DE-DUPLICATED VIRTUAL MACHINE IMAGE TRANSFER

• US 20140188807A1
• Filed: 04/27/2012
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of British Columbia
• Original Assignee: University of British Columbia
• Inventors: Al-Kiswany, Samer, Ripeanu, Matei
• Granted Patent: US 9,886,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/652
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0662 Virtualisation aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Technologies are generally described for a system and method effective to copy virtual machine images from a source to a destination memory. A processor may copy a first block corresponding to a first virtual machine image from an interim memory to the destination memory. The interim memory may include de-duplicated data present in the first and the second virtual machine images. The processor may identify a second block in the interim memory that corresponds to the second virtual machine image and store the second block in a buffer. The processor may identify a third block in the interim memory that corresponds to the first virtual machine image and copy the third block from the interim memory to the destination memory.

Claims

1. A method for copying a first virtual machine image and a second virtual machine image from a source memory to a destination memory, the method comprising:

copying a first block corresponding to the first virtual machine image from an interim memory to the destination memory, wherein the interim memory includes de-duplicated data that is present in the first virtual machine image and the second virtual machine image;

identifying a second block in the interim memory that corresponds to the second virtual machine image after copying the first block;

storing the second block in a buffer;

identifying a third block in the interim memory that corresponds to the first virtual machine image after storing the second block; and

copying the third block from the interim memory to the destination memory.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying duplicated data, wherein the duplicated data is present in the first and second virtual machine images; and

copying the duplicated data from the source memory to an interim memory to produce the de-duplicated data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein copying the duplicated data from the source memory to the interim memory produces an image block map.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks;

and wherein the map includes

a first file corresponding to the first virtual machine image; and

a second file corresponding to the second virtual machine image.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks;

wherein the map includes

a first file corresponding to the first virtual machine image; and

a second file corresponding to the second virtual machine image;

wherein the first and second files each include one or more regions, and

each region includes a block identifier field, a region buffer number count field, a block size field, a presence field and/or a number of regions field.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks;

wherein the map includes

a first file corresponding to the first virtual machine image; and

a second file corresponding to the second virtual machine image;

wherein the first file includes two or more regions, each region includes an identification of consecutive blocks of the de-duplicated data corresponding to the first virtual machine image.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising

generating a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks;

and

wherein the map indicates whether blocks are stored in the source memory, destination memory, and/or the buffer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising

generating a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks;

and

wherein the map includes a region count field, the region count field effective to indicate a number of the second blocks that are stored in the buffer.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

copying blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identifying a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer; and

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

copying blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identifying a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory; and

copying the blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks corresponding to the particular region.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

copying blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

incrementing a counter in the buffer in response to storing the second block in the buffer; and

performing

identifying a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory;

copying the blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks corresponding to the particular region; and

decrementing the counter when blocks in the buffer are copied to the destination memory;

until the buffer is full to a third threshold level.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

copying blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identifying a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory;

copying the blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks corresponding to the particular region.

identifying a partially full region, the partially full region including some blocks copied from the interim memory to the destination memory; and

copying blocks corresponding to the partially full region from the interim memory to the destination memory.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the first block also corresponds to the second virtual machine image;

storing the first block in the buffer;

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the first virtual machine image from the interim memory to the destination memory before copying the first block from the buffer to the destination memory.

15. A system effective to copy a first virtual machine image and a second virtual machine image from a source memory to a destination memory, the system comprising:

an interim memory; and

a processor configured to communicate with the interim memory and configured to communicate with the source memory and the destination memory, the processor effective to;

copy a first block corresponding to the first virtual machine image from an interim memory to the destination memory, wherein the interim memory includes de-duplicated data present in the first and the second virtual machine images;

identify a second block in the interim memory that corresponds to the second virtual machine image after performance of the copy of the first block;

store the second block in a buffer;

identify a third block in the interim memory that corresponds to the first virtual machine image after storage of the second block; and

copy the third block from the interim memory to the destination memory.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further effective to:

generate a map, wherein the map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images that correspond to the blocks; and

wherein the map indicates whether blocks are stored in the source memory, destination memory, and/or the buffer.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further effective to:

copy blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identify a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer; and

copy one or more blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further effective to:

copy blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identify a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copy one or more blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory; and

copy the blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks that correspond to the particular region.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further effective to:

copy blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

increment a counter in the buffer in response to storing the second block in the buffer; and

perform

identify a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copy one or more blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory;

copy the blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks that correspond to the particular region; and

decrement the counter when blocks in the buffer are copied to the destination memory;

until the buffer is full to a third threshold level.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further effective to:

copy blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identify a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copy one or more blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory;

copy the blocks that correspond to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks that correspond to the particular region;

identify a partially full region, the partially full region including some blocks copied from the interim memory to the destination memory; and

copy blocks that correspond to the partially full region from the interim memory to the destination memory.

16-20. -20. (canceled)

22. (canceled)

27. (canceled)

28. A method for copying a first virtual machine image and a second virtual machine image from a source memory to a destination memory, the method comprising:

identifying duplicated data, wherein the duplicated data is present in the first and second virtual machine images;

copying the duplicated data from the source memory to an interim memory to produce de-duplicated data and an image block map;

generating a file map based on the image block map, wherein the file map identifies blocks in the interim memory and virtual machine images corresponding to the blocks;

copying a first block corresponding to the first virtual machine image from the interim memory to the destination memory;

identifying a second block in the interim memory that corresponds to the second virtual machine image;

storing the second block in a buffer;

identifying a third block in the interim memory that corresponds to the first virtual machine image; and

copying the third block from the interim memory to the destination memory;

wherein the file map includes

a first file corresponding to the first virtual machine image;

a second file corresponding to the second virtual machine image;

wherein the first file includes two or more regions, each region includes an identification of consecutive blocks of the de-duplicated data corresponding to the first virtual machine image;

an indication of whether blocks are stored in the source memory, destination memory, and/or the buffer; and

a region counter, the region counter effective to indicate a number of the second blocks that are stored in the buffer.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

copying blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identifying a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory; and

copying the blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks corresponding to the particular region.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

copying blocks from the interim memory to the destination memory until the buffer is full to a first threshold level;

identifying a particular region, wherein a second threshold percentage of blocks of the particular region are stored in the buffer;

copying one or more blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to the destination memory;

copying the blocks corresponding to the particular region from the interim memory to other regions in other virtual machine images that include the blocks corresponding to the particular region.

identifying a partially full region, the partially full region including some blocks copied from the interim memory to the destination memory; and

copying blocks corresponding to the partially full region from the interim memory to the destination memory.