Monitoring of highly available virtual machines

• US 8,751,857 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2010
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Frenkel, Omer, Elyashev, Vitaly
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, LOAN
• Application Number:
  US12/759,014
• Publication Number:
  US 20110252271A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,519 Days
• Field of Search: 714/3, 714/4.1, 714/48, 714/10, 718/1
• US Class Current: 714/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0712 in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0757 by exceeding a time limit, i.e. time-out, e.g. watchdogs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements

Abstract

A host controller is coupled to host computers that host virtual machines. At least one of the virtual machines is a highly available virtual machine. The host controller detects a change in system resources and identifies a highly available virtual machine that failed before the change occurs. The host controller re-runs the highly available virtual machine upon detection of the change of the system resources.

Claims

1. A method, implemented by a host controller, the method comprising:

monitoring, by the host controller, a status of a highly available virtual machine of a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of host computers to detect a failure of the highly available virtual machine, the highly available virtual machine designated to maintain minimal down time;

detecting, by the host controller, a change in system resources of the plurality of host computers, the host controller coupled to the plurality of host computers;

determining, based on the monitored status, that the highly available virtual machine has failed during runtime and prior to the change in the system resources; and

upon detecting the change in the system resources, re-running, by the host controller, the highly available virtual machine that failed during runtime and prior to the change in the system resources, to minimize the down time of the highly available virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, prior to the detection of the change in the system resources, the method further comprises:

detecting the failure of the highly available virtual machine; and

re-running the highly available virtual machine immediately.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording a reason for failure of the highly available virtual machine in a database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting a change further comprises:

detecting that one of the host computers has moved from a non-active state to an up state; and

upon detecting the up state of the one of the host computers, re-running the highly available virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting a change further comprises:

detecting that an existing virtual machine stops; and

upon detecting that the existing virtual machine stops, re-running the highly available virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that one of the host computers has not responded for a period of time; and

indicating that each virtual machine on the one of the host computers has failed.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that one of the virtual machines disappeared; and

indicating that the one of the virtual machines has failed.

8. A system comprising:

a host controller coupled to a plurality of host computers that host a plurality of virtual machines, the host controller to monitor a status of a highly available virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines to detect a failure of the highly available virtual machine, the highly available virtual machine designated to maintain minimal down time, to a change in system resources of the plurality of host computers, to determine, based on the monitored status, that the highly available virtual machine has failed during runtime and prior to the change in the system resources, and to re-run the highly available virtual machine that failed during runtime and prior to the change in the system resources, upon detection of the change in the system resources, to minimize the down time of the highly available virtual machine; and

data storage to store information regarding whether each of the plurality of virtual machines is highly available.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the data storage stores a reason for failure of the highly available virtual machine.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the host controller detects the change in the system resources when one of the host computers has moved from a non-active state to an up state.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the host controller detects the change in the system resources when an existing virtual machine stops.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the host controller manages each virtual machine on an unresponsive host computer as a failed virtual machine.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the host controller manages a disappeared virtual machine as a failed virtual machine.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

monitoring, by the host controller, a status of a highly available virtual machine of a plurality of virtual machines running on a plurality of host computers to detect a failure of the highly available virtual machine, the highly available virtual machine designated to maintain minimal down time;

detecting, by the host controller, a change in system resources of the plurality of host computers, the host controller coupled to the plurality of host computers;

determining, based on the monitored status, that the highly available virtual machine has failed during runtime and prior to the change in the system resources; and

upon detecting the change in the system resources, re-running, by the host controller, the highly available virtual machine that failed during runtime and prior to the change in the system resources, to minimize the down time of the highly available virtual machine.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein, prior to the detection of the change in the system resources, the method further comprises:

detecting the failure of the highly available virtual machine; and

re-running the highly available virtual machine immediately.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein, upon detection of the change of the system resources, the method further comprises:

re-running a plurality of highly available virtual machines based on their priorities.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein detecting a change further comprises:

detecting that one of the host computers has moved from a non-active state to an up state; and

upon detecting the up state of the host computer, re-running the highly available virtual machine.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein detecting a change further comprises:

detecting that an existing virtual machine stops; and

upon detecting that the existing virtual machine stops, re-running the highly available virtual machine.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

detecting that one of the host computers has not responded for a period of time; and

indicating that each virtual machine on the host computer has failed.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

detecting that one of the virtual machines has disappeared; and

indicating that the one of the virtual machines has failed.