Hypervisor remedial action for a virtual machine in response to an error message from the virtual machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11340926-B2
Application number	US-201815997636-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 4, 2018
Priority date	Jun 18, 2013
Publication date	May 24, 2022
Grant date	May 24, 2022

Abstract

Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems include a hypervisor receiving an error message from an agent within a first virtual machine run by the hypervisor. In response to the error message, the hypervisor determines and initiates a corrective action for the hypervisor to take in response to the error message. An exemplary corrective action includes initiating a reset of the first virtual machine or a reset of a second virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, from an agent within a first virtual machine running on a hypervisor, a policy message associated with the first virtual machine with regard to a policy, the policy message comprising a report of a performance of the first virtual machine, the report comprising an amount of time that elapsed before the first virtual machine transmitted a heartbeat or since the first virtual machine transmitted the heartbeat;
based at least on the amount of time that elapsed, determining, by the hypervisor, an amount of delay the hypervisor observes before resetting the first virtual machine; and
updating, by the hypervisor, the policy based at least on the determined amount of delay the hypervisor observes before resetting the first virtual machine.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the policy includes how the hypervisor reacts to an error message from the agent, the error message indicating a problem with a functionality of the first virtual machine.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the policy message includes an amount of time that elapsed after a reset and before the first virtual machine transmitted the heartbeat.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the policy includes an amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to a failure to receive the heartbeat from the first virtual machine.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein updating the policy comprises updating the amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to the failure to receive the heartbeat based on a cumulative of monitored performance values.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein updating the policy comprises updating the amