System and method for managing size of clusters in a computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10346191-B2
Application number	US-201615368381-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2016
Priority date	Dec 2, 2016
Publication date	Jul 9, 2019
Grant date	Jul 9, 2019

Abstract

A number of hosts in a logical cluster is adjusted up or down in an elastic manner by tracking membership of hosts in the cluster using a first data structure and tracking membership of hosts in a spare pool using a second data structure, and upon determining that a triggering condition for adding another host is met and that all hosts in the cluster are being used, selecting a host from the spare pool, and programmatically adding an identifier of the selected host to the first data structure and programmatically deleting the identifier of the selected host from the second data structure.

First claim

We claim:

1. In a data center comprising a cluster of hosts, a spare host pool, and a failed host pool, a method of adjusting the number of hosts in the cluster, said method comprising:
tracking membership of hosts in the cluster using a first data structures;
tracking membership of hosts in the spare host pool using a second data structure;
tracking membership of hosts in the failed host pool using a third data structure;
determining that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts based on determining that an availability of a virtual machine (VM) executing on a first host in the cluster falls below a minimum availability threshold value;
selecting a second host from the spare host pool;
programmatically adding an identifier of the selected second host to the first data structures;
programmatically deleting the identifier of the selected second host from the second data structure;
migrating the VM from the first host to the second host;
programmatically adding an identifier of the first host to the third data structure; and
programmatically deleting the identifier of the first host from the first data structure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts is based on determining the existence of a partial or total failure of the first host in the cluster.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
copying data locally stored in the first host to a storage device accessible by the cluster.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts is based on determining that an average resource utilization in the first host in the cluster is greater than an upper threshold average resource utilization.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the average resource utilization is an average CPU utilization or an average memory utilization.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that an average resource utilization in a host in the cluster is less than a lower threshold average resource utilization;
migrating all VMs from the host in the cluster with the the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization to another host in the cluster; and
programmatically adding an identifier of the host with the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization to the second data structure and programmatically deleting the identifier of the host with the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization from the first data structure.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
copying data locally stored in the host with the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization to a storage device accessible by the cluster.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that are executable in a computing device to cause the computing device to perform, in a data center comprising a cluster of hosts, a spare host pool, and a failed host pool, the steps of:
tracking membership of hosts in the cluster using a first data structures;
tracking membership of hosts in the spare host pool using a second data structure;
tracking membership of hosts in the failed host pool using a third data structure;
determining that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts based on determining that an availability of a virtual machine (VM) executing on a first host in the cluster falls below a minimum availability threshold value;
selecting a second host from the spare host pool;
programmatically adding an identifier of the selected second host to the first data structures;
programmatically deleting the identifier of the selected second host from the second data structures;
migrating the VM from the first host to the second host;
programmatically adding an identifier of the first host to the third data structure; and
programmatically deleting the identifier of the first host from the first data structure.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein determining that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts is based on determining the existence of a partial or total failure of the first host in the cluster.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the steps further comprise:
copying data locally stored in the first host to a storage device accessible by the cluster.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein determining that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts is based on determining that an average resource utilization in the first host in the cluster is greater than an upper threshold average resource utilization.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the average resource utilization is an average CPU utilization or an average memory utilization.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the steps further comprise:
determining that an average resource utilization in a host in the cluster is less than a lower threshold average resource utilization;
migrating all VMs from the host in the cluster with the the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization to another host in the cluster; and
programmatically adding an identifier of the host with the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization to the second data structure and programmatically deleting the identifier of the host with the utilization average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization from the first data structure.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the steps further comprise:
copying data locally stored in the host with the average resource utilization being less than the lower threshold average resource utilization to a storage device accessible by the cluster.

15. A system of computers, comprising:
a cluster of hosts;
a spare pool of hosts;
a failed pool of hosts; and
a management server configured to:
track membership of hosts in the cluster using a first data structures;
track membership of hosts in the spare pool of hosts using a second data structure;
track membership of hosts in the failed pool of hosts using a third data structure;
determine that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts based on determining that an availability of a virtual machine (VM) executing on a first host in the cluster falls below a minimum availability threshold value;
select a second host from the spare pool of hosts;
programmatically add an identifier of the selected second host to the first data structures;
programmatically delete the identifier of the selected second host from the second data structure;
migrate the VM from the first host to the second host;
programmatically add an identifier of the first host to the third data structure; and
programmatically delete the identifier of the first host from the first data structure.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the management server is further configured to:
determine that the cluster does not include a sufficient number of operable hosts based on determining the existence of a partial or total failure of the first host in the cluster.

17. The system of claim 15 , wh

Assignees

• Vmware Inc
• Wmware Inc

Inventors

• Krishnan Manoj
• Agarwal Anant
• Chandrasekaran Rahul
• Mahindrakar Prafulla
• Cherukupalli Ravi

Classifications

• G06F9/5088

  involving task migration · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2209/505

  Clust · CPC title

• G06F9/5061

  Partitioning or combining of resources · CPC title

• G06F9/5077

  Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455) · CPC title