Virtual machine migration according to environmental data

• US 8,904,383 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2008
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Bash, Cullen E., McKee, Bret A., Hyser, Chris D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US12/936,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20110107332A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,427 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• 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 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to virtual machine migration according to environmental data in a data center. One embodiment is a method that analyzes environmental data for a data center having plural servers and migrates virtual machines among the servers to increase cooling efficiency in the data center.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a controller, temperature data for servers in a data center, wherein receiving the temperature data comprises receiving inlet and outlet temperatures of the servers;

migrating, by the controller, a virtual machine from a first server to a second server to reduce a temperature at the first server;

collecting supply air temperatures for one or more computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units in the data center;

using, by the controller, the supply air temperatures and the inlet and outlet temperatures to determine an area in the data center to move the virtual machine to reduce cooling costs for the data center.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, calculating a Zone-based Local Workload Placement Index (ZLWPI) to determine where to move the virtual machine in the data center.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising,

calculating thermal multipliers for different groups of servers, the thermal multipliers estimating an ability of servers to accept new workloads;

using the thermal multipliers to determine where to move the virtual machine to reduce cooling costs in the data center.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the controller, real-time cooling data and real-time airflow data for the data center;

using the real-time cooling data and the real-time airflow data to determine which server in the data center receives the virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, searching all mappings of plural virtual machines to the servers to find a location to migrate the virtual machine.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to:

receive inlet and outlet temperatures of servers in a data center;

receive supply air temperatures of plural computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units in the data center;

migrate virtual machines among the servers to increase cooling efficiency in the data center, wherein the migrating is based on the inlet and outlet temperatures and the air supply temperatures.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the computer to further calculate a Zone-based Local Workload Placement Index (ZLWPI) to determine where to move the virtual machines in the data center.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the computer to further:

calculate workload indexes for the servers;

use the workload indexes to determine where to move the virtual machines in the data center.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the computer to further assess impact on thermal conditions in the data center after migrating the virtual machines.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the computer to further:

receive the inlet and outlet temperatures and the supply air temperatures from corresponding sensors distributed in the data center.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions cause the computer to further:

determine a Local Workload Placement Index (LWPI) for the servers, the LWPI based upon one or more of a thermal management margin, a fluid moving device margin, a thermal correlation index, and a recirculation level at each electronic device;

use the LWPI to determine where to migrate the virtual machines to reduce cooling costs in the data center.

12. A data center, comprising:

plural servers to execute virtual machines;

plural sensors to sense environmental data in the data center, the environmental data including inlet and outlet temperatures of the servers and supply air temperatures of room air conditioning units; and

a resource manager to receive the environmental data and migrate, based on the inlet and outlet temperatures and the supply air temperatures in the environmental data, the virtual machines among the servers to increase cooling efficiency in the data center.

13. The data center of claim 12, wherein the resource manager is to calculate a Zone-based Local Workload Placement Index (ZLWPI) to determine where to move the virtual machines in the data center using the ZLWPI.

14. The data center of claim 12, wherein the resource manager is to calculate server workload indexes based on the inlet and outlet temperatures, and use the server workload indexes to determine how to distribute the virtual machines in the data center.

15. The data center of claim 12, wherein the resource manager is to calculate supply heat indexes of the servers to determine where to migrate the virtual machines in the data center.

16. The data center of claim 12, wherein the resource manager is to search all mappings of the virtual machines to the servers to find a location in the data center to migrate the virtual machines.