Hardware Independent Interface for Cognitive Data Migration

• US 20180276018A1
• Filed: 03/21/2017
• Published: 09/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated (Kyndryl Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Delaney, John V., Graf, Florian D., Hunt, Anthony M., Montagna, Ricky L., Wieczorek, Pawel J., Zolotow, Clea A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,817,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44526 Plug-ins; Add-ons
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method for off-board data migration. Responsive to receiving a request to migrate a virtual machine image, a memory location of the source virtual machine is identified. Using a generalized pathing interface, a range of logical blocks is accessed for both the source and destination virtual machines. The memory location of the source virtual machine is copied to a memory location of the destination virtual machine. The destination virtual machine is started, and; and the source virtual machine is stopped.

Claims

1. A method for off-board data migration, comprising:

responsive to receiving a request to migrate a virtual machine image, identifying a memory location of a source virtual machine;

access the range of logical blocks for both the source and destination virtual machines using a generalized pathing interface;

copying the memory location of the source virtual machine to a memory location of the destination virtual machine;

starting the destination virtual machine; and

stopping the source virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generalized pathing interface is a hardware independent interface comprising a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for managing physical paths to storage.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of application programming interfaces is isolated inside a container from hardware dependent components of a virtualization kernel.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the container is a Docker container.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the hardware dependent components of the virtualization kernel comprise a logical device I/O scheduler and filesystem switch.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generalized pathing interface is attached to a packet interceptor process of a storage area network migration appliance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine are implemented in disparate storage systems.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of copying the memory location of the source virtual machine to the memory location of the destination virtual machine further comprises off-board data migration across the disparate systems at an image level.

9. A data storage system comprising:

a generalized pathing interface for managing physical paths to storage; and

a processor, wherein the processor is configured;

responsive to receiving a request to migrate a virtual machine image, to identify a memory location of a source virtual machine;

to access a range of logical blocks for both the source and destination virtual machines using the generalized pathing interface;

to copy the memory location of the source virtual machine to a memory location of the destination virtual machine;

to start the destination virtual machine; and

to stop the source virtual machine.

10. The data storage system of claim 9, wherein the generalized pathing interface is a hardware independent interface comprising a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for managing physical paths to storage.

11. The data storage system of claim 10, wherein the set of application programming interfaces is isolated inside a container from hardware dependent components of a virtualization kernel.

12. The data storage system of claim 11, wherein the container is a Docker container.

13. The data storage system of claim 11, wherein the hardware dependent components of the virtualization kernel comprise a logical device I/O scheduler and filesystem switch.

14. The data storage system of claim 9, wherein the generalized pathing interface is attached to a packet interceptor process of a storage area network migration appliance.

15. The data storage system of claim 9, wherein the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine are implemented in disparate storage systems.

16. The data storage system of claim 15, wherein copying the memory location of the source virtual machine to the memory location of the destination virtual machine further comprises off-board data migration across the disparate systems at an image level.

17. A computer program product for off-board data migration, comprising:

program code, stored on computer readable storage media, for identifying a memory location of a source virtual machine in response to receiving a request to migrate a virtual machine image;

program code, stored on the computer readable storage media, for accessing a range of logical blocks for both the source and destination virtual machines using a generalized pathing interface;

program code, stored on the computer readable storage media, for copying the memory location of the source virtual machine to a memory location of the destination virtual machine;

program code, stored on the computer readable storage media, for starting the destination virtual machine; and

program code, stored on the computer readable storage media, for stopping the source virtual machine.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the generalized pathing interface is a hardware independent interface comprising a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) for managing physical paths to storage.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the set of application programming interfaces is isolated inside a container from hardware dependent components of a virtualization kernel, wherein the hardware dependent components of the virtualization kernel comprise a logical device I/O scheduler and filesystem switch.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the generalized pathing interface is attached to a packet interceptor process of a storage area network migration appliance;

wherein the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine are implemented in disparate storage systems, and wherein the program code for copying the memory location of the source virtual machine to the memory location of the destination virtual machine further comprises program code for off-board data migration across the disparate systems at an image level.