REPLICATING VIRTUAL MACHINES ACROSS DIFFERENT VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS

• US 20150106802A1
• Filed: 10/14/2013
• Published: 04/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: IVANOV, Ivan, VELEVSKI, Ivan
• Granted Patent: US 9,304,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A first virtual machine executing in a first computer server is replicated to a second virtual machine executing in a second computer server, where the first computer server and the second computer server are connected over a network and are each connected to one or more disk storage units capable of storing files in a file system. Virtual disks of the first virtual machine on the first server are transmitted to the second server, where each transmitted virtual disk is stored as a file in a storage unit connected to the second server and corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual disks of the second virtual machine running in the second server, and where the virtual disks of the first virtual machine have a first format and the virtual disks of the second virtual machine have a second format that is different from the first format. A plurality of updates to the virtual disks of the first virtual machine is captured, and contiguous data blocks from the virtual disks of the first virtual machine that are subject to the captured updates are identified. The identified contiguous data blocks are then transmitted to the second server for storage in the virtual disks of the second virtual machine.

Claims

1. In a plurality of networked computer servers having first and second servers, wherein the first server has executing therein a first virtual machine with a plurality of virtual disks, a method of replicating the first virtual machine to a second virtual machine executing on the second server, the method comprising:

transmitting the virtual disks of the first virtual machine to the second server, wherein each transmitted virtual disk corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual disks of the second virtual machine, and wherein the virtual disks of the first virtual machine have a first format and the virtual disks of the second virtual machine have a second format;

capturing a plurality of updates to virtual disks of the first virtual machine;

identifying contiguous data blocks in the virtual disks of the first virtual machine that are subject to the captured updates; and

transmitting the identified contiguous data blocks to the second server for storage in the virtual disks of the second virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each update comprises a file identifier, a block offset, and a number of updated blocks.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of virtual disks of the first virtual machine are stored as files that include a metadata region and a user data region.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the captured updates are each an update to the user data region of the file corresponding to the virtual disk being updated.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

building a transmit list comprising one or more transmission blocks, wherein each transmission block comprises a plurality of the identified contiguous data blocks.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said capturing includes:

determining that two or more of the updates are overlapping updates; and

creating a transmission block that comprises all of the data blocks corresponding to one of the updates and part of the data blocks corresponding to another one of the updates.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

taking a snapshot of a plurality of storage units connected to the first server prior to said transmitting,

wherein the identified contiguous data blocks are retrieved from the snapshot.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that execution of the first virtual machine in the first server is to be halted;

halting execution of the first virtual machine in the first server; and

starting execution of the second virtual machine in the second server, the second virtual machine being a replicated version of the first virtual machine.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer readable program code for replicating virtual machines between a first server and a second server connected in a network, wherein the first server has executing therein a first virtual machine with a plurality of virtual, the computer readable program code comprising:

instructions to transmit the virtual disks of the first virtual machine to the second server, wherein each transmitted virtual disk corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual disks of a second virtual machine, and wherein the virtual disks of the first virtual machine have a first format and the virtual disks of the second virtual machine have a second;

instructions to capture a plurality of updates to the virtual disks of the first virtual machine;

instructions to identify contiguous data blocks in the virtual disks of the first virtual machine that are subject to the captured updates; and

instructions to transmit the identified contiguous data blocks to the second server for storage in the virtual disks of the second virtual machine.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein each update comprises a file identifier, a block offset, and a number of updated blocks.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of virtual disks of the first virtual machine are stored as files that include a metadata region and a user data region.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the captured updates are each an update of the user data region of the file corresponding to the virtual disk being updated.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions to build a transmit list comprising one or more transmission blocks, wherein each transmission block comprises a plurality of the identified contiguous data blocks.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise:

instructions to determine that two or more of the updates are overlapping updates; and

instructions to create a transmission block that comprises the all of the data blocks corresponding to one of the updates and part of the data blocks corresponding to another one of the updates.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

instructions to take a snapshot of a plurality of storage units connected to the first server prior to said transmitting, wherein the identified contiguous data blocks are retrieved based on the snapshot.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

instructions to determine that execution of the first virtual machine in the first server is to be halted;

instructions to halt execution of the first virtual machine in the first server; and

instructions to start execution of the second virtual machine in the second server, the second virtual machine being a replicated version of the first virtual machine.

17. A virtualized computing system configured to replicate virtual machines, comprising:

a first computer server connected to a first storage unit;

a second computer server connected to a second storage unit;

a management server; and

a network that connects the first computer server, the second computer server, and the management server, wherein the virtualized computing system is configured to;

transmit virtual disks of a first virtual machine executing on the first computer server to the second server, wherein each transmitted virtual disk corresponds to one of a plurality of virtual disks of a second virtual machine, and wherein the virtual disks of the first virtual machine have a first format and the virtual disks of the second virtual machine have a second;

capture a plurality of updates to virtual disks of the first virtual machine;

identify contiguous data blocks in the virtual disks of the first virtual machine that are subject to the captured updates; and

transmit the identified contiguous data blocks to the second server for storage in the virtual disks of the second virtual machine.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein each update comprises a file identifier, a block offset, and a number of updated blocks.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein each of the plurality of virtual disks of the first virtual machine are stored as files that include a metadata region and a user data region.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the captured updates are each an update to the user data region of the file corresponding to the virtual disk being updated.