Load balancing for a virtual networking system

• US 9,378,068 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Anantharam, Sushma, Biswas, Amitabha, Padhye, Harshad S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANIWANG, JOSEPH R
• Application Number:
  US13/802,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280949A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a method for load balancing a networking system comprising multiple computing nodes. The method comprises maintaining one or more data sets on at least one computing node. The method further comprises receiving, from each computing node, a load information unit for the computing node, wherein the load information unit relates to resource usage on the computing node. For each computing node, the method determines whether the load information for the computing node exceeds a corresponding load threshold for the computing node. A data set on at least one computing node is transferred to another computing node when the load information for the at least one computing node exceeds a corresponding load threshold for the at least one computing node.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing a virtual networking system comprising multiple computing nodes for maintaining one or more data sets of one or more tenants, wherein the multiple computing nodes include a first computing node, a second computing node and a primary computing node, and wherein each computing node comprises a server including one or more resources, the method comprising:

at the first computing node;

sending a first load information unit for the first computing node to the primary computing node, wherein each load information unit for each computing node relates to actual usage per tenant of one or more resources of the computing node;

receiving, from the primary computing node, an instruction to transfer a first data set of a first tenant maintained on the first computing node to the second computing node, wherein the first load information unit exceeds a first programmable threshold value for the first computing node, and wherein a second load information unit for the second computing node is less than a second programmable threshold value for the second computing node;

initiating a data transfer of the first data set to the second computing node;

receiving, during the data transfer, one or more data updates relating to the first data set;

in response to completion of the data transfer;

determining a size of the one or more data updates;

transferring the one or more data updates to the second computing node; and

in response to receiving a data request for the first data set, selecting an operation to perform based on the size of the one or more data updates, wherein the selected operation is one of the following;

forwarding the data request to the second computing node, or accepting and processing the data request.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

at the first computing node;

maintaining mapping information, wherein, prior to the data transfer, the mapping information identifies that the first data set is mapped to the first computing node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each load information unit for each computing node comprises information relating to resource usage of each data set of each tenant maintained on the computing node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first load information unit for the first computing node is higher than a load information unit for any other computing node of the multiple computing nodes; and

the second load information unit for the second computing node is lower than a load information unit for any other computing node of the multiple computing nodes.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting an operation to perform based on the size of the one or more data updates comprises:

determining whether the size of the one or more data updates exceeds a pre-determined threshold number of elements; and

selectively updating the mapping information based on whether the size of the one or more data updates exceeds the pre-determined threshold number of elements.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein, in response to determining that the size of the one or more data updates exceeds the pre-determined threshold number of elements, the mapping information is maintained without any updates, such that all data requests for the first data set are accepted and processed by the first computing node.

7. The method of claim 5, the method further comprising:

at the first computing node;

in response to determining that the size of the one or more data updates does not exceed the pre-determined threshold number of elements;

updating the mapping information, wherein the updated mapping information identifies that the first data set is mapped to the second computing node, such that all data requests for the first data set are forwarded to the second computing node; and

communicating the updated mapping information to at least one node of the multiple computing nodes.

8. A system comprising a computer processor, a computer-readable hardware storage device, and program code embodied with the computer-readable hardware storage medium for execution by the computer processor to implement a method for load balancing a virtual networking system comprising multiple computing nodes for maintaining one or more data sets of one or more tenants, wherein the multiple computing nodes include a first computing node, a second computing node and a primary computing node, and wherein each computing node comprises a server including one or more resources, the method comprising:

at the first computing node;

sending a first load information unit for the first computing node to the primary computing node, wherein each load information unit for each computing node relates to actual usage per tenant of one or more resources of the computing node;

receiving, from the primary computing node, an instruction to transfer a first data set of a first tenant maintained on the first computing node to the second computing node, wherein the first load information unit exceeds a first programmable threshold value for the first computing node, and wherein a second load information unit for the second computing node is less than a second programmable threshold value for the second computing node;

initiating a data transfer of the first data set to the second computing node;

receiving, during the data transfer, one or more data updates relating to the first data set;

in response to completion of the data transfer;

determining a size of the one or more data updates;

transferring the one or more data updates to the second computing node; and

in response to receiving a data request for the first data set, selecting an operation to perform based on the size of the one or more data updates, wherein the selected operation is one of the following;

forwarding the data request to the second computing node, or accepting and processing the data request.

