Dynamic Virtual Machine Resizing in a Cloud Computing Infrastructure

• US 20140082612A1
• Filed: 09/17/2012
• Published: 03/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Breitgand, David, Epstein, Amir, Glikson, Alexander, Hines, Michael R., Ryu, Kyung D., Silva, Marcio A., Da Silva, Dilma M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,858,095 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/501 Performance criteria
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method for providing dynamic resizing of at least one virtual machine in a cloud infrastructure includes steps of: obtaining a measure of resource usage for the virtual machine and/or application performance of an application running on the virtual machine; determining, as a function of prescribed rules relating to resource usage and the measure of resource usage and/or application performance, whether the virtual machine requires resizing; and resizing the virtual machine to dynamically change resource availability for the virtual machine so as to maintain resource usage and/or application performance within prescribed limits defined by the prescribed rules.

Claims

1. A method for providing dynamic resizing of at least one virtual machine in a cloud infrastructure, the method comprising steps of:

obtaining a measure of at least one of resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and application performance of an application running on the virtual machine;

determining, as a function of prescribed rules relating to resource usage and at least one of the measure of resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and application performance, whether the at least one virtual machine requires resizing; and

resizing the at least one virtual machine to dynamically change resource availability for the at least one virtual machine so as to maintain at least one of resource usage and application performance within prescribed limits defined by the prescribed rules.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining information regarding resource availability on a physical machine which includes the at least one virtual machine; and

determining a feasibility of the resizing of the at least one virtual machine based at least in part on the information regarding resource availability.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising relocating the at least one virtual machine from a first host to a second host when the feasibility of the resizing determines that an in situ resize of the at least one virtual machine is not possible.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of determining a feasibility of the resizing is based at least in part on current available resource information.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising establishing at least one communication channel to at least one of the at least one virtual machine and the physical machine to perform the resizing when the feasibility of the resizing determines that an in situ resize of the at least one virtual machine is possible.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising confirming whether the resizing of the at least one virtual machine was successful.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resizing the at least one virtual machine comprises one of:

increasing a size of the at least one virtual machine by at least one of adding one or more available resources to the at least one virtual machine, and increasing at least one of a frequency and a bandwidth of at least one resource assigned to the at least one virtual machine; and

decreasing a size of the at least one virtual machine by decreasing at least one of a number and a capacity of one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resizing the at least one virtual machine comprises at least one of:

limiting access to at least a portion of one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine;

releasing one or more mapped physical resources assigned to the at least one virtual machine; and

making at least a portion of one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine invisible to an application running on the virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resizing the at least one virtual machine comprises at least one of limiting access to one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine, and one of adding and removing resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resizing the at least one virtual machine is performed without a need for one of interrupting an application running on the at least one virtual machine, performing an operating system reboot, performing an application restart, and performing a hardware reconfiguration.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of resizing is performed at least one of directly, in an on-demand basis, and indirectly, by providing prescribed policies to be enforced.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing historical resize demand data to plan physical capacity in such a way as to guarantee a target success probability of the resizing of the at least one virtual machine.

13. An apparatus for providing dynamic resizing of at least one virtual machine in a cloud infrastructure, the apparatus comprising:

at least one virtual machine resizing module adapted to communicate with the cloud infrastructure, the resizing module being operative;

to obtain a measure of at least one of resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and application performance of an application running on the virtual machine;

to determine, as a function of prescribed rules relating to resource usage and at least one of the measure of resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and application performance, whether the at least one virtual machine requires resizing;

and to resize the at least one virtual machine to dynamically change resource availability for the at least one virtual machine so as to maintain at least one of resource usage and application performance within prescribed limits defined by the prescribed rules.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one virtual machine resizing module is further operative:

to obtain information regarding resource availability on a physical machine which includes the at least one virtual machine; and

to determine a feasibility of the resizing of the at least one virtual machine based at least in part on the information regarding resource availability.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one virtual machine resizing module is further operative to relocate the at least one virtual machine from a first host to a second host when the feasibility of the resizing determines that an in situ resize of the at least one virtual machine is not possible.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one virtual machine resizing module is further operative to establish at least one communication channel to at least one of the at least one virtual machine and the physical machine to perform the resizing when the feasibility of the resizing determines that an in situ resize of the at least one virtual machine is possible.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one virtual machine resizing module is operative to resize the at least one virtual machine by one of:

