Guest-driven virtual machine backups

• US 9,483,360 B1
• Filed: 05/27/2015
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2015
• 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, Gilbert, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Qing
• Application Number:
  US14/723,401
• Time in Patent Office: 524 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A system and methods are disclosed for performing virtual machine (VM) backups. In accordance with one embodiment, a hypervisor executed by a processing device suspends execution of a VM and initiates a backup procedure to save a current state of the VM. The hypervisor reads a value of a flag that is written to by the VM and is stored in a portion of memory accessible by the VM and the hypervisor. In response to determining that the value read by the hypervisor equals a first value, the hypervisor resumes execution of the VM prior to receiving a status message regarding the backup procedure. In response to determining that the value read by the hypervisor equals a second value, the hypervisor waits to resume execution of the VM until the hypervisor has received a status message indicating that the backup procedure was successful.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

suspending, by a hypervisor executed by a processing device, execution of a virtual machine;

initiating, by the hypervisor, after the suspending, a backup procedure to save a current state of the virtual machine;

reading, by the hypervisor, a value of a flag that is written to by the virtual machine and is stored in a portion of a memory accessible by the virtual machine and the hypervisor;

responsive to determining that the value of the flag read by the hypervisor equals a first value, resuming, by the hypervisor, execution of the virtual machine prior to receiving a backup status message regarding the backup procedure; and

responsive to determining that the value of the flag read by the hypervisor equals a second value, waiting, by the hypervisor, to resume execution of the virtual machine until receiving a backup status message indicating that the backup procedure was successful.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the hypervisor resumes execution of the virtual machine prior to receiving the backup status message, and wherein the backup status message indicates that an error has occurred.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the hypervisor re-initiates the backup procedure in response to a timeout or an error.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the hypervisor reads the value of the flag after the initiating of the backup procedure.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the flag is updated by the virtual machine, and wherein the updating of the flag is not detected by the hypervisor.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the backup procedure comprises writing the current state of the virtual machine to a storage device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the backup procedure comprises writing the current state of the virtual machine to another virtual machine.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to;

execute a hypervisor,

suspend, via the hypervisor, execution of a virtual machine,

read, via the hypervisor, a value of a flag that is written to by the virtual machine and is stored in a portion of the memory accessible by the virtual machine and the hypervisor,

responsive to determining that the value of the flag read by the hypervisor equals a first value, resume, via the hypervisor, execution of the virtual machine prior to receiving a backup status message regarding a backup procedure to save a current state of the virtual machine, and

responsive to determining that the value of the flag read by the hypervisor equals a second value, initiate, via the hypervisor, the backup procedure to save the current state of the virtual machine and wait, via the hypervisor, to resume execution of the virtual machine until receiving a backup status message indicating that the backup procedure was successful.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein, when the backup procedure is successful, the hypervisor stores an indication that the virtual machine was backed up.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the hypervisor suspends execution of the virtual machine in response to an attempt by the virtual machine to write to a device.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the backup procedure comprises writing the current state of the virtual machine to a storage device.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the backup procedure comprises writing the current state of the virtual machine to another virtual machine.

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

execute a hypervisor;

detect, via the hypervisor, that a virtual machine has written to a flag, wherein the flag is stored in a portion of a memory accessible by the virtual machine and the hypervisor;

suspend, via the hypervisor, execution of the virtual machine;

initiate, via the hypervisor, after the suspending, a backup procedure to save the current state of the virtual machine;

read, via the hypervisor, after the initiating of the backup procedure, a value of the flag;

in response to determining that the value of the flag read by the hypervisor equals a first value, resume, via the hypervisor, execution of the virtual machine prior to receiving a backup status message regarding the backup procedure; and

in response to determining that the value of the flag read by the hypervisor equals a second value, wait, via the hypervisor, to resume execution of the virtual machine until receiving a backup status message indicating that the backup procedure was successful.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the flag is written to by the virtual machine prior to the virtual machine writing into a portion of the memory that is write-protected for the virtual machine.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the flag is written to by the virtual machine prior to the virtual machine accessing an input/output port.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the flag is written to by the virtual machine prior to a hypercall made by the virtual machine.