EMULATING A DATA CENTER NETWORK ON A SINGLE PHYSICAL HOST WITH SUPPORT FOR VIRTUAL MACHINE MOBILITY

• US 20130263118A1
• Filed: 03/29/2012
• Published: 10/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kannan, Kalapriya, Mann, Vijay, Vishnoi, Anil Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,949,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45566 Nested virtual machines
• 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
• 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

Methods and arrangements for emulating a data center network. A first end host and a second end host are provided. A base hypervisor is associated with each of the first and second end hosts, and the first and second end hosts are interconnected. A virtual hypervisor is associated with at least one virtual machine running on at least one of the base hypervisors, and virtual hypervisors are interconnected within one of the first and second end hosts. A virtual machine is nested within the virtual hypervisor, and the virtual machine is migrated from one virtual hypervisor to a destination virtual hypervisor to further be nested within the destination virtual hypervisor.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a first end host and a second end host;

associating a base hypervisor with each of the first and second end hosts;

interconnecting the first and second end hosts;

associating a virtual hypervisor with at least one virtual machine running on at least one of the base hypervisors;

interconnecting virtual hypervisors within one of the first and second end hosts;

nesting a virtual machine within a virtual hypervisor; and

migrating the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to a destination virtual hypervisor to further be nested within the destination virtual hypervisor.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising associating a second virtual hypervisor with at least one virtual machine running on each of the first and second end hosts using nested virtualization.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising nesting a second virtual machine within the second virtual hypervisor of one of the first and second end hosts.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising migrating the second virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

nesting a second virtual machine within a virtual hypervisor of the first end host; and

migrating the second virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

defining a data center network at the first end host; and

said interconnecting comprises interconnecting virtual hypervisors within one of the first and second end hosts via using at least one configurable network element taken from the group consisting of;

software switches;

the data center network.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising emulating multiple network switches and hosts within the data center network via employing network namespaces and virtual ethernet pairs.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

incorporating Mac-in-IP encapsulation at each of the first and second end hosts; and

employing the Mac-in-IP encapsulation of the first and second end hosts to communicatively connect the first and second end hosts at layer-2.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said interconnecting comprises interconnecting the first and second end hosts at layer-2.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising interconnecting virtual hypervisors within an end host via employing at least one taken from the group consisting of:

software switches;

a data center network emulated through network namespaces and virtual ethernet pairs.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said migrating comprises migrating the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor within one of the first or second end hosts.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein said migrating comprises migrating the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor from the first end host to the second end host.

13. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to provide a first end host and a second end host;

computer readable program code configured to associate a base hypervisor with each of the first and second end hosts;

computer readable program code configured to interconnect the first and second end hosts;

computer readable program code configured to associate a virtual hypervisor with at least one virtual machine running on at least one of the base hypervisors;

computer readable program code configured to interconnect virtual hypervisors within one of the first and second end hosts;

computer readable program code configured to nest a virtual machine within a virtual hypervisor; and

computer readable program code configured to migrate the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to a destination virtual hypervisor to further be nested within the destination virtual hypervisor.

14. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to provide a first end host and a second end host;

computer readable program code configured to associate a base hypervisor with each of the first and second end hosts;

computer readable program code configured to interconnect the first and second end hosts;

computer readable program code configured to associate a virtual hypervisor with at least one virtual machine running on at least one of the base hypervisors;

computer readable program code configured to interconnect virtual hypervisors within one of the first and second end hosts;

computer readable program code configured to nest a virtual machine within a virtual hypervisor; and

computer readable program code configured to migrate the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to a destination virtual hypervisor to further be nested within the destination virtual hypervisor.

15. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to associate a second virtual hypervisor with at least one virtual machine running on each of the first and second end hosts using nested virtualization.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to nest a second virtual machine within the second virtual hypervisor of one of the first and second end hosts.

18. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to:

nest a second virtual machine within a virtual hypervisor of the first end host; and

migrate the second virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor.

19. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to:

define a data center network at the first end host; and

interconnect virtual hypervisors within one of the first and second end hosts via using at least one configurable network element taken from the group consisting of;

software switches;

the data center network.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to emulate multiple network switches and hosts within the data center network via employing network namespaces and virtual ethernet pairs.

21. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to:

incorporate Mac-in-IP encapsulation at each of the first and second end hosts; and

employ the Mac-in-IP encapsulation of the first and second end hosts to communicatively connect the first and second end hosts at layer-2.

22. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to interconnect the first and second end hosts at layer-2.

23. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to interconnect virtual hypervisors within an end host via employing at least one taken from the group consisting of:

software switches;

a data center network emulated through network namespaces and virtual ethernet pairs.

24. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to migrate the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor within one of the first or second end hosts.

25. The computer program product according to claim 14, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to migrate the virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor from the first end host to the second end host.

17. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein said computer readable program code is further configured to migrate the second virtual machine from one virtual hypervisor to another virtual hypervisor.