increasing a size of the at least one virtual machine by at least one of adding one or more available resources to the at least one virtual machine, and increasing at least one of a frequency and a bandwidth of at least one resource assigned to the at least one virtual machine; and

decreasing a size of the at least one virtual machine by decreasing at least one of a number and a capacity of one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one virtual machine resizing module is operative to resize the at least one virtual machine by at least one of:

limiting access to at least a portion of one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine;

releasing one or more mapped physical resources assigned to the at least one virtual machine; and

making at least a portion of one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine invisible to an application running on the virtual machine.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one virtual machine resizing module is operative to resize the at least one virtual machine by at least one of limiting access to one or more resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine, and one of adding and removing resource elements assigned to the at least one virtual machine.

20. A virtual machine resizing module for providing dynamic resizing of at least one virtual machine in a cloud infrastructure, the resizing module comprising:

a policy configurator operative to receive, parse and store virtual machine size specifications supplied to the resizing module and to generate prescribed rules as a function of the virtual machine size specifications;

a resource monitor operative to obtain data regarding resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and resource availability on at least one physical machine associated with the cloud infrastructure;

a demand analyzer operative to utilize the prescribed rules generated by the policy configurator and the data obtained by the resource monitor, and to determine therefrom whether a monitored virtual machine requires a change in size;

a capacity manager operative to receive the data obtained by the resource monitor and information from the demand analyzer regarding whether the monitored virtual machine requires a change in size, and to process one or more notifications relating to at least one resizing request generated by the demand analyzer;

a feasibility checker operative to determine, as a function of the at least one resizing request, whether there are any resources available on the physical machine to allow the monitored virtual machine to be increased in size, or, when resources associated with the monitored virtual machine are available, to allow the monitored virtual machine to be decreased in size; and

a size controller operative to establish a communication channel to one of the monitored virtual machine and the physical machine to resize the monitored virtual machine in accordance with information generated by the feasibility checker and the at least one resizing request.

21. The virtual machine resizing module of claim 20, further comprising a placement engine operative to determine whether to relocate the monitored virtual machine from a first host to a second host when the feasibility checker determines that an in situ resize of the monitored virtual machine is not possible.

22. The virtual machine resizing module of claim 20, wherein the feasibility checker is further operative to analyze historical resizing demand data and to plan physical capacity as a function of the historical resizing demand data to thereby guarantee a target success probability of the resizing of the monitored virtual machine.

23. The virtual machine resizing module of claim 20, wherein the size controller is operative to resize the monitored virtual machine by one of:

increasing a size of the monitored virtual machine by at least one of adding one or more available resources to the monitored virtual machine, and increasing at least one of a frequency and a bandwidth of at least one resource assigned to the monitored virtual machine; and

decreasing a size of the monitored virtual machine by decreasing at least one of a number and a capacity of one or more resource elements assigned to the monitored virtual machine.

24. The virtual machine resizing module of claim 20, wherein the size controller is operative to resize the monitored virtual machine by at least one of:

limiting access to at least a portion of one or more resource elements assigned to the monitored virtual machine;

releasing one or more mapped physical resources assigned to the monitored virtual machine; and

making at least a portion of one or more resource elements assigned to the monitored virtual machine invisible to an application running on the monitored virtual machine.

25. A computer program product for providing dynamic resizing of at least one virtual machine in a cloud infrastructure, the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code configured to obtain a measure of at least one of resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and application performance of an application running on the virtual machine;

computer readable program code configured to determine, as a function of prescribed rules relating to resource usage and at least one of the measure of resource usage for the at least one virtual machine and application performance, whether the at least one virtual machine requires resizing; and

computer readable program code configured to resize the at least one virtual machine to dynamically change resource availability for the at least one virtual machine so as to maintain at least one of resource usage and application performance within prescribed limits defined by the prescribed rules.