9. The system of claim 8, the method further comprising:

at the first computing node;

maintaining mapping information, wherein, prior to the data transfer, the mapping information identifies that the first data set is mapped to the first computing node.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein:

each load information unit for each computing node comprises information relating to resource usage of each data set of each tenant maintained on the computing node.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the first load information unit for the first computing node is higher than a load information unit for any other computing node of the multiple computing nodes; and

the second load information unit for the second computing node is lower than a load information unit for any other computing node of the multiple computing nodes.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein selecting an operation to perform based on the size of the one or more data updates comprises:

determining whether the size of the one or more data updates exceeds a pre-determined threshold number of elements; and

selectively updating the mapping information based on whether the size of the one or more data updates exceeds the pre-determined threshold number of elements.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein, in response to determining that the size of the one or more data updates exceeds the pre-determined threshold number of elements, the mapping information is maintained without any updates, such that all data requests for the first data set are accepted and processed by the first computing node.

14. The system of claim 12, the method further comprising:

at the first computing node;

in response to determining that the size of the one or more data updates does not exceed the pre-determined threshold number of elements;

updating the mapping information, wherein the updated mapping information identifies that the first data set is mapped to the second computing node, such that all data requests for the first data set are forwarded to the second computing node; and

communicating the updated mapping information to at least one node of the multiple computing nodes.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having program code embodied therewith, the program code being executable by a computer to implement a method for load balancing a networking system comprising multiple computing nodes for maintaining one or more data sets of one or more tenants, wherein the multiple computing nodes include a first computing node, a second computing node and a primary computing node, and wherein each computing node comprises a server including one or more resources, the method comprising:

at the first computing node;

sending a first load information unit for the first computing node to the primary computing node, wherein each load information unit for each computing node relates to actual usage per tenant of one or more resources of the computing node;

receiving, from the primary computing node, an instruction to transfer a first data set of a first tenant maintained on the first computing node to the second computing node, wherein the first load information unit exceeds a first programmable threshold value for the first computing node, and wherein a second load information unit for the second computing node is less than a second programmable threshold value for the second computing node;

initiating a data transfer of the first data set to the second computing node;

receiving, during the data transfer, one or more data updates relating to the first data set;

in response to completion of the data transfer;

determining a size of the one or more data updates;

transferring the one or more data updates to the second computing node; and

in response to receiving a data request for the first data set, selecting an operation to perform based on the size of the one or more data updates, wherein the selected operation is one of the following;

forwarding the data request to the second computing node, or accepting and processing the data request.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, the method further comprising:

at the first computing node;

maintaining mapping information, wherein, prior to the data transfer, the mapping information identifies that the first data set is mapped to the first computing node.

17. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein:

each load information unit for each computing node comprises information relating to resource usage of each data set of each tenant maintained on the computing node.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein:

the first load information unit for the first computing node is higher than a load information unit for any other computing node of the multiple computing nodes; and

the second load information unit for the second computing node is lower than a load information unit for any other computing node of the multiple computing nodes.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein selecting an operation to perform based on the size of the one or more data updates comprises:

determining whether the size of the one or more data updates exceeds a pre-determined threshold number of elements; and

selectively updating the mapping information based on whether the size of the one or more data updates exceeds the pre-determined threshold number of elements.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, the method further comprises:

at the first computing node;

in response to determining that the size of the one or more data updates exceeds the pre-determined threshold number of elements, maintaining the mapping information without any updates, such that all data requests for the first data set are accepted and processed by the first computing node; and

in response to determining that the size of the one or more data updates does not exceed the pre-determined threshold number of elements;

updating the mapping information, wherein the updated mapping information identifies that the first data set is mapped to the second computing node, such that all data requests for the first data set are forwarded to the second computing node; and

communicating the updated mapping information to at least one node of the multiple computing nodes.