Proactive high availability in a virtualized computer system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10430248-B2
Application number	US-201514751856-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Apr 17, 2015
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

A method of managing virtual resources executing on a hardware platform that employs sensors to monitor the health of hardware resources of the hardware platform, includes filtering sensor data from the hardware platform and combining the sensor data with a fault model for the hardware platform to generate a health score, receiving an inventory that maps the virtual resources to the hardware resources of the hardware platform, receiving resource usage data describing use of the hardware resources of the hardware platform by the virtual resources, and generating resource utilization metrics from the resource usage data. The method includes receiving policy data specifying rules applicable to the inventory, determining a set of recommendations for changes to the inventory based on the health score, the resource usage data, and the policy data, and executing at least one recommendation to implement the changes to the inventory.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of managing virtual resources executing on a hardware platform including hardware-based sensors and software-based sensors that monitor health of one or more hardware resources of the hardware platform, the method comprising:
generating event data for the hardware platform based at least in part on at least one change in sensor data, the at least one change in sensor data comprising at least one of: a memory error code, a fan revolutions per minute (RPM) value, a power supply voltage, a central processing unit (CPU) temperature, or a chassis temperature;
applying weights to the event data based on a fault model for the hardware platform to generate a health score that describes risk factors for an availability of the one or more hardware resources;
receiving an inventory mapping the virtual resources to the hardware resources of the hardware platform;
receiving resource usage data describing use of the hardware resources of the hardware platform by the virtual resources and generating resource utilization metrics from the resource usage data, the resource utilization metrics describing a performance metric for each of the hardware resources;
receiving policy data specifying rules applicable to the inventory, comprising a virtual resource to virtual resource affinity rule;
determining a set of recommendations for changes to at least one of the virtual resources based on the health score, the resource utilization metrics, and the policy data; and
implementing at least one recommendation in the set of recommendations for changes to the at least one of the virtual resources, the at least one recommendation comprising a migration of a particular virtual resource to a particular hardware resource, wherein the migration is allowed to violate the virtual resource to virtual resource affinity rule based at least in part on the health score.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one recommendation comprises causing one of the virtual resources to enter into a maintenance state.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the virtual resources comprise at least one of a virtual computing instance, a virtual disk, or a virtual network connection.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hardware platform comprises at least one of a host computer, a cluster of host computers, a storage device, or a network device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the resource utilization metrics comprise at least one of processor utilization, memory utilization, storage utilization, or network utilization.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the rules specified in the policy data comprises a metric for at least one of virtual resource-to-hardware resource affinity, virtual resource-to-virtual resource affinity, operation of virtual devices of the virtual resources, performance of the virtual resources, or availability of the virtual resources, and wherein the policy data describes at least one relationship between a plurality of the rules.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein implementing the at least one recommendation comprises:
outputting a request for approval for each of the at least one recommendation; and
executing a workflow for each of the at least one recommendation in response to receiving a response to the respective request indicating the approval.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
outputting a request for approval for each of the at least one recommendation;
receiving a response indicating a non-approved recommendation of the at least one recommendation; and
updating at least one of a filter that filters the sensor data or the policy data based on the response indicating the non-approved recommendation.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein implementing the at least one recommendation comprises migrating one of the virtual resources from one of the hardware resources to another of the hardware resources.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein implementing the at least one recommendation comprises restarting a virtual computing instance of the virtual resources on one host of the hardware resources.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein implementing the at least one recommendation comprises causing one of the virtual resources to enter into a maintenance state.

12. A computer system for managing virtual resources of a hardware platform including hardware-based sensors and software-based sensors that monitor health of one or more hardware resources of the hardware platform, the computer system comprising:
a memory configured to store code; and
a processor, coupled to the memory, configured to execute the code to cause the computer system to:
generate event data for a hardware platform based at least in part on at least one change in sensor data, the at least one change in sensor data comprising at least one of: a memory error code, a fan revolutions per minute (RPM) value, a power supply voltage, a central processing unit (CPU) temperature, or a chassis temperature;
apply weights to the event data based on a fault model for the hardware platform to generate a health score that describes risk factors for an availability of the one or more hardware resources;
receive an inventory mapping virtual resources to the hardware resources of the hardware platform;
receive resource usage data describing use of the hardware resources of the hardware platform by the virtual resources and generating resource utilization metrics from the resource usage data, the resource utilization metrics describing a performance metric for each of the hardware resources;
receive policy data specifying rules applicable to the inventory, comprising a virtual resource to virtual resource affinity rule;
determine a set of recommendations for changes to at least one of the virtual resources based on the health score, the resource utilization metrics, and the policy data; and
implement at least one recommendation in the set of recommendations for changes to the at least one of the virtual resources, the at least one recommendation comprising a migration of a particular virtual resource to a particular hardware resource, wherein the migration is allowed to violate the virtual resource to virtual resource affinity rule based at least in part on the health score.

13. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one recommendation comprises causing one of the virtual resources to enter into a maintenance state.

14. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the hardware platform comprises at least one of a host computer, a cluster of host computers, a storage device, or a network device, and wherein the virtual resources comprise at least one of a virtual computing instance, a virtual disk, or a virtual network connection.

15. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein each of the rules specified in the policy data comprises a metric for at least one of virtual resource-to-hardware resource affinity, virtual resource-to-virtual resource affinity, operation of virtual devices of the virtual resources, performance of the virtual resources, or availability of the virtual resources, and wherein the policy data describes at least one relationship between a plurality of the rules.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions for managing virtual resources executing on a hardware platform including hardware-based sensors and software-based sensors that monitor health of one or more hardware resources of the hardware platform, wherein the instructions, when executed in a computer system, cause the computer system to:
generate event data for a hardware platform based at least in p

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Wiggers Maarten
• Krishnan Manoj
• KAPUR Anil
• Farkas Keith
• Holler Anne

Classifications

• G06F9/5077 Primary

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

• G06F11/301

  where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems (virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077) · CPC title

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title

• G06F11/3089

  Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents (software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466) · CPC title

• G06F11/3072

  where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting · CPC title