Techniques for virtual machine migration

• US 9,841,991 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2014
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Sizemore, Glenn
• Primary Examiner(s): Kamran, Mehran
• Application Number:
  US14/296,695
• Publication Number:
  US 20150324227A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,286 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/48 Program initiating; Program switching, e.g. by interrupt
• 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 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

Techniques for virtual machine migration are described. An apparatus may comprise a script generation component operative to generate a first script, the first script to migrate a guest operating system running on a first virtual machine to run on a second virtual machine. The first script may be operative to collect configuration information of the guest operating system, generate a second script based on the collected configuration information, and configure the guest operating system to execute the second script, the configuration information collected while the guest operating system is running on the first virtual machine, the guest operating system configured for the execution of the second script to occur while the guest operating system is running on the second virtual machine. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

retrieving information regarding a source virtual machine provided by a source hypervisor and a destination virtual machine provided by a destination hypervisor;

using the retrieved information to generate a first script for migrating a guest operating system executed at the source virtual machine to the destination virtual machine;

wherein the first script is generated by an application using script elements with assignable template variable values for performing a plurality of tasks for migrating the guest operating system;

determining that the source virtual machine is accessible to automated commands;

executing the first script in the guest operating system running on the source virtual machine, the first script collecting configuration information of the guest operating system based on current guest operating system configuration and by querying the guest operating system and configuration files of the guest operating system;

generating a second script by the first script based on the collected configuration information using script elements specific to a source hypervisor type and a destination hypervisor type; and

executing the second script in the guest operating system running on the destination virtual machine, the second script reconfiguring the guest operating system using reconfiguration commands that are encoded by the first script, to run the guest operating system on the destination virtual machine;

wherein the source hypervisor and destination hypervisor differ in hardware virtualization as to prevent the guest operating system from making full use of the destination virtual machine without reconfiguration.

2. The method of claim 1, the configuration information collected comprising a mapping between one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine and media access control addresses assigned to the one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine, wherein the second script reconfigures the guest operating system by creating associations between the guest operating system and one or more network interfaces of the destination virtual machine based on the mapping.

3. The method of claim 1, the first script executed in the guest operating system using at least one of a remote access application programming interface of the guest operating system or a remote administration application programming interface of a hypervisor for the source virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the source virtual machine is inaccessible to automated commands; and

generating the first script as an offline script operative for human-initiated execution.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring the guest operating system running on the source virtual machine to automatically execute the second script on a next booting up of the guest operating system;

shutting down the guest operating system; and

booting up the guest operating system on the destination virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the application uses power cycling of the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine for monitoring progress of the first script and the second script, without having to install agents within the guest operating systems.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second script is generated using script elements specific to a source virtual machine type and a destination virtual machine type.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor circuit on a device;

a script generation component operative on the processor circuit to generate a first script, the first script to migrate a guest operating system running on a source virtual machine to run on a destination virtual machine;

wherein information regarding the source virtual machine provided by a source hypervisor and the destination virtual machine provided by a destination hypervisor is retrieved and the script generation component uses the retrieved information to generate the first script with assignable template variable values for performing a plurality of tasks for migrating the guest operating system;

the first script operative to collect configuration information of the guest operating system by querying the guest operating system and configuration files of the guest operating system, generate a second script based on the collected configuration information using script elements specific to a source hypervisor type and a destination hypervisor type, and configure the guest operating system to execute the second script, the configuration information collected while the guest operating system is running on the source virtual machine, the guest operating system configured for the execution of the second script to occur while the guest operating system is running on the destination virtual machine using reconfiguration commands that are encoded by the first script;

wherein the source hypervisor and destination hypervisor differ in hardware virtualization as to prevent the guest operating system from making full use of the destination virtual machine without reconfiguration.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, the configuration information collected comprising a mapping between one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine and media access control addresses assigned to the one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine, wherein the second script reconfigures the guest operating system by creating associations between the guest operating system and one or more network interfaces of the destination virtual machine based on the mapping.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a remote access component operative on the processor circuit to command the guest operating system to execute the first script using at least one of a remote access application programming interface of the guest operating system or a remote administration application programming interface of the source hypervisor for the source virtual machine.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a remote access component operative on the processor circuit to determine that the source virtual machine is inaccessible to automated commands; and

