Mechanism for Inter-Cloud Live Migration of Virtualization Systems

• US 20120311568A1
• 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: Jansen, Gerardus T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,460 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

A mechanism for inter-cloud live migration of virtualization systems is disclosed. A method of the invention includes receiving notification that live migration of a virtual machine (VM) has completed, wherein the VM is migrated from a source host computing machine on a source cloud to a target host computing machine on a target cloud, receiving requests sent to a previous IP address of the VM associated with the source cloud, the requests routed over a layer-2 (L2) network tunnel established between the source cloud and the target cloud, configuring a new network interface with a new Internet Protocol (IP) address for the VM to receive requests directly via a communication connection of the target cloud, and simultaneously handling the requests at both of the previous IP address received via the L2 network tunnel and the new IP address via the communication connection of the target cloud.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine (VM) migrated from a source host computing machine on a source cloud to a target host computing machine on a target cloud, notification that live migration of the VM has completed;

receiving, by the VM, requests sent to a previous IP address of the VM associated with the source cloud, the requests routed over a layer-2 (L2) network tunnel established between the source cloud and the target cloud;

configuring, by the VM, a new network interface with a new Internet Protocol (IP) address for the VM to receive requests directly via a communication connection of the target cloud; and

simultaneously handling, by the VM, the requests at both of the previous IP address received via the L2 network tunnel and the new IP address via the communication connection of the target cloud.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a VM agent of the VM is dedicated to receiving the notification, receiving the requests, configuring the new network interface, and simultaneously handling the requests.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the new network interface further comprises:

establishing the new IP address for the VM;

creating a new default gateway for the VM; and

initiating an update to a name resolution service for the VM and its new associated IP address.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the name resolution service is Domain Name Service (DNS).

5. The method of claim 3, wherein creating a new default gateway further comprises keeping a previous default gateway of the VM open to receive communications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the L2 network tunnel is torn down and requests are no longer received at the VM under the previous IP address when one or more policy requirements are satisfied.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more policy requirements include one or more of a predetermined time interval passing, a minimum number of existing connections existing on the L2 network tunnel, and a minimum percentage of existing connections existing on the L2 network tunnel.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM is configured to listen on a wildcard IP address in order to receive the requests under the new IP address.

9. A system, comprising:

a processing device;

a memory communicably coupled to the processing device; and

a virtual machine (VM) migration module executed from the memory by the processing device, the VM migration module configured to;

initiate a live migration of a VM from a host machine on a source cloud to a host machine on a target cloud;

establish a layer-2 (L2) network tunnel between the source and the target clouds for routing of requests sent to a previous IP address of the VM associated with the source cloud to the VM on the target cloud;

monitor L2 network tunnel for communications to the VM via the previous IP address; and

tear down the L2 network tunnel if one or more policy requirements are satisfied regarding the monitored communications on the L2 network tunnel.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the VM migration agent further configured to instruct a hypervisor of the host machine on the source cloud to begin a state transfer of the VM to the host machine on the target cloud subsequent to the L2 network tunnel being established.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the VM migration agent further configured to notify a VM agent on the host machine on the target cloud when the state transfer of the VM has completed.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more policy requirements include one or more of a predetermined time interval passing, a minimum number of existing connections existing on the L2 network tunnel, and a minimum percentage of existing connections existing on the L2 network tunnel.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the VM configures a new network interface with a new Internet Protocol (IP) address for the VM to receive requests directly via a communication connection of the target cloud.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the VM simultaneously handles the requests at both of the previous IP address received via the L2 network tunnel and the new IP address via the communication connection of the target cloud.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the VM configuring the new network interface further comprises to VM to:

establish the new IP address for the VM;

create a new default gateway for the VM; and

initiate an update to a name resolution service for the VM and its new associated IP address.

16. An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving notification that live migration of a virtual machine (VM) has completed, wherein the VM is migrated from a source host computing machine on a source cloud to a target host computing machine on a target cloud;

receiving requests sent to a previous IP address of the VM associated with the source cloud, the requests routed over a layer-2 (L2) network tunnel established between the source cloud and the target cloud;

configuring a new network interface with a new Internet Protocol (IP) address for the VM to receive requests directly via a communication connection of the target cloud; and

simultaneously handling the requests at both of the previous IP address received via the L2 network tunnel and the new IP address via the communication connection of the target cloud.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein a VM agent of the VM is dedicated to receiving the notification, receiving the requests, configuring the new network interface, and simultaneously handling the requests.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein configuring the new network interface further comprises:

establishing the new IP address for the VM;

creating a new default gateway for the VM; and

initiating an update to a name resolution service for the VM and its new associated IP address.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the L2 network tunnel is torn down and requests are no longer received at the VM under the previous IP address when one or more policy requirements are satisfied.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein the one or more policy requirements include one or more of a predetermined time interval passing, a minimum number of existing connections existing on the L2 network tunnel, and a minimum percentage of existing connections existing on the L2 network tunnel.