Virtual Machine Placement With Automatic Deployment Error Recovery

• US 20130297964A1
• Filed: 05/03/2012
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: HEGDAL, Gururaja, KASALA, Kiran, M.S., Marichetty
• Granted Patent: US 8,843,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0712 in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving 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

Abstract

Embodiments perform automatic selection of hosts and/or datastores for deployment of a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) while monitoring and recovering from errors during deployment. Resource constraints associated with the VMs are compared against resources or characteristics of available hosts and datastores. A VM placement engine selects an optimal set of hosts/datastores and initiates VM creation automatically or in response to administrator authorization. During deployment, available resources are monitored enabling dynamic improvement of the set of recommended hosts/datastores and automatic recovery from errors occurring during deployment.

Claims

1. A system for automatically selecting hosts and datastores for deployment of a plurality of virtual machines (VMs), said system comprising:

a memory area associated with a computing device, said memory area storing an inventory of hosts and datastores, said inventory describing resources associated with the hosts and datastores; and

a processor programmed to;

receive a request to select, for a plurality of VMs, one or more candidate hosts and one or more candidate datastores from the inventory stored in the memory area, said request identifying a source VM;

determine resource requirements for the plurality of VMs based on the identified source VM; and

select, for each of the plurality of VMs, the one or more candidate hosts and the one or more candidate datastores from the inventory of hosts and datastores based on the determined resource requirements and the resources associated with the inventory of hosts and datastores.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the source VM comprises one or more of the following:

a template VM, a virtual application, a virtual appliance, and a VM configuration description.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the resource requirements by determining one or more of the following from the identified source VM:

hardware version, memory, processor resources, storage requirements, VM configuration requirements, and network configuration.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to receive the request by receiving a plurality of requests each having a priority value associated therewith, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine the resource requirements and select the one or more candidate hosts and the one or more candidate datastores for each of the plurality of VMs based on the priority value.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory area further stores at least one identifier corresponding to at least one of the hosts on which none of the plurality of VMs should be deployed.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the received request identifies a threshold quantity of resources to remain available on the selected one or more candidate hosts post-deployment, and wherein the processor is programmed to select the one or more candidate hosts by selecting one or more candidate hosts based at least in part on the identified threshold quantity of resources.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for monitoring the deployment of the plurality of VMs on the selected one or more candidate hosts and the selected one or more candidate datastores.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for automatic error recovery during the deployment of the plurality of VMs on the selected one or more candidate hosts and the selected one or more candidate datastores.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a request to select at least one candidate datastore for a plurality of virtual machines (VMs), said request identifying at least one host and resource requirements associated with the plurality of VMs;

selecting the candidate datastore from a plurality of datastores accessible to the host based on a comparison of the resource requirements and an assessment of resources associated with the plurality of datastores;

deploying at least one of the plurality of VMs on the host and the selected candidate datastore;

updating, during said deploying, the assessment of the resources; and

selecting another candidate datastore accessible to the host based on a comparison of the resource requirements and the updated assessment of the resources.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving the request comprises receiving a request identifying one or more of the following:

a datacenter, a cluster, a folder, and a quantity of the plurality of VMs to be deployed.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising presenting the selected candidate datastore to an administrator for authorization to perform said deploying.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein deploying the at least one of the plurality of VMs comprises automatically deploying at least one of the plurality of VMs.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the received request specifies a time for performing said deploying the at least one of the plurality of VMs, and wherein deploying comprises deploying the at least one of the plurality of VMs at the specified time.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving the request comprises receiving a request identifying a cluster of hosts, and wherein selecting the candidate datastore comprises selecting the candidate datastore from a plurality of datastores accessible to the cluster of hosts.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising performing a post-deployment integrity check by comparing a configuration of the deployed at least one of the plurality of VMs to the resource requirements.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting the candidate datastore comprises scanning the plurality of datastores for one or more of the following:

host compatibility, datastore compatibility, input/output load, memory resources, processor resources, and network port group compatibility.

17. One or more computer-readable storage media including computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to place virtual machines while implementing error recovery by:

receiving a request to select at least one candidate datastore for a plurality of virtual machines (VMs), said request identifying at least one host and resource requirements associated with the plurality of VMs;

selecting the candidate datastore from a plurality of datastores accessible to the host based on a comparison of the resource requirements and an assessment of resources associated with the plurality of datastores;

deploying at least one of the plurality of VMs on the host and the selected candidate datastore;

maintaining, during said deploying, a status log for each of the plurality of VMs;

detecting deployment failure during said deploying; and

resolving the detected deployment failure based at least on the maintained status log.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to resolve the detected deployment failure by:

identifying, based on the maintained status log, one or more of the plurality of VMs not fully deployed;

removing partially-deployed VMs; and

resuming deployment of the identified one or more of the plurality of VMs.

19. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to estimate, based on the maintained status log, time remaining to deploy the plurality of VMs.

20. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to detect the deployment failure by performing a post-deployment integrity check for each deployed VM.

21. The computer storage media of claim 20, wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to delete each deployed VM that is determined to be not compliant based on the performed post-deployment integrity check.

22. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the detected deployment failure comprises failure of the host during deployment of at least one of the plurality of VMs, and wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to resolve the detected deployment failure by:

searching for a compatible host that has access to the selected candidate datastore; and

re-registering, on the compatible host, said at least one of the plurality of VMs.

23. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the detected deployment failure comprises failure of the selected candidate datastore during deployment of at least one of the plurality of VMs, and wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to resolve the detected deployment failure by:

selecting another candidate datastore on the host; and

re-deploying said at least one of the plurality of VMs on the selected another candidate datastore.

24. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to:

receive a request to suspend deployment of one or more of the at least one of the plurality of VMs;

identify, from the status log, a status of each of the one or more of the at least one of the plurality of VMs; and

suspend the one or more of the at least one of the plurality of VMs based on the identified status.

25. The computer storage media of claim 24, wherein the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to suspend the one or more of the at least one of the plurality of VMs by allowing in-process deployments to finish and preventing new deployments.

26. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to:

receive a request for a deployment report;

access the status log to obtain a status of each of the plurality of VMs; and

generate the deployment report using the obtained status from the accessed status log.