the script generation component operative to generate the first script as an offline script operative for human-initiated execution based on the remote access component determining that the source virtual machine is inaccessible to automated commands.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the first script operative to configure the guest operating system running on the source virtual machine to automatically execute the second script on a next booting up of the guest operating system and shut down the guest operating system;

the remote access component operative on the processor circuit to command a hypervisor to boot up the guest operating system on the destination virtual machine.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein power cycling of the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine is used for monitoring progress of the first script and the second script, without having to install agents within the guest operating systems.

14. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

retrieve information regarding a source virtual machine provided by a source hypervisor and a destination virtual machine provided by a destination hypervisor;

use the retrieved information to generate a first script for migrating a guest operating system executed at the source virtual machine to the destination virtual machine;

wherein the first script is generated by an application using script elements with assignable template variable values for performing a plurality of tasks for migrating the guest operating system;

determine that the source virtual machine is accessible to automated commands;

execute the first script in the guest operating system running on the source virtual machine, the first script collecting configuration information of the guest operating system based on current guest operating system configuration and by querying the guest operating system and configuration files of the guest operating system and generating a second script based on the collected configuration information using script elements specific to a source hypervisor type and a destination hypervisor type; and

execute the second script in the guest operating system running on the destination virtual machine, the second script reconfiguring the guest operating system using reconfiguration commands that are encoded by the first script to run the guest operating system on the destination virtual machine;

wherein the source hypervisor and destination hypervisor differ in hardware virtualization as to prevent the guest operating system from making full use of the destination virtual machine without reconfiguration.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, the configuration information collected comprising a mapping between one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine and media access control addresses assigned to the one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine, wherein the second script reconfigures the guest operating system by creating associations between the guest operating system and one or more network interfaces of the destination virtual machine based on the mapping.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, the first script executed in the guest operating system using at least one of a remote access application programming interface of the guest operating system or a remote administration application programming interface of a hypervisor for the source virtual machine.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

determine that the source virtual machine is inaccessible to automated commands; and

generate the first script as an offline script operative for human-initiated execution.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

configure the guest operating system running on the source virtual machine to automatically execute the second script on a next booting up of the guest operating system;

shut down the guest operating system; and

boot up the guest operating system on the destination virtual machine.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the application uses power cycling of the source virtual machine and the destination virtual machine for monitoring progress of the first script and the second script, without having to install agents within the guest operating systems.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the second script is generated using script elements specific to a source virtual machine type and a destination virtual machine type.

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

retrieving information regarding a source virtual machine provided by a source hypervisor and a destination virtual machine provided by a destination hypervisor;

using the retrieved information to generate a first script for migrating a guest operating system executed at the source virtual machine to the destination virtual machine;

wherein the first script is generated by an application using script elements with assignable template variable values for performing a plurality of tasks for migrating the guest operating system;

determining that the source virtual machine is accessible to automated commands;

executing the first script in the guest operating system running on the source virtual machine, the first script collecting configuration information of the guest operating system based on current guest operating system configuration and by querying the guest operating system and configuration files of the guest operating system;

generating a second script by the first script based on the collected configuration information using script elements specific to a source hypervisor type and a destination hypervisor type; and

executing the second script in the guest operating system running on the destination virtual machine, the second script reconfiguring the guest operating system using reconfiguration commands that are encoded by the first script, to run the guest operating system on the destination virtual machine;

wherein the configuration information collected comprising a mapping between one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine and media access control addresses assigned to the one or more network interfaces of the source virtual machine, wherein the second script reconfigures the guest operating system by creating associations between the guest operating system and one or more network interfaces of the destination virtual machine based on the mapping.