System and method for joining containers running on multiple nodes of a cluster

• US 9,760,400 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2017
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Virtuozzo International GmbH
• Original Assignee: Parallels International GmbH (Corel Holdings LP)
• Inventors: Emelyanov, Pavel
• Primary Examiner(s): Donabed, Ninos
• Application Number:
  US15/476,114
• Time in Patent Office: 165 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0897 by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30

Abstract

Method for joining containers. On a plurality of nodes connected into a cluster, where each node hosts at least one container, executing real processes in the containers, where each real process is executed on a single container and other containers execute fake process corresponding to the real process; the fake process includes interfaces identical to interfaces of a corresponding real process; determining the real process on a source container to be migrated; for the target container, replacing the fake process with the real process and replacing the real process with the fake process on the source container; re-launching a process on the same hardware node with settings from another node. Interfaces of real processes are connected to interfaces of fake processes to establish data flow of fake process identical to the data flow outputted by interfaces of a real process. Interfaces of the fake process receive data from conjugated interfaces.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for joining containers running on a cluster of hardware nodes, the method comprising:

on a plurality of nodes connected into the cluster, where each node hosts at least one container, executing a plurality of real processes in the containers, where each real process is executed on a single container and other containers execute fake processes corresponding to the real process, and

wherein the fake process includes interfaces identical to interfaces of a corresponding real process;

for at least one container, executing a backup process that represents a state of the corresponding real process on each node, and

wherein the node on which the backup process executes has no other fake processes corresponding to the real process of that backup process;

determining the real process on a source container to be migrated and a target container where the real process is to be migrated;

for the target container, replacing the fake process with the real process and replacing the real process with the fake process on the source container; and

re-launching a process on the same hardware node with settings from another node;

wherein interfaces of real processes are connected to corresponding interfaces of the corresponding fake process to establish data flow of the interfaces of fake processes identical to the data flow outputted by interfaces of a corresponding real process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein interfaces of the fake processes are configured to receive data from conjugated interfaces.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising disconnecting interfaces of the real processes from corresponding interfaces of the fake processes when the interfaces of real processes are connected to interfaces of other real processes of the same container.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising discarding data flows directed from the real processes to the fake processes received at the interfaces of the fake processes connected to interfaces of another program module.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing data of the real processes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a check point method to distribution of the real processes and the fake processes for minimizing computational losses.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the check point method is Checkpoint/currently amended in User space (CRIU) method.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the checkpoint method provides for the re-launching of the process.

9. A computer-implemented method for joining containers running on a cluster of hardware nodes, the method comprising:

on a plurality of nodes connected into the cluster, where each node hosts at least one container, executing a plurality of real processes in the containers, where each real process is executed on a single container and other containers execute fake processes corresponding to the real process,

wherein the fake process includes interfaces identical to interfaces of a corresponding real process;

determining the real process on a source container to be migrated and a target container where the real process is to be migrated;

for the target container, replacing the fake process with the real process and replacing the real process with the fake process on the source container; and

re-launching a process on the same hardware node with settings from another node;

wherein interfaces of real processes are connected to corresponding interfaces of the corresponding fake process to establish data flow of the interfaces of fake processes identical to the data flow outputted by interfaces of a corresponding real process, and

wherein interfaces of the fake processes are configured to receive data from conjugated interfaces.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one container is executing a backup process that represents a state of the corresponding real process on each node, and

wherein the node on which the backup process executes has no other fake processes corresponding to the real process of that backup process.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising disconnecting interfaces of the real processes from corresponding interfaces of the fake processes when the interfaces of real processes are connected to interfaces of other real processes of the same container.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising discarding data flows directed from the real processes to the fake processes received at the interfaces of the fake processes connected to interfaces of another program module.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing data of the real processes.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising applying a check point method to distribution of the real processes and the fake processes for minimizing computational losses.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the check point method is Checkpoint in User space (CRIU) method.

16. A system for joining containers running on a cluster of hardware nodes, the system comprising:

a plurality of nodes connected into a cluster, each node having a processor;

a plurality of containers running on the nodes, wherein each node hosts at least one container;

a plurality of real processes executing in the containers, wherein each real process is executed on a single container and other containers execute fake processes corresponding to the real process on their respective processors;

wherein the system determines the real process on a source container to be migrated and a target container where the real process is to be migrated;

at least one container executing a backup process that represents a state of the corresponding real process on each node, and

wherein the node on which the backup process executes has no other fake processes corresponding to the real process of that backup process;

for the target container, the system replaces the fake process with the real process and replaces the real process with the fake process on the source container; and

the system re-launches a process on the same hardware node with live settings from another node,

wherein the fake process includes interfaces identical to interfaces of a corresponding real process, and

wherein interfaces of real processes are connected to a corresponding interfaces of the corresponding fake processes so as to establish output data flow of the corresponding interfaces of corresponding fake processes identical to the data flow outputted by interfaces of a corresponding real process.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein, upon failure of a real process, the backup process takes over functions of the real process.