Virtual machine dependency

• US 8,910,156 B1
• Filed: 04/29/2011
• Issued: 12/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Kenchammana-Hosekote, Deepak, Forgette, Eric Paul, Gaonkar, Shravan
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Qing
• Application Number:
  US13/097,813
• Time in Patent Office: 1,320 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45566 Nested virtual machines
• 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 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for describing virtual machine dependencies. In particular, data objects, such as virtual hard drives, associated with virtual machines may be identified and/or examined to identify data structures, such as configuration files, comprising configuration data. The configuration data may be analyzed to determine dependency relationships between virtual machines to describe virtual machine dependencies. Identifying virtual machine dependencies, among other things, allows virtual machines that are no longer used to be repurposed, deleted, reset, etc. with little to no adverse effect on other virtual machines.

Claims

1. A method for describing a virtual machine dependency of a first virtual machine depending upon a second virtual machine, comprising:

identifying a data object associated with a first virtual machine, the identifying comprising identifying a guest file system of the first virtual machine;

examining the data object to identify a data structure comprising configuration data, the examining comprising searching metadata of the guest file system for one or more data blocks comprising the data structure; and

analyzing the configuration data to determine a dependency relationship between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine to describe a virtual machine dependency, the analyzing comprising searching the configuration data for a reference to the second virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, the metadata of the guest file system comprising a master file table identifying the one or more data blocks.

3. The method of claim 1, the metadata of the guest file system comprising at least one of:

a master boot record;

or

a partition table.

4. The method of claim 1, the data object comprising a virtual hard drive data object, and the data structure comprising a configuration file within the virtual hard drive data object.

5. The method of claim 1, the data object associated with at least one of:

a logical unit number;

or

an operating system and application binaries of the first virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1, the data structure comprising at least one of:

an operating system registry;

a database file;

an application configuration file;

a network configuration file;

a storage configuration file;

or

an operating system configuration file.

7. The method of claim 1, the analyzing the configuration data comprising:

determining the dependency relationship between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine based upon the data structure of the first virtual machine referencing the second virtual machine within the configuration data.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

correlating one or more virtual machine dependencies into a mapping of virtual machine dependencies indicative of dependency relationships between one or more virtual machines hosted by a storage controller, the one or more virtual machines comprising the first virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 8, the mapping of virtual machine dependencies comprising at least one of:

the first virtual machine having a dependency relationship with the second virtual machine;

the first virtual machine having a dependency relationship with a third virtual machine;

or

the third virtual machine having a dependency relationship with the first virtual machine and a fourth virtual machine.

10. The method of claim 8, comprising:

updating the mapping of virtual machine dependencies with one or more virtual machine dependences corresponding to a new virtual machine based upon determining the new virtual machine was added to the storage controller.

11. The method of claim 8, comprising:

correlating one or more new virtual machine dependencies into a second mapping of virtual machine dependencies; and

comparing the mapping of virtual machine dependencies with the second mapping of virtual machine dependencies to determine virtual machine relationship changes between one or more virtual machines.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising:

implementing an operational decision for a storage controller, hosting at least one of the first virtual machine or the second virtual machine, based upon the virtual machine dependency.

13. The method of claim 12, the operational decision comprising at least one of:

maintenance of the storage controller;

modification of a virtual machine hosted by the storage controller;

modification of an application of the virtual machine;

or

modification of a service provided by the virtual machine.

14. The method of claim 1, the configuration data retrieved from an application file, and the method comprising:

confirming the configuration data based at least in part upon information from a guest operating system configuration.

15. A system for describing a virtual machine dependency, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processors implement at least some of;

an examination component configured to;

identify a data object associated with a first virtual machine; and

examine the data object to identify a data structure comprising configuration data, the data object comprising at least one of;

a logical unit number, or

an operating system and application binaries of the first virtual machine; and

a mapping component configured to;

analyze the configuration data to determine a dependency relationship between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine to describe a virtual machine dependency.

16. The system of claim 15, the examination component configured to identify a second data object associated with the first virtual machine, and examine the second data object to identify a second data structure comprising second configuration data;

and the mapping component configured to analyze the second configuration data to determine a second dependency relationship between the first virtual machine and a third virtual machine to describe a second virtual machine dependency.

17. The system of claim 15, the mapping component configured to:

determine the dependency relationship between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine based upon the data structure of the first virtual machine referencing the second virtual machine within the configuration data.

18. The system of claim 15, the mapping component configured to:

correlate one or more virtual machine dependencies into a mapping of virtual machine dependencies indicative of relationships between one or more virtual machines within a storage controller, the one or more virtual machines comprising the first virtual machine.

19. The system of claim 18, comprising:

an implementation component configured to;

implement an operational decision for the storage controller based upon the mapping of virtual machine dependencies.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method for identifying one or more virtual machine dependencies, comprising:

identifying a virtual hard drive data object associated with a first virtual machine hosted by a storage controller configured to host one or more virtual machines;

examining the virtual hard drive data object to identify a configuration file comprising configuration data;

analyzing the configuration data to describe a virtual machine dependency of the first virtual machine depending upon a second virtual machine; and

correlating one or more virtual machine dependencies into a mapping of virtual machine dependencies indicative of dependency relationships between one or more virtual machines hosted by the storage controller, the one or more virtual machines comprising the first virtual machine.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising:

comparing the virtual machine dependency with one or more prior virtual machine dependencies associated with the first virtual machine to determine a virtual machine relationship change.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising:

implementing an operational decision for the storage controller based upon the virtual machine relationship change.