METHOD FOR VIRTUAL MACHINE MONITORING IN CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURES

• US 20140075013A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Agrawal, Dakshi, Pappas, Vasileios
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,308 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• 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 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV

Abstract

A computer implemented method monitors resource usage of a virtual machine. When a virtual machine is instantiated, resource usage of the virtual machine is monitored to form monitoring data. The monitoring is performed externally from the virtual machine. When the virtual machine is later suspended, the monitoring data is stored as metadata associated with the virtual machine.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for monitoring resource usage of a virtual machine, the method comprising:

instantiating, by a processor unit, the virtual machine;

monitoring, by the processor unit, resource usage of the virtual machine to form monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed externally from the virtual machine;

suspending, by the processor unit, the virtual machine; and

responsive to suspending the virtual machine, storing, by the processor unit, the monitoring data as metadata associated with the virtual machine.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring data is first monitoring data, the method further comprising:

restarting, by the processor unit, the virtual machine;

monitoring, by the processor unit, resource usage of the virtual machine to form second monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed externally from the virtual machine.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, the method further comprising:

appending, by the processor unit, the second monitoring data to the first monitoring data.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the step of monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form the first monitoring data is performed within a first cloud environment, wherein the step of restarting the virtual machine further comprises:

migrating, by the processor unit, the virtual machine to a new cloud environment; and

restarting, by the processor unit, the virtual machine in the new cloud environment.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form second monitoring data is performed within a second cloud environment, the method further comprising:

appending, by the processor unit, the second monitoring data generated within the second cloud environment to the first monitoring data generated within the first could environment.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the virtual machine is a first virtual machine, and wherein the step of monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form monitoring data further comprises:

monitoring, by the processor unit, resource usage of the first virtual machine to form the second monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed by a monitoring system executing in a second virtual machine, wherein an interface is defined between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein the step of suspending the first virtual machine further comprises:

receiving, by the processor unit, a call from an image software library of the first virtual machine by the monitoring system;

responsive to receiving the call from the image software library of the first virtual machine by the monitoring system, forwarding, by the processor unit, the first monitoring data from the monitoring system to the image software library; and

appending, by the processor unit, the first monitoring data as the metadata to an existing metadata associated with the first virtual machine.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 6, wherein the step of restarting the first virtual machine further comprises:

receiving, by the processor unit, a call from an image software library of the first virtual machine by the monitoring system, wherein the call from the image software library of the first virtual machine instructs the monitoring system to begin collecting the second monitoring data.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein the step of monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form monitoring data further comprises:

monitoring, by the processor unit, resource usage of the virtual machine to form the second monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed by a hypervisor.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the step of suspending the virtual machine further comprises:

suspending, by the processor unit, the virtual machine by the hypervisor; and

appending, by the processor unit, the first monitoring data as the metadata to an existing metadata associated with the virtual machine, wherein the appending is performed by the hypervisor.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving, by the processor unit, a set of monitoring requirements for the virtual machine, wherein the monitoring requirements are received by the hypervisor;

monitoring, by the processor unit, the resource usage of the virtual machine according to the monitoring requirements for the virtual machine to form the first monitoring data; and

appending, by the processor unit, the first monitoring data as the metadata to an existing metadata associated with the virtual machine, wherein the appending is performed by the hypervisor.