises at least one resource consumption threshold that is a function of a workload performance parameter.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the workload performance parameter comprises a transaction rate by at least one of the set of virtual machines configured as a transaction server.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of resource consumption thresholds is time-dependent.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of multiple selectable inputs comprises a set of multiple selectable inputs presented to a user via a graphical interface.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the set of user-selected policy parameters is a function of at least one other of the set of user-selected policy parameters.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to update the migration policy stack based on an updated set of usage history data incorporating resource consumption in the migrated workload.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the set of user-selected policy parameters comprises at least one policy parameter automatically generated based on the set of usage history data.