Migrating a VM in response to an access attempt by the VM to a shared memory page that has been migrated

• US 9,348,655 B1
• Filed: 11/18/2014
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsirkin, Michael S., Gilbert, David A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Al Kawsar, Abdullah
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHU JOY, JORGE A
• Application Number:
  US14/546,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20160139962A1
• Time in Patent Office: 553 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5021 Priority
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration

Abstract

A hypervisor of a source host receives a request to migrate a group of virtual machines from the source host to a destination host. The hypervisor of the source host determines that a first virtual machine being migrated to the destination host shares a memory space on the source host with a second virtual machine on the source host. Upon receiving a request from the second virtual machine on the source host to access a first memory page of the shared memory space on the source host that has been migrated to the destination host, the hypervisor of the source host initiates migration of the second virtual machine to the destination host.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a processing device executing a hypervisor on a source host, that a first virtual machine of a group of virtual machines on the source host has been migrated to a destination host;

responsive to determining that the first virtual machine shares one or more pages of a memory space on the source host with a second virtual machine of the group of virtual machines on the source host, monitoring, by the hypervisor of the source host, shared memory space accesses of the second virtual machine;

receiving, by the hypervisor of the source host, a request from the second virtual machine on the source host to access a first memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host; and

responsive to determining that the first memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host has been migrated to the destination host,

stopping, by the hypervisor of the source host, execution of the second virtual machine on the source host, and

migrating, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second virtual machine to the destination host.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the hypervisor of the source host, a request from the destination host for a second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host;

migrating, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host to the destination host; and

designating, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host as not present.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

responsive to determining that a number of memory pages of the one or more pages of the shared memory space remaining on the source host meets a predetermined threshold condition, notifying, by the hypervisor of the source host, the destination host that shared memory transfer has completed.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that the first virtual machine has been migrated to the destination host comprises determining that a portion of a state of the first virtual machine has been migrated to the destination host, the portion of the state of the first virtual machine comprising a device state, a CPU register state, and a RAM pages state.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the hypervisor of the destination host is to:

start the first virtual machine on the destination host;

receive a request from the first virtual machine for a page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space;

responsive to determining that the requested memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space is missing from the destination host, pause the execution of the first virtual machine;

retrieve the missing shared memory page from the source host; and

resume execution of the first virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein to retrieve the missing shared memory page, the hypervisor of the destination host is to:

send a request to the source host for the missing shared memory page;

designate the missing shared memory page on the destination host as having been requested;

receive the missing shared memory page from the source host; and

designate the missing shared memory page on the destination host as present.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the hypervisor of the destination host is further to:

start the second virtual machine on the destination host.

8. A computing apparatus comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to execute the instructions, wherein the processing device is to;

determine, by the processing device executing a hypervisor on a source host, that a first virtual machine of a group of virtual machines on the source host has been migrated to a destination host;

responsive to determining that the first virtual machine shares one or more pages of a shared memory space on the source host with a second virtual machine of the group of virtual machines on the source host, monitor, by the hypervisor of the source host, shared memory space accesses of the second virtual machine;

receive, by the hypervisor of the source host, a request from the second virtual machine on the source host to access a first memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host; and

responsive to determining that the first memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host has been migrated to the destination host,

stop, by the hypervisor of the source host, execution of the second virtual machine on the source host, and

migrate, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second virtual machine to the destination host.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing device is further to:

receive, by the hypervisor of the source host, a request from the destination host for a second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host;

migrate, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host to the destination host; and

designate, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host as not present.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the processing device is further to:

responsive to determining that a number of memory pages of the one or more pages of the shared memory space remaining on the source host meets a predetermined threshold condition, notify, by the hypervisor of the source host, the destination host that shared memory transfer has completed.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the first virtual machine of the source host and the second virtual machine of the source host are part of a group of virtual machines being migrated to the destination host.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the hypervisor of the destination host is to:

start the first virtual machine on the destination host;

receive a request from the first virtual machine for a page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space;

responsive to determining that the requested memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space is missing from the destination host, pause the execution of the first virtual machine;

retrieve the missing shared memory page from the source host; and

resume execution of the first virtual machine.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein to retrieve the missing shared memory page, the hypervisor of the destination host is to:

send a request to the source host for the missing shared memory page;

designate the missing shared memory page on the destination host as having been requested;

receive the missing shared memory page from the source host; and

designate the missing shared memory page on the destination host as present.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the hypervisor of the destination host is further to:

start the second virtual machine on the destination host.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processing device of a computer system, cause the processing device to:

determine, by the processing device executing a hypervisor on a source host, that a first virtual machine of a group of virtual machines on the source host has been migrated to a destination host;

responsive to determining that the first virtual machine shares one or more pages of a shared memory space on the source host with a second virtual machine of the group of virtual machines on the source host, monitor, by the hypervisor of the source host, shared memory space accesses of the second virtual machine;

receive, by the hypervisor of the source host, a request from the second virtual machine on the source host to access a first memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host; and

responsive to determining that the first memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host has been migrated to the destination host,

stop, by the hypervisor of the source host, execution of the second virtual machine on the source host, and

migrate, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second virtual machine to the destination host.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the processing device is further to:

receive, by the hypervisor of the source host, a request from the destination host for a second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host;

migrate, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host to the destination host; and

designate, by the hypervisor of the source host, the second memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space on the source host as not present.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein to determine that the first virtual machine has been migrated to the destination host, the processing device is to determine that a portion of a state of the first virtual machine has been migrated to the destination host, the portion of the state of the first virtual machine comprising a device state, a CPU register state, and a RAM pages state.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the hypervisor of the destination host is to:

start the first virtual machine on the destination host;

receive a request from the first virtual machine for a page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space;

responsive to determining that the requested memory page of the one or more pages of the shared memory space is missing from the destination host, pause the execution of the first virtual machine;

retrieve the missing shared memory page from the source host; and

resume execution of the first virtual machine.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein to retrieve the missing shared memory page, the hypervisor of the destination host is to:

send a request to the source host for the missing shared memory page;

designate the missing shared memory page on the destination host as having been requested;

receive the missing shared memory page from the source host; and

designate the missing shared memory page on the destination host as present.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the hypervisor of the destination host is further to:

start the second virtual machine on the destination host.