VIRTUAL MACHINE ALLOCATION

• US 20130007738A1
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McCloy, Ian J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,982 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 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• 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: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0008 Synchronisation information channels, e.g. clock distribution lines
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method and technique for virtual machine allocation is disclosed. The method includes: responsive to receiving a request to execute a virtual machine, determining a geophysical location of a host for the virtual machine; determining a geophysical policy for the virtual machine; determining whether the geophysical policy for the virtual machine corresponds to the geophysical location of the host for the virtual machine; and responsive to determining that the geophysical policy for the virtual machine corresponds to the geophysical location of the host, executing the virtual machine.

Claims

1. A virtual machine allocation method, comprising:

responsive to receiving a request to execute a virtual machine, determining a geophysical location of a host for the virtual machine;

determining a geophysical policy for the virtual machine;

determining whether the geophysical policy for the virtual machine corresponds to the geophysical location of the host for the virtual machine; and

responsive to determining that the geophysical policy for the virtual machine corresponds to the geophysical location of the host, executing the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring geophysical data from a global positioning system unit coupled to the host; and

determining the geophysical location of the host from the geophysical data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the geophysical location of the host based on a radio signal received from an atomic clock source.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a frequency of the received radio signal; and

determining a geophysical location of the atomic clock source based on the frequency.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating with at least one regional peering host;

analyzing signal latency of communications with the regional peering host; and

determining the geophysical location of the host for the virtual machine based on the signal latency.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request to execute the virtual machine comprises receiving the request by a hypervisor of a cloud environment.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, responsive to determining that the geophysical policy for the virtual machine does not correspond to the geophysical location of the host, generating an alert indicating non-execution of the virtual machine.

8. A method for virtual machine allocation, comprising:

responsive to receiving a request to execute a virtual machine on a host, determining a geophysical policy for the virtual machine, the geophysical policy identifying a geophysical location where the virtual machine is executable;

accessing stored geophysical data indicating a geophysical location of the host;

verifying the integrity of the geophysical data;

responsive to positively verifying the integrity of the geophysical data, determining whether the geophysical policy for the virtual machine corresponds to the geophysical location of the host; and

responsive to determining that the geophysical policy for the virtual machine corresponds to the geophysical location of the host, executing the virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein verifying the integrity of the geophysical data comprises:

acquiring geophysical data from a global positioning system unit coupled to the host; and

comparing the stored geophysical data to the geophysical data acquired from the global positioning system unit.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein verifying the integrity of the geophysical data comprises:

determining a frequency of a radio signal received from an atomic clock source;

determining a geophysical location of the atomic clock source based on the frequency; and

comparing the geophysical location of the atomic clock source to the stored geophysical data.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein verifying the integrity of the geophysical data comprises:

communicating with at least one regional peering host;

analyzing signal latency of communications with the regional peering host; and

verifying the geophysical location of the host for the virtual machine based on the signal latency.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising, responsive to determining that the geophysical policy for the virtual machine does not correspond to the geophysical location of the host, generating an alert indicating non-execution of the virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving the request to execute the virtual machine comprises receiving the request by a hypervisor of a cloud environment.