Automatic load and balancing for virtual machines to meet resource requirements

• US 8,161,475 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Araujo, Nelson S. Jr., Michael, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US11/540,879
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082977A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,027 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718104-105, 709224-226
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

The embodiments contemplate a system and method for a provisioning, retirement and configuration of virtual machines. A predefined policy may include a desired target state of the virtual machines, as well as an action to initiate in order to reach the desired state. The action may be initiated if the state varies from the desired level by a predetermined amount or percentage over a predetermined period of time. Data from the virtual machines is analyzed to determine if the desired state of the virtual machines is satisfied. The analysis may be continuous or periodic. If it is determined that the desired state is not satisfied, then predefined actions are performed until the desired state is attained. The predefined actions may be the removal or addition of one or more virtual machines or other actions necessary to reach the desired state.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a policy related to a virtual machine (VM), the policy specifying a requirement with regard to the VM;

receiving an action to be taken with regard to the VM, the action corresponding to the requirement, the action to be taken in response to determining that the requirement is violated;

receiving an input of the policy that has been sent by the VM;

receiving a second input of the policy from a second VM;

determining from the input and the second input that the requirement of the policy is violated; and

taking the action of the policy in response to the violation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises:

adding a virtual machine to the VM or another VM, wherein the violation comprises an excess of the requirement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises:

removing a virtual machine from the VM or another VM, wherein the violation comprises a shortage of the requirement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the requirement comprises:

an amount of traffic of the VM.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises:

taking the action of the policy in response to determining that the violation persists for a predetermined period of time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises:

taking the action of the policy in response to determining that the violation exceeds or lacks the requirement by a predetermined amount.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a notification to a user of the VM; and

taking the action of the policy in response to receiving user input indicative of taking the action of the policy.

8. A computer storage medium bearing computer-readable instructions that, upon execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving a policy related to a virtual machine (VM), the policy specifying a requirement with regard the VM;

receiving an action to be taken with regard to the VM, the action corresponding to the requirement, the action to be taken in response to determining that the requirement is violated;

receiving an input of the policy that has been sent by the computing device, the input being indicative of the state of the VM;

receive a second input of the policy from a computing device;

determining from the input and the second input that the requirement of the policy is violated; and

taking the action of the policy in response to the violation.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises at least one of:

adding an additional virtual machine to the computing device or another computing device in response to the violation, wherein the violation comprises an excess of the requirement;

and removing one virtual machine to the computing device or another computing device in response to the violation, wherein the violation comprises a shortage of the requirement.

10. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the requirement is at least one of:

a predefined network activity;

an amount of traffic; and

a target usage of a particular number of web pages per minute per server.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises:

taking the action of the policy in response to the violation in response to determining that the violation persists for a predetermined period of time and in response to determining that the violation exceeds or lacks the requirement by a predetermined amount.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein taking the action of the policy in response to the violation comprises:

presenting a notification with an output device; and

taking the action of the policy in response to user input indicative of taking the action of the policy.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 8, wherein the computing device comprises another VM.

14. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor when the system is operational, the memory bearing instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the system to at least;

receive a policy related to a virtual machine (VM), the policy specifying a requirement with regard to the VM;

receive an action to be taken with regard the VM, the action corresponding to the requirement, the action to be taken in response to determining that the requirement is violated;

receive an input of the policy that has been provided by the VM, the input comprising a network bandwidth used by the VM, an amount of the VM'"'"'s virtual CPU resources used by the VM, an amount of the VM'"'"'s virtual memory used by the VM, or an amount of the VM'"'"'s virtual hard disk used by the VM;

receive a second input of the policy from a computing device;

determine from the input and the second input that the requirement of the policy is violated; and

take the action of the policy in response to the violation.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the action of the policy is one of:

adding another VM to the computing device or another computing device;

deleting the VM;

stopping the VM;

pausing the VM for a predetermined amount of time;

archiving the VM;

sending a notification to an owner of the VM and/or a policy administrator;

adding memory to the VM;

adding a virtual processor to the VM;

dedicating more CPU to the VM;

dedicating less CPU to the VM;

saving a state of the VM; and

quarantining the VM.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the input of the policy from the computing device comprises:

an amount of traffic.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the input of the policy from the VM comprises:

a number of users; and

wherein the requirement of the policy comprises;

an upper usage limit of number of users, or a lower usage limit of number of users.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein a violation of the requirement comprises:

an excess of the requirement, or a shortage of the requirement; and

wherein the excess and shortage deviate from the requirement by a predetermined amount for a predetermined period of time.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the receiving the policy, receiving the action, receiving the input, determining and taking are performed by a monitoring agent communicatively coupled to the VM.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing device comprises another VM.