Hypervisor exchange with virtual-machine consolidation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10445123-B2
Application number	US-201615189108-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2016
Priority date	Jan 19, 2015
Publication date	Oct 15, 2019
Grant date	Oct 15, 2019

Abstract

A hypervisor exchange, e.g., an upgrade, can include consolidating resident virtual machines into a single host virtual machine, exchanging an old hypervisor with a new (upgraded) hypervisor, and disassociating the virtual resident virtual machines by migrating them to the new hypervisor. The consolidating can involve migrating the resident virtual machines from the old hypervisor to a guest hypervisor on the host virtual machine. The exchange can involve: 1) suspending the host virtual machine before the exchange; and 2) resuming the host virtual machine after the exchange; or migrating the host virtual machine from a partition including the old hypervisor to a partition hosting the new hypervisor. Either way, an exchange (upgrade) is achieve without requiring a bandwidth consuming migration over a network to a standby machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A hypervisor-exchange process comprising:
executing plural virtual machines on an old hypervisor that executes on a machine;
consolidating the plural virtual machines by migrating them from the old hypervisor to a guest hypervisor running in a host virtual machine executing on the old hypervisor while the old hypervisor is executing on the machine;
exchanging the old hypervisor for a new hypervisor so that the plural virtual machines are executing on the guest hypervisor, the guest hypervisor is executing on the host virtual machine, the host virtual machine is executing on the new hypervisor, and the new hypervisor is executing on the machine; and
disassociating the plural virtual machines by migrating them, while the guest hypervisor is executing on the host virtual machine that is executing on the new hypervisor and the new hypervisor is executing on the machine, from the guest hypervisor to the new hypervisor.

2. The hypervisor-exchange process of claim 1 wherein the new hypervisor is an upgrade of the old hypervisor.

3. The hypervisor-exchange process of claim 1 further comprising:
suspending, before the exchanging and by the old hypervisor, the host virtual machine; and
resuming, after the exchanging and by the new hypervisor, the host virtual machine.

4. The hypervisor-exchange process of claim 1 further comprising:
partitioning the machine to form source and target partitions, with the plural virtual machines executing on the source partition;
installing the new hypervisor on the target partition; and
migrating the host virtual machine from the source partition to the target partition.

5. The hypervisor-exchange process of claim 4 wherein the consolidating occurs before the partitioning.

6. The hypervisor-exchange process of claim 4 wherein the consolidating occurs after the partitioning.

7. The hypervisor-exchange process of claim 1 wherein:
the executing includes executing additional virtual machines on the old hypervisor;
the consolidating includes migrating the additional virtual machines to additional guest hypervisors running on additional host virtual machines running on the old hypervisor; and
the disassociating includes migrating the additional virtual machines from the additional guest hypervisors to the new hypervisor.

8. A hypervisor-exchange system comprising non-transitory media encoded with code that, when executed by a processor, implements a process including:
executing plural virtual machines on an old hypervisor that executes on a machine;
consolidating the plural virtual machines by migrating them from the old hypervisor to a guest hypervisor running in a host virtual machine executing on the old hypervisor while the old hypervisor is executing on the machine;
exchanging the old hypervisor for a new hypervisor so that the plural virtual machines are executing on the guest hypervisor, the guest hypervisor is executing on the host virtual machine, the host virtual machine is executing on the new hypervisor, and the new hypervisor is executing on the machine; and
disassociating the plural virtual machines by migrating them, while the guest hypervisor is executing on the host virtual machine that is executing on the new hypervisor and the new hypervisor is executing on the machine, from the guest hypervisor to the new hypervisor.

9. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 8 wherein the new hypervisor is an upgrade of the old hypervisor.

10. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 8 wherein the process further includes:
suspending, before the exchanging and by the old hypervisor, the host virtual machine; and
resuming, after the exchanging and by the new hypervisor, the host virtual machine.

11. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 8 wherein the process further includes:
partitioning the machine to form source and target partitions, with the plural virtual machines executing on the source partition;
installing the new hypervisor on the target partition; and
migrating the host virtual machine from the source partition to the target partition.

12. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 11 wherein the consolidating occurs before the partitioning.

13. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 11 wherein the consolidating occurs after the partitioning.

14. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 8 wherein:
the executing includes executing additional virtual machines on the old hypervisor;
the consolidating includes migrating the additional virtual machines to additional guest hypervisors running on additional host virtual machines; and
the disassociating includes migrating the additional virtual machines from the additional guest hypervisors to the new hypervisor.

15. The hypervisor-exchange system of claim 8 further comprising the processor.

Assignees

• Deguillard Xavier
• Gunti Mukund
• Drzewiecki Adrian
• Venkatasubramanian Rajesh
• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Deguillard Xavier
• Gunti Mukund
• Drzewiecki Adrian
• Venkatasubramanian Rajesh

Classifications

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title

• G06F8/656

  while running · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/0647

  Migration mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/0607

  by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device · CPC title