SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RESTARTING A WORKLOAD BASED ON GLOBAL LOAD BALANCING

• US 20120311576A1
• Filed: 06/02/2011
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: SHU, Guoqiang, FARKAS, Keith, MA, Eddie, ZISKIND, Elisha, RAJAGOPAL, Sridhar, JI, Minwen, NELSON, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,984,508 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• 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 9/4818 Priority circuits therefor
• 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 method for restarting a virtual machine in a virtual computing system having a plurality of hosts and a resource scheduler for the plurality of hosts includes writing a placement request for the virtual machine to a shared channel that is accessible by the resource scheduler. The method further includes reading a placement result from the shared channel, wherein the placement result is generated by the resource scheduler responsive to the placement request; and restarting the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result.

Claims

1. A method for restarting a virtual machine in a virtual computing system having a plurality of hosts and a resource scheduler for the plurality of hosts, comprising:

writing a placement request for the virtual machine to a shared channel that is accessible by the resource scheduler;

reading a placement result from the shared channel, wherein the placement result is generated by the resource scheduler responsive to the placement request; and

restarting the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the placement result is based on a resource load of at least one of the plurality of hosts.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising reading a commitment signal from the shared channel, wherein the commitment signal is written to the shared channel by the resource scheduler and indicates that the resource scheduler is able to compute the placement result.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

writing a placement request for a second virtual machine to the shared channel; and

in response to not receiving a commitment signal within a threshold amount of time, writing a cancel signal to the shared channel.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

obtaining a backup placement result for the second virtual machine from a backup placement engine; and

restarting the second virtual machine in accordance with the backup placement result.

6. A method for computing a placement result for a virtual machine in a virtual computing system, comprising:

reading a placement request for the virtual machine from a shared channel;

computing a placement result for the virtual machine based on reading the placement request from the shared channel, wherein the placement result includes information corresponding to a host computer on which the virtual machine is to be restarted; and

writing the placement result to the shared channel, wherein the virtual machine is restarted in accordance with the placement result.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising writing a commitment signal to the shared channel indicating that the placement result can be computed.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein a placement engine in a high availability system (HAS) is configured to restart the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result based on reading the placement result from the shared channel.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

restarting the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result; and

writing a status signal to the shared channel indicating that the virtual machine has been restarted.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein a second virtual machine is not restarted based on the placement result, and a placement engine is configured to restart the second virtual machine in accordance with a backup placement result obtained from a backup placement engine.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein computing the placement result is based on a resource load of at least one of a plurality of hosts configured to execute virtual machines.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed in a computing device, causes the computing device to restart a virtual machine in a virtual computing system having a plurality of hosts and a resource scheduler for the plurality of hosts, by performing the steps of:

writing a placement request for the virtual machine to a shared channel that is accessible by the resource scheduler;

reading a placement result from the shared channel, wherein the placement result is generated by the resource scheduler responsive to the placement request; and

restarting the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the placement result is based on a resource load of at least one of the plurality of hosts.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising reading a commitment signal from the shared channel, wherein the commitment signal is written to the shared channel by the resource scheduler and indicates that the resource scheduler is able to compute the placement result.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising:

writing a placement request for a second virtual machine to the shared channel; and

in response to not receiving a commitment signal within a threshold amount of time, writing a cancel signal to the shared channel.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:

obtaining a backup placement result for the second virtual machine from a backup placement engine; and

restarting the second virtual machine in accordance with the backup placement result.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed in a computing device, causes the computing device to compute a placement result for a virtual machine in a virtual computing system, by performing the steps of:

reading a placement request for the virtual machine from a shared channel;

computing a placement result for the virtual machine based on reading the placement request from the shared channel, wherein the placement result includes information corresponding to a host computer on which the virtual machine is to be restarted; and

writing the placement result to the shared channel, wherein the virtual machine is restarted in accordance with the placement result.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising writing a commitment signal to the shared channel indicating that the placement result can be computed.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein a placement engine in a high availability system (HAS) is configured to restart the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result based on reading the placement result from the shared channel.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, further comprising:

restarting the virtual machine in accordance with the placement result; and

writing a status signal to the shared channel indicating that the virtual machine has been restarted.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein a second virtual machine is not restarted based on the placement result, and a placement engine is configured to restart the second virtual machine in accordance with a backup placement result obtained from a backup placement engine.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein computing the placement result is based on a resource load of at least one of a plurality of hosts configured to execute virtual machines.