MIGRATION OF VIRTUAL MACHINE POOL

• US 20130086580A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: V3 Systems Holdings, Inc. (Sphere 3D Corporation)
• Original Assignee: V3 Systems, Inc. (UnitedHealth Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Simonsen, Harold C., Youngberg, David E., McCullagh, Thomas S., Snelgrove, Ashton R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,215 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1407 Checkpointing the instruction stream
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/16 Protection against loss of memory contents contains no material, see G06F11/00
• 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 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• 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 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

Migration of a pool of virtual machines to a target physical machine. The virtual machines were all provisioned into an initial state using a master image. Thereafter, changes to the state were reflected in corresponding user delta collections for each of the virtual machines. In preparation for the migration to the target physical machine, a pool is allocated on the target machine. The target pool is associated with the same master image as the source pool. The virtual machines are provisioned within the target pool based on the master image. The virtual machines in the target pool are then connected to the corresponding user delta collection, allowing the virtual machines to continue in the same state in the target machine as when they operated in while last operating in the source machine. The target machine may be as master service provider.

Claims

1. A method for migrating a plurality of virtual machines from a source physical support environment to a target physical support environment, the method comprising:

an act of detecting that a source plurality of virtual machines that operate in a source physical support environment is to be migrated from the source physical support environment,

wherein the source plurality of virtual machines each operate in a source pool in which each of the source plurality of virtual machines is initially provisioned from a master image, and further wherein each of the source plurality of virtual machines has an associated user delta collection that captures at least some user changes to virtual machine state made since the corresponding virtual machine was initially provisioned within the source pool, each user delta collection being on shared storage shared by both the source physical support environment and the target physical support environment;

an act of allocating a target pool on a target physical support environment;

an act of associating the target pool with the master image;

an act of provisioning a target plurality of virtual machines with the master image, each of the target plurality of virtual machines corresponding to a respective one of the source plurality of virtual machines; and

an act of unlocking the corresponding user delta collection associated with each of the source plurality of virtual machines such that the corresponding user delta collection is made accessible to the corresponding one of the target plurality of virtual machines.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the source physical support environment is a first source physical support environment, the source plurality of virtual machines is a first source plurality of virtual machines, the source pool is a first source pool, the target physical support environment is a first target physical support environment, the target plurality of virtual machines is a first target plurality of virtual machines, the target pool is a first target pool, and the master image is a first master image, the method further comprising:

an act of detecting that a second source plurality of virtual machines that operate in a second source physical support environment is to be migrated from the second source physical support environment,

wherein the second source plurality of virtual machines each operate in a second source pool in which each of the second source plurality of virtual machines is initially provisioned from a second master image, and further wherein each of the second source plurality of virtual machines has an associated user delta collection that captures at least some user changes to virtual machine state made since the corresponding virtual machine was initially provisioned within the second source pool, each user delta collection of the second source plurality of virtual machines being on shared storage shared by both the second source physical support environment and the second target physical support environment;

an act of allocating a second target pool on a second target physical support environment;

an act of associating the second target pool with the second master image;

an act of provisioning a second target plurality of virtual machines with the second master image, each of the second target plurality of virtual machines corresponding to a respective one of the second source plurality of virtual machines; and

an act of unlocking the corresponding user delta collection associated with each of the second source plurality of virtual machines such that the corresponding user delta collection is made accessible to the corresponding one of the second target plurality of virtual machines.

3. The method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the first source pool and the second source pool are different source pools, but wherein the first target pool and the second target pool are the same target pool.

4. The method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the first source pool and the second source pool are the same source pool, but wherein the first target pool and the second target pool are different target pools.

5. The method in accordance with claim 2, wherein the first source physical support environment and the second source physical support environment are on different physical machines, but the first target physical support environment and the second target physical support environment is on the same target physical machine.

6. The method in accordance with claim 5, wherein the target physical machine is a master service provider that provides migration services to a plurality of source physical support environments.

7. The method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the target physical machine has enough storage to accommodate master images for each source pool in each of the plurality of source physical support environments, but does not have enough processing power to perform an act of operating a corresponding target pool for all of the source pools simultaneously.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of detecting that a source plurality of virtual machines that operate in a source physical support environment is to be migrated from the source physical support environment, comprises:

an act of determining that performance of the source physical support environment has at least deteriorated.

9. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising the following prior to the act of detecting:

an act of allocating the source pool on the source physical support environment;

an act of associating the source pool with the master image;

an act of provisioning a source plurality of virtual machines with the master image, each of the source plurality of virtual machines corresponding to a respective one of the source plurality of virtual machines;

an act of operating the source plurality of virtual images to thereby generate the corresponding user delta collection for each of the source plurality of virtual machines.

10. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the user delta collections are each user data disks.

11. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the shared storage comprises replicated storage.

12. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of allocating the target pool occurs after the act of detecting.

13. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of allocating the target pool occurs before the act of detecting.

14. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of disabling the source pool after the act of detecting, wherein the act of disabling causes the each of the source plurality of virtual machines to no longer have access to the corresponding user delta collection.

15. The method in accordance with claim 14, wherein the act of disabling occurs before the act of provisioning.

16. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the act of provisioning is accomplished by performing an act of enabling the target pool.

17. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

an act of operating the target pool by running all of the target plurality of virtual machines.

18. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the target pool and the source pool do not completely match with respect to virtualized hardware in that at least one of the target plurality of virtual machines and at least one of the source plurality of virtual machines have at least partially different virtualized hardware.

19. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for migrating a plurality of virtual machines to a target physical support environment, the method comprising:

an act of allocating a target pool on a target physical support environment, the target pool corresponding to a source pool;

an act of associating the target pool with a master image corresponding to the source pool;

an act of provisioning a target plurality of virtual machines with the master image, each of the target plurality of virtual machines corresponding to a respective source virtual machines that operated in the source pool; and

an act of unlocking a corresponding user delta collection associated with each of the source virtual machines such that the corresponding user delta collection is made accessible to the corresponding one of the target plurality of virtual machines,

wherein each user delta collection captures changes to virtual machine state made since the corresponding source virtual machine was initially provisioned within the source pool.

20. The computer program product in accordance with claim 19, wherein the target pool is matched to the source pool.

21. The computer program product in accordance with claim 20, wherein the target pool has the same hardware resources as the source pool.

22. The computer program product in accordance with claim 20, wherein the target pool has the same number of virtual machines allocated in the target pool as there were allocated in the source pool.