Systems and methods for improving virtual machine performance

• US 8,332,571 B1
• Filed: 04/16/2012
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Vizioncore, Inc. (Quest Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Edwards, Thomas Scott Sr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bradley, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Namazi, Mehdi
• Application Number:
  US13/448,220
• Time in Patent Office: 239 Days
• Field of Search: 711/6, 711/112, 711/165, 711/170, 711/173
• US Class Current: 711/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1008 Graphical user interface [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Virtual machine optimization and/or storage reclamation solutions are disclosed that manage virtual machine sprawl and/or growing enterprise storage costs. For instance, certain solutions receive recommendations based on one or more rules, policies and/or user preferences that identify storage and/or alignment criteria for virtual machine disk (VMDK) partition(s). In certain examples, a resize tool that operates within a host operating system of a host server dynamically resizes and/or aligns one or more VMDK partitions of a powered-down virtual machine. For instance, the resize tool can be injected to the host server from a remote management server and can resize and/or align the VMDK partitions without requiring contents of the VMDK to be copied to another VMDK. By reallocating storage and/or aligning the VMDK partitions, embodiments of the invention can increase virtual machine performance and improve storage management.

Claims

1. A method for improving virtual machine performance within a computing environment, the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of virtual machines executing on at least one physical host server, each virtual machine associated with a virtual machine disk having a plurality of partitions;

accessing an optimization profile for the virtual machine of the computing environment, the optimization profile comprising information related to allocation or use of virtual machine storage;

obtaining a lock on the virtual machine;

issuing a first instruction to power off the virtual machine;

while the virtual machine is powered off, (i) resizing or (ii) aligning the plurality of partitions without creating another virtual machine disk, wherein the resizing or aligning is based at least in part on the optimization profile for the virtual machine;

issuing a second instruction to power on the virtual machine; and

removing the lock from the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising both (i) resizing and (ii) aligning the one or more partitions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the optimization profile comprises at least one of (i) operating system independent or (ii) operating system dependent rules.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the optimization profile includes information relating to an amount of free disk space to be allocated to the virtual machine or to a partition of the virtual machine disk associated with the virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information comprises a ratio of free space to used space.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the ratio is calculated based on a projected growth of the virtual machine or the number of virtual machines executing on the at least one physical host server.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, based at least partly on the optimization profile, target partition sizes of the virtual machine disk associated with the virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein resizing comprises reducing sizes of the plurality of partitions to the target partition sizes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the aligning comprises aligning a start offset of each of the plurality of partitions with a block boundary of a physical disk storing the virtual machine disk.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein resizing comprises increasing a size of each of the plurality of partitions such that an end offset of each of the plurality of partitions aligns with the block boundary of the physical disk storing the virtual machine disk.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a renaming lock on the virtual machine to prevent powering on the virtual machine during resizing or aligning; and

releasing the renaming lock following the resizing or aligning and prior to the issuing the second instruction to power on the virtual machine.

12. A system for improving virtual machine performance within a computing environment, the system comprising:

a physical host server comprising a host operating system and a plurality of virtual machines each having a guest operating system;

a physical datastore comprising a plurality of virtual machine disks associated with each of the plurality of virtual machines, wherein each virtual machine disk of the plurality of virtual machine disks is associated with a virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, each of the plurality of virtual machine disks comprising a plurality of partitions; and

a management server in communication with the host server, the management server comprising a resize module configured, for each virtual machine, to;

obtain a lock on the virtual machine;

issue a first instruction to power off the virtual machine;

while the virtual machine is powered off, (i) resize or (ii) align the plurality of partitions of the virtual machine disk without creating another virtual machine disk, wherein the resize module (i) resizes or (ii) aligns based at least in part on an optimization profile for the virtual machine;

issuing a second instruction to power on the virtual machine; and

remove the lock from the virtual machine.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the resize module is configured to both (i) resize and (ii) align the plurality of partitions of the virtual machine disk without creating another virtual machine disk.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the optimization profile includes information relating to an amount of free disk space to be allocated to the virtual machine or to a partition of the virtual machine disk associated with the virtual machine.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the management server is configured to inject the resize module into the host operating system of the host server.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the management server is further configured to remove the resize module following the issuing of the second instruction to power on the virtual machine.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the management server comprises a user interface configured to receive user input indicative of the optimization profile that is to be associated with a particular virtual machine.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the resize module is configured to collect system information related to one or more of:

number or current locations of virtual machines, virtual machine name, size of a virtual machine file system, configuration information for the host server, configuration information for the datastore, used or free space of the virtual machines, guest operating system types of the virtual machines, which virtual machines are powered on or off, internet protocol addresses of the virtual machines, whether or not a virtual machine comprises snapshots, usage history of virtual machine components or processes, which virtual machine disks are attached to which virtual machines, and sizes or locations of the virtual machine disks on the datastore.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the resize module is configured to automatically resize each of the plurality of partitions of the virtual machine disk such that both a beginning offset and an end offset of each of the plurality of partitions is aligned with a block boundary of the datastore.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the resize module is further configured to:

calculate, based at least partly on the optimization profile, target partition sizes of the virtual machine disk associated with the virtual machine; and

reduce sizes of the plurality of partitions to the target partition sizes.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the resize module is further configured to perform one or more of the following to optimize the guest operating system of the virtual machine:

exclude non-used or rarely used system components from a disk image of the first virtual machine, shut down non-used services, clean temporary folders, modify the system registry, clear the system file cache, remove unnecessary log files, remove system auto recover files, clear local profiles, run disk defragmentation, remove junk files, remove unnecessary installer folders, and clear the recycle bin.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the resize module is further configured to update a registry of the guest operating system of the virtual machine prior to issuing the second instruction to power on the virtual machine.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein to update the registry, the resize module is configure to perform one or more of the following:

restore volume mount points, fix values to prevent rebooting of the virtual machine following the resizing or alignment, and fix new volume offsets in a boot configuration of the virtual machine.

24. Non-transitory computer storage comprising machine-executable instructions that when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to improve virtual machine performance within a computing environment, the machine executable instructions comprising instructions for:

accessing an optimization profile for a virtual machine of a computing environment, the virtual machine associated with a virtual machine disk comprising a plurality of partitions, the virtual machine disk stored on a physical datastore, the optimization profile comprising information related to allocation or use of virtual machine storage;

issuing a first instruction to power off the virtual machine;

while the virtual machine is powered off, resizing the plurality of partitions of the virtual machine disk based at least partly on the optimization profile, the resizing comprising;

copying a sequence of sectors of the plurality of partitions to new locations on the datastore; and

issuing a second instruction to power on the virtual machine.

25. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 24, further comprising instructions for:

obtaining a lock on the virtual machine prior to issuing the instruction to power off the virtual machine; and

removing the lock on the virtual machine after the resizing is performed.