METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO HOT-SWAP A VIRTUAL MACHINE

• US 20150278046A1
• Filed: 03/31/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Paz, Hilik, Avital, Avshi, Zellermayer, Gal
• Granted Patent: US 9,582,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence

Abstract

Methods and systems to limit the duration of a service interruption caused by a failed middleware application server are disclosed. One example method and system includes monitoring the operational status of a first virtual machine operating as a primary server and the operational status of a second virtual machine operating as a stand-by server and, based on the monitored operational status of the first and second virtual machines, performing a hot-swap to cause the second virtual machine to operate as the primary server and the first virtual machine to operate as the stand-by server. The first and second virtual machines are implemented on a same host processing system. After the hot-swap, the first virtual machine is restarted. In some examples, the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine are implemented on a same host processing system. Performing the hot-swap can include causing the first virtual machine to be uncoupled from a network and causing the second virtual machine to be coupled to the network. In some examples, the method also includes causing copy of a first file system used by the primary server to be stored as a second file system for use by the stand-by server.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring the operational status of a first virtual machine operating as a primary server and the operational status of a second virtual machine operating as a stand-by server, the first and second virtual machines being implemented on a same host processing system;

based on the monitored operational status of the first and second virtual machines, performing a hot-swap to cause the second virtual machine to operate as the primary server and the first virtual machine to operate as the stand-by server; and

restarting the first virtual machine.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the primary server has read/write access to a file system and the stand-by server has read-only access to the same file system.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein performing the hot swap comprises causing the first virtual machine to be uncoupled from a network and causing the second virtual machine to be coupled to the network.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising causing a copy of a first file system used by the primary server to be stored as a second file system for use by the stand-by server.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 further comprising constructing the copy of the first file system using a first baseline snapshot of the first file system taken at a first time and a second snapshot of the first file system taken at a second time.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein performing the hot swap comprises changing the file system access mode of the primary server from read/write access mode to read-only access mode and changing the file system access mode of the stand-by server from a read-only access mode to a read/write access mode.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the first and second virtual machines share a file system stored on a shared virtual machine disk.

8. A hot-swap tool comprising:

a monitor to generate a notification when a first virtual machine acting as a primary server is not operational;

a configuration tool to respond to the notification by performing a hot-swap operation to cause a second virtual machine to operate as the primary server and the first virtual machine to operate as a stand-by server, the first and second virtual machines being implemented on a same host processing system; and

a restart tool to cause the first virtual machine to be restarted after the hot-swap operation.

9. A hot swap tool as defined in claim 8 further comprising a snapshot generator to generate a snapshot of a first file system associated with the primary server, the snapshot to be used to construct an up-to-date version of the first file system, and the up-to-date version of the first file system to be stored as a second file system in a virtual machine disk used by the stand-by server.

10. A hot swap tool as defined in claim 8 wherein the configuration tool is to perform the hot-swap operation by causing network traffic to be rerouted from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

11. A hot swap tool as defined in claim 8 wherein the primary server has read/write access to a file system and the stand-by server has read-only access to the file system.

12. A hot swap tool as defined in claim 11 wherein the hot swap operation comprises changing the file system access mode of the primary server to a read-only access mode and changing the file system access of the stand-by server to read/write access mode.

13. A tangible machine readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

monitor the operational status of a first virtual machine operating as a primary server and the operational status of a second virtual machine operating as a stand-by server, the first and second virtual machines being implemented on a same host processing system;

based on the monitored operational status of the first and second virtual machines, perform a hot-swap to cause the second virtual machine to operate as the primary server and the first virtual machine to operate as the stand-by server; and

restart the first virtual machine.

14. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 wherein the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine use a same file system.

15. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 wherein the instructions further cause the machine to perform the hot swap by causing the first virtual machine to be uncoupled from a network and causing the second virtual machine to be coupled to the network.

16. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 further comprising instructions to cause the machine to generate a snapshot of a first file system used by the primary server for use in constructing a second file system used by the stand-by server.

17. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 wherein the instructions to perform the hot swap comprises instructions to:

change a file system access mode of the second virtual machine to from a read-only acces mode to a read/write access mode; and

change a file system access mode of the first virtual machine from a read/write access mode to a read-only access mode.

18. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 wherein the first and second virtual machines share a file system stored in a shared virtual machine disk.

19. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 18 wherein the primary server and the stand-by server, when coupled to the network, provide a middleware service to a processor coupled to the network.

20. A tangible machine readable medium as defined in claim 13 wherein the first virtual machine uses a first file system stored in a first virtual machine disk, and the second virtual machine uses a second file system stored in a second virtual machine disk, the first file system and the second file system being a same file system.