Simulation engine for use in disaster recovery virtualization

• US 9,104,607 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2012
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bartholomy, Erik, Evans, Christopher P., Giordano, Frank J., Greenlee, Gordan G., Novak, Paul W., Sheftic, Richard J., Walter, Victor L.
• Primary Examiner(s): SCHELL, JOSEPH O
• Application Number:
  US13/665,574
• Publication Number:
  US 20140122926A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,014 Days
• Field of Search: 714/15, 714/20, 718/1, 718/100
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/203 using migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/261 by simulating additional hardware, e.g. fault simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing

Abstract

An approach is provided for determining disaster recovery capacity. A simulation hypervisor receives streaming metric data, which represents the current production workload of a primary site, from the primary site. The metric data is combined with production data of the backup site by the simulation hypervisor to simulate a recovery event. Using data from the simulating, disaster recovery planning can be performed.

Claims

1. A method for determining disaster recovery capacity, comprising:

receiving, by a simulation hypervisor, streaming metric data from a primary site, the streaming metric data representing a current production workload of the primary site;

simulating, by the simulation hypervisor, a recovery event on a backup site by combining the metric data with production data of the backup site,

wherein the simulating includes designating an application on the primary site as being a lower priority application and assuming a dormant state for the lower priority application; and

performing disaster planning based on the simulating, wherein the disaster planning includes determining that the backup site has sufficient resources, does not have sufficient resources, or has extra resources to handle the recovery event, and

wherein the primary site and the backup site are geographically distant from each other.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving and the simulating are performed in real time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the streaming metric data is received from a hypervisor module on the primary site.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing capacity planning based on the simulating.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring a hardware component to execute the simulation hypervisor; and

installing the hardware component on a site.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

installing a simulation hypervisor on a backup site,

wherein the simulating is run in a background of the backup site.

7. A system for determining disaster recovery capacity, comprising:

a computer device having a simulation hypervisor installed thereon, the simulation hypervisor performing a method, comprising;

receiving, by the simulation hypervisor, streaming metric data from a primary site, the streaming metric data representing a current production workload of the primary site;

simulating, by the simulation hypervisor, a recovery event on a backup site by combining the metric data with production data of the backup site,

wherein the simulating includes designating an application on the primary site as being a lower priority application and assuming a dormant state for the lower priority application; and

performing disaster planning based on the simulating, wherein the disaster planning includes determining that the backup site has sufficient resources, does not have sufficient resources, or has extra resources to handle the recovery event, and

wherein the primary site and the backup site are geographically distant from each other.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the receiving and the simulating are performed in real time.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the streaming metric data is received from a hypervisor module on the primary site.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises performing capacity planning based on the simulating.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

configuring a hardware component to execute the simulation hypervisor; and

installing the hardware component on a site.

12. The system of claim 7,

wherein the computer device is the backup site, and

wherein the simulating is run in a background of the backup site.

13. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that implements a method for determining disaster recovery capacity, the method comprising:

receiving, by a simulation hypervisor, streaming metric data from a primary site, the streaming metric data representing a current production workload of the primary site;

simulating, by the simulation hypervisor, a recovery event on a backup site by combining the metric data with production data of the backup site,

wherein the simulating includes designating an application on the primary site as being a lower priority application and assuming a dormant state for the lower priority application; and

performing disaster planning based on the simulating, wherein the disaster planning includes determining that the backup site has sufficient resources, does not have sufficient resources, or has extra resources to handle the recovery event, and

wherein the primary site and the backup site are geographically distant from each other.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the receiving and the simulating are performed in real time.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the streaming metric data is received from a hypervisor module on the primary site.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, the method further comprising performing capacity planning based on the simulating.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising:

configuring a hardware component to execute the simulation hypervisor; and

installing the hardware component on a site.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, the method further comprising:

installing a simulation hypervisor on a backup site,

wherein the simulating is run in a background of the backup site.

19. A method for deploying a system for determining disaster recovery capacity, comprising,

providing a computer system operable to:

receive, by a simulation hypervisor, streaming metric data from a primary site, the streaming metric data representing a current production workload of the primary site;

simulate, by the simulation hypervisor running, a recovery event on a backup site by combining the metric data with production data of the backup site,

wherein the simulation includes designating an application on the primary site as being a lower priority application and assuming a dormant state for the lower priority application; and

perform disaster planning based on the simulating, wherein the disaster planning includes determining that the backup site has sufficient resources, does not have sufficient resources, or has extra resources to handle the recovery event, and

wherein the primary site and the backup site are geographically distant from each other.