Methods and apparatus related to migration of customer resources to virtual resources within a data center environment

• US 8,473,959 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2010
• Issued: 06/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VIRTUSTREAM IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Virtustream Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Box, Julian J., Reid, Kevin D., Ryan, Adam J. L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US12/709,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20110209156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,219 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• 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

Abstract

In one embodiment, a processor-readable medium can be configured to store code representing instructions to be executed by a processor. The code can include code to receive an indicator that a set of virtual resources has been identified for quarantine at a portion of a data center. The code can also include code to execute, during at least a portion of a quarantine time period, at least a portion of a virtual resource from the set of virtual resources at a quarantined portion of hardware of the data center that is dedicated to execute the set of virtual resources in response to the indicator and not execute virtual resources associated with non-quarantine operation.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory processor-readable media storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to:

process an indicator that a set of virtual resources has been identified for quarantine at a portion of a data center;

execute, during at least a portion of a quarantine time period, at least a portion of a virtual resource from the set of virtual resources at a quarantined portion of the data center that is dedicated to execute the set of virtual resources in response to the indicator and not execute virtual resources associated with non-quarantine operation;

monitor a performance metric based on execution of the portion of the virtual resource at the quarantined portion of the data center during the quarantine time period;

process an indication that migration of the virtual resource to a non-quarantined portion of the data center is authorized, when a threshold condition is satisfied based on the performance metric; and

process instructions to migrate the virtual resource to the non-quarantined portion of the data center.

2. The processor-readable media of claim 1, wherein the quarantined portion of the data center includes a set of communication ports dedicated to signaling associated with the set of virtual resources.

3. The processor-readable media of claim 1, wherein the quarantined portion of the data center is physically separate from a non-quarantined portion of the data center, the quarantined portion of the data center is configured to communicate with the non-quarantined portion of the data center via a link.

4. The processor-readable media of claim 1, further comprising code to:

calculate a performance metric based on execution of the portion of the virtual resource at the quarantined portion of the data center during the portion of the quarantine time period; and

modify a size of the quarantined portion of the hardware based on the performance metric.

5. The processor-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the quarantined portion of the data center is sized based on an integer number of data center units, each of the data center units is managed based on a predefined set of hardware resource limit values.

6. The processor-readable media of claim 1, wherein the quarantine time period is greater than one month.

7. The processor-readable media of claim 1, wherein the quarantined portion of the data center includes at least one host device.

8. The processor-readable media of claim 1, wherein execution of the at least the portion of the virtual resource at the quarantined portion of the data center is redundantly mirrored at a second portion of the data center.

9. The processor-readable media of claim 1, wherein the set of virtual resources are derived from a non-virtualized system mutually exclusive from the data center.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer readable media comprising computer readable instructions configured to cause one or more processing components to execute a method involving migration of customer resources to virtual resources, the method comprising;

determining, via an assessment module, a number of data center units to operate a set of virtual resources at a guaranteed service level, each of the data center units being managed based on a predefined set of hardware resource limit values;

sending, via a migration module, an indicator that the set of virtual resources has been moved to a quarantined portion of a data center;

monitoring, via a quarantine module, a performance metric related to operation of the set of virtual resources at the quarantined portion of the data center during a quarantine time period;

processing an indication that migration of the virtual resource to a non-quarantined portion of the data center is authorized, when a threshold condition is satisfied based on the performance metric; and

processing instructions regarding migration of virtual resource to a non-quarantined portion of the data center.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, the method further comprising:

modifying, via a management module, processing of a signal by at least one virtual resource from the set of virtual resources after the set of virtual resources have been moved from the quarantined portion of the data center to a non-quarantined portion of the data center mutually exclusive from the quarantined portion of the data center.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the set of virtual resources is a first set of virtual resources, the assessment module is configured to determine a virtualization environment for the first set of virtual resources based on performance of a second set of virtual resources within the quarantined portion of the data center.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the set of virtual resources is a first set of virtual resources, the assessment module is configured to determine the number of data center units based on a feedback signal, the feedback signal is based on performance of a second set of virtual resources within the quarantined portion of the data center.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the number of data center units is a minimum number of data center units.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the assessment module is configured to determine the number of data center units based on a plurality of responses to a questionnaire received from a user node.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the migration module is configured to facilitate movement of at least a portion of the virtual resources to the quarantined portion based on a predefined standard.

17. One or more non-transitory processor-readable media storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to:

monitor a performance metric representing performance of a first virtual resource within a quarantined portion of a data center during at least a portion of a quarantine time period;

define an assessment parameter value based on the performance metric;

determine, based on the assessment parameter value, a number of data center units for execution of a second virtual resource at a guaranteed service level, each of the data center units being managed based on a predefined set of hardware resource limit values; and

modify, based on the performance metric, a projected hardware requirement of the first virtual resource within a production environment of the data center;

wherein the first virtual resource, when migrated to a non-quarantined portion of the data center, can be operated within a portion of the data center defined by the modified projected hardware requirement.

18. The processor-readable media of claim 17, wherein the statistic is calculated at a first time, the number of data center units is determined at a second time after the first time.

19. The processor-readable media of claim 17, wherein the quarantined portion of the data center is a first quarantined portion of the data center, the second virtual resource is migrated to a second quarantined portion of the data center defined at least in part by the number of data center units.

20. A method for processing feedback related to a quarantined portion of a data center, the method comprising:

monitoring a performance metric representing performance of a first virtual resource within a quarantined portion of a data center during at least a portion of a quarantine time period;

defining an assessment parameter value based on the performance metric;

determining, based on the assessment parameter value, a number of data center units for execution of a second virtual resource at a guaranteed service level, each of the data center units being managed based on a predefined set of hardware resource limit values; and

modifying, based on the performance metric, a projected hardware requirement of the first virtual resource within a production environment of the data center;

wherein the first virtual resource, when migrated to a non-quarantined portion of the data center, can be operated within a portion of the data center defined by the modified projected hardware requirement.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising configuring a quarantine module to prevent one or more virtual resources from being moved to the non-quarantined portion of the data center.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the statistic is calculated at a first time, the number of data center units is determined at a second time after the first time.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the quarantined portion of the data center is a first quarantined portion of the data center, the second virtual resource is migrated to a second quarantined portion of the data center defined at least in part by the number of data center units.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the statistic is calculated at a first time, the number of data center units is determined at a second time after the first time.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising configuring a quarantine module to prevent one or more virtual resources from being moved to the non-quarantined portion of the data center.