SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION OF COMPUTING SYSTEMS WITH AUTOMATED ASSIGNMENT OF VIRTUAL MACHINES AND PHYSICAL MACHINES TO HOSTS

• US 20140019966A1
• Filed: 07/13/2012
• Published: 01/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Neuse, Douglas M., Clay, Laurence E., Tibrewala, Neal, Zink, Kenneth C., Peterson, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,396,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• 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 system and method for automatically reconfiguring a computing environment comprises a consumption analysis server, a placement server, a deployment server in communication with a set of virtual machine monitors and a data warehouse in communication with a set of data collection agents, and a database. The consumption analysis server operates on measured resource utilization data in the data warehouse to yield a set of resource consumptions, available capacities and host and virtual machine configurations from the computing environment. The deployment server continuously monitors an event triggering condition and when the triggering condition is met, the placement server assigns a set of target virtual machines to a target set of hosts in a new placement and the deployment server implements the new placement through communication with the set of virtual machine monitors. The placement server right-sizes the virtual machines and the target set of hosts.

Claims

1. An infrastructure management system comprising:

a server comprising a processor, a memory, and a set of program instructions stored in the memory;

a target set of hosts and a target set of virtual machines for a destination computing system;

wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions;

determines a new placement of the target set of virtual machines on the target set of hosts, wherein the new placement comprises a set of virtual machine-host pairs from the target set of hosts and the target set of virtual machines; and

,

automatically reconfigures a source computing system into a destination computing system according to the new placement.

2. The infrastructure management system of claim 1 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

removes a set of movable virtual machines from the source computing system;

installs the set of movable virtual machines in the destination computing system according to the new placement; and

,

installs a set of new virtual machines in the destination computing system according to the new placement.

3. The infrastructure management system of claim 1 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

determines a threshold requirement and a number of hosts to add; and

,

identifies a target placement for the target set of hosts and the target set of virtual machines that meets the threshold requirement.

4. The infrastructure management system of claim 3 wherein the set of program instructions further:

determines a total available capacity for the target set of hosts;

determines a total resource consumption for the target set of virtual machines;

determines a normalized difference between the total available capacity and the total resource consumption; and

,

determines the number of hosts to add to the target set of hosts based on the normalized difference.

5. The infrastructure management system of claim 4 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

determines a number of hosts to remove from the target set of hosts based on the normalized difference.

6. The infrastructure management system of claim 3 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

assigns an initial placement;

refines the initial placement in a set of single move refinements;

removes a selected virtual machine from a first host in the target set of hosts; and

,

adds the selected virtual machine to a second host in the target set of hosts.

7. The infrastructure management system of claim 1 wherein the target set of virtual machines comprises a set of new virtual machines, a set of existing unmovable virtual machines and a set of existing movable virtual machines, and wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

determines a source configuration from a source set of physical machine configurations, a source set of host configurations, the set of existing unmovable virtual machines and the set of existing movable virtual machines;

determines an initial placement from the set of unmovable virtual machines and the set of movable virtual machines and the source configuration;

determines an additional host requirement based on the target set of virtual machines; and

,

converts the initial placement into the new placement using a set of placement modifications.

8. The infrastructure management system of claim 7 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

right-sizes the new placement.

9. The infrastructure management system of claim 1 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

determines a workload forecast for a proactivity time;

monitors the source computing system until a stop condition occurs;

evaluates a placement triggering condition;

determines the new placement based on the workload forecast and the placement triggering condition; and

,

reassigns the target set of virtual machines according to the new placement.

10. The infrastructure management system of claim 9 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

removes a set of movable virtual machines from the source computing system;

installs the set of movable virtual machines in the destination computing system according to the new placement; and

,

installs a set of new virtual machines in the destination computing system according to the new placement.

11. The infrastructure management system of claim 9 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

computes a number of hosts to add; and

,

provides an alert signal based on the number of hosts to add.

12. The infrastructure management system of claim 9 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

computes a number of hosts to remove; and

,

provides an alert signal based on the number of hosts to be removed.

13. The infrastructure management system of claim 9 wherein the set of program instructions further:

determines a source configuration for the source computing system;

determines the new placement based on the workload forecast and the source configuration;

determines an additional host requirement based on the target set of virtual machines.

14. The infrastructure management system of claim 13 wherein the processor executing the set of program instructions further:

right-sizes the new placement.

27. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

producing a workload forecast from a proactivity time;

continuously monitoring the source computing system until a stop condition occurs;

evaluating a placement triggering condition;

determining a new placement based on the workload forecast and on an evaluation of the placement triggering condition; and

,

reassigning the target set of virtual machines according to the new placement.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising:

computing a number of hosts to add; and

,

sending an alert signal based on the number of hosts to add.

29. The method of claim 27 further comprising:

computing a number of hosts to remove; and

,

sending an alert signal based on the number of hosts to remove.

30. The method of claim 27 further comprising:

receiving a source configuration of the source computing system;

determining the new placement based on the workload forecast and the source configuration;

determining an additional host requirement based on the target set of virtual machines.

15. A method of reconfiguring a source computing system into a destination computing system with a new placement, comprising:

providing a target set of hosts and a target set of virtual machines for the destination computing system;

determining a new placement of the target set of virtual machines on the target set of hosts, wherein the new placement comprises a set of virtual machine-host pairs from the target set of hosts and the target set of virtual machines; and

,

automatically reconfiguring the source computing system into the destination computing system according to the new placement.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein automatically reconfiguring further comprises:

implementing the target set of virtual machines on the target set of hosts by a deployment server using a set of virtual machine monitors.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein automatically reconfiguring further comprises:

determining a new placement score based on an event condition;

comparing the new placement score to a threshold condition;

implementing the target set of virtual machines on the target set of hosts using a set of virtual machine monitors if the threshold condition is met.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

determining a threshold requirement; and

,

identifying a target placement for the target set of hosts and the target set of virtual machines that meets the threshold requirement.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

determining a total available capacity for the target set of hosts;

determining a total resource consumption for the target set of virtual machines;

determining a normalized difference between the total available capacity and the total resource consumption; and

,

determining a number of hosts to add to the target set of hosts based on the normalized difference.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

determining a number of hosts to remove from the target set of hosts based on the normalized difference.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein determining the threshold requirement further comprises:

multiplying the normalized difference by a scoring factor.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

making an evaluation of the normalized difference based on a minimum score;

determining a number of hosts to add from the total resource consumption, the total resource capacity and the scoring factor based on the evaluation; and

,

adding the number of hosts to add to the target set of hosts, based on the evaluation.

23. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

determining a number of hosts to remove based on the total resource consumption, the total resource capacity, the scoring factor, and a spare host capacity;

making a comparison between the number of hosts to remove and a minimum number of hosts;

removing the number of hosts to remove from the target set of hosts.

24. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

removing a set of movable virtual machines from the source computing system;

installing the set of movable virtual machines on the destination computing system according to the new placement; and

,

installing a set of new virtual machines on the destination computing system according to the new placement.

25. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

modifying the new placement by applying a set of right-sizing criteria.

26. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

assigning to the target set of virtual machines a set of new virtual machines, a set of existing unmovable virtual machines, and a set of existing movable virtual machines;

determining a source configuration from a source set of physical machine configurations, a source set of host configurations, the set of existing unmovable virtual machines and, the set of existing movable virtual machines;

determining an initial placement from the set of unmovable virtual machines and the set of movable virtual machines and the source configuration;

determining an additional host requirement based on the target set of virtual machines; and

,

converting the initial placement into the new placement using a set of placement modifications.