Capacity risk management for virtual machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10896055-B2
Application number	US-201916374079-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2019
Priority date	Jun 30, 2014
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

Abstract

An access data collector collects access assignment data characterizing active access assignment operations of a hypervisor in assigning host computing resources among virtual machines for use in execution of the virtual machines. Then, a capacity risk indicator calculator calculates a capacity risk indicator characterizing a capacity risk of the host computing resources with respect to meeting a prospective capacity demand of the virtual machines, based on the access assignment data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system including instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executable by at least one processor, the system comprising:
a data collector configured to collect data about activity performed by a hypervisor, the hypervisor activity characterizing operations about assigning hardware resources among a plurality of virtual machines in response to access requests from the plurality of virtual machines for access to the hardware resources, the operations including the transfer of at least one hardware resource of the hardware resources from a first virtual machine to a second virtual machine in the plurality of virtual machines; and
a calculator configured to calculate a pressure based on a number of the operations of the hypervisor activity within at least one time window and in response to a number of the access requests within the at least one time window, and further configured to generate
a capacity risk indicator for the hardware resources based on the pressure,
wherein the hypervisor activity includes reassignment of hardware resources for at least one of the plurality of virtual machines, the reassignment occurring responsive to the capacity risk indicator as being above a predefined threshold.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware resources include memory resources previously allocated to the first virtual machine, and the reassignment of the hardware resources includes reassignment of the memory resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the reassignment of hardware resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine include a portion of the previously allocated memory resources.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reassignment of the hardware resources:
enables the hypervisor to meet a predefined resource expectation;
lowers the pressure calculated for the hypervisor; and
enables temporary access of the hardware resources for the second virtual machine for a predetermined time period based on a service level agreement.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the capacity risk indicator includes disk latency metrics to improve a measurement sensitivity of the capacity risk.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the capacity risk indicator accounts for a plurality of penalty values assigned, to the hypervisor, to increase a pressure measurement for a hardware resource, the penalty values being based at least in part on:
detected ratio of consumed hardware resource to active hardware resource;
detected hardware resource over commitment; and
detected ballooning or swapping of hardware resources.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hardware resources include processor resources previously allocated to the first virtual machine, and the reassignment of the hardware resources includes reassignment of the processor resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the capacity risk indicator is generated based on a combination of the pressure and a saturation risk of the hardware resources.

9. A method comprising:
collecting data about activity performed by a hypervisor, the hypervisor activity characterizing operations about assigning hardware resources among a plurality of virtual machines in response to access requests from the plurality of virtual machines for access to the hardware resources, the operations including the transfer of at least one hardware resource of the hardware resources from a first virtual machine to a second virtual machine in the plurality of virtual machines;
calculating a pressure based on a number of the operations of the hypervisor activity within at least one time window and in response to a number of the access requests within the at least one time window; and
generating a capacity risk indicator for the hardware resources based on the pressure, the hypervisor activity including reassignment of hardware resources for at least one of the plurality of virtual machines, the reassignment occurring responsive to the capacity risk indicator being above a predefined threshold.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the hardware resources include memory resources previously allocated to the first virtual machine, and the reassignment of the hardware resources includes reassignment of the memory resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the reassignment of the hardware resources:
enables the hypervisor to meet a predefined resource expectation;
lowers the pressure calculated for the hypervisor; and
enables temporary access of the hardware resources for the second virtual machine for a predetermined time period based on a service level agreement.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the capacity risk indicator includes disk latency metrics to improve a measurement sensitivity of the capacity risk.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the capacity risk indicator accounts for a plurality of penalty values assigned, to the hypervisor, to increase a pressure measurement for a hardware resource, the penalty values being based at least in part on:
detected ratio of consumed hardware resource to active hardware resource;
detected hardware resource over commitment; and
detected ballooning or swapping of hardware resources.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the hardware resources include processor resources previously allocated to the first virtual machine, and the reassignment of the hardware resources includes reassignment of the processor resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

15. A computer program product including instructions recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and configured to, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
collect data about activity performed by a hypervisor, the hypervisor activity characterizing operations about assigning hardware resources among a plurality of virtual machines in response to access requests from the plurality of virtual machines for access to the hardware resources, the operations including the transfer of at least one hardware resource of the hardware resources from a first virtual machine to a second virtual machine in the plurality of virtual machines;
calculate a pressure based on a number of the operations of the hypervisor activity within at least one time window and in response to a number of the access requests within the at least one time window; and
generate a capacity risk indicator for the hardware resources based on the pressure, the hypervisor activity including reassignment of hardware resources for at least one of the plurality of virtual machines, the reassignment occurring responsive to the capacity risk indicator being above a predefined threshold.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the hardware resources include memory resources previously allocated to the first virtual machine, and the reassignment of the hardware resources includes reassignment of the memory resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the reassignment of hardware resources from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine include a portion of the previously allocated memory resources.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the reassignment of the hardware resources:
enables the hypervisor to meet a predefined

Assignees

• Bmc Software Inc

Inventors

• Sivasubramanian Jeyashree
• Apte Sudheer

Classifications

• G06F11/3433 Primary

  for load management (allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029) · CPC title

• G06F9/5061

  Partitioning or combining of resources · CPC title

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title

• G06F2209/5022

  Workload threshold · CPC title

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title