GANG MIGRATION OF VIRTUAL MACHINES USING CLUSTER-WIDE DEDUPLICATION

• US 20140196037A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Research Foundation for The State University of New York (State University of New York)
• Original Assignee: The Research Foundation for The State University of New York (State University of New York)
• Inventors: Gopalan, Kartik
• Granted Patent: US 9,372,726 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1009 using page tables, e.g. page table structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/152 Virtualized environment, e.g. logically partitioned system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• 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 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence

Abstract

Datacenter clusters often employ live virtual machine (VM) migration to efficiently utilize cluster-wide resources. Gang migration refers to the simultaneous live migration of multiple VMs from one set of physical machines to another in response to events such as load spikes and imminent failures. Gang migration generates a large volume of network traffic and can overload the core network links and switches in a data center. The present technology reduces the network overhead of gang migration using global deduplication (GMGD). GMGD identifies and eliminates the retransmission of duplicate memory pages among VMs running on multiple physical machines in the cluster. A prototype GMGD reduces the network traffic on core links by up to 51% and the total migration time of VMs by up to 39% when compared to the default migration technique in QEMU/KVM, with reduced adverse performance impact on network-bound applications.

Claims

1. A method for gang migration with global deduplication, comprising:

providing a datacenter comprising a plurality of virtual machines in a cluster defined by a set of information residing in a first storage medium, the cluster communicating through at least one data communication network;

performing cluster-wide deduplication of the plurality of virtual machines to identify redundant memory pages of the first storage medium representing the respective virtual machines that have corresponding content;

initiating a simultaneous live migration of the plurality of virtual machines in the cluster, by communicating information sufficient to reconstitute the plurality of virtual machines in a cluster defined by the set of information residing in a second storage medium, through the at least one data communication network;

based on the identification of the redundant memory pages having corresponding content, selectively communicating information representing the unique memory pages of the first storage medium through the at least one communication network to the second storage medium, substantially without communicating all of the memory pages of the first storage medium; and

subsequent to communication through the at least one communication network, duplicating the redundant memory pages of the first storage medium in the second storage medium selectively dependent on the identified redundant memory pages, to reconstitute the plurality of virtual machines in the second storage medium.

2. A system for gang migration with global deduplication, in a datacenter comprising a plurality of virtual machines in a cluster defined, by a set of information residing in a first storage medium, the cluster communicating through at least one data communication network, comprising:

at least one processor configured to perform cluster-wide deduplication of the plurality of virtual machines to identify redundant memory pages of the first storage medium representing the respective virtual machines that have corresponding content;

at least one communication link configured to communicate a simultaneous live migration of the plurality of virtual machines in the cluster, by communicating information sufficient to reconstitute the plurality of virtual machines in a cluster defined by the set of information residing in a second storage medium, through the at least one data communication network;

the at least one processor being further configured, based on the identification of the redundant memory pages having corresponding content, to selectively communicate information representing the unique memory pages of the first storage medium through the at least one communication network to the second storage medium, substantially without communicating all of the memory pages of the first storage medium, and subsequently to communicate through the at least one communication network, duplicating the redundant memory pages of the first storage medium in the second storage medium selectively dependent on the identified redundant memory pages, to reconstitute the plurality of virtual machines in the second storage medium.

3. A method for migration of virtual machines with global deduplication, comprising:

providing a plurality of virtual machines at a local facility, defined by a set of stored information comprising redundant portions, the network being interconnected with a wide area network;

identifying at least a subset e redundant portions of the stored information;

initiating a simultaneous live migration of the plurality of virtual machines by communicating through the wide area network to the remote location data sufficient to reconstitute the set of stored information comprising the identification of the subset of the elements of the redundant portions and the set of stored information less redundant ones of the subset of the redundant portions of the stored information;

receiving at a remote location the data sufficient to reconstitute the set of stored information;

duplicating the subset of the redundant portions of the stored information o reconstitute the set of stored information defining the plurality of virtual machines; and

transferring an active status to the reconstituted plurality of virtual machines at e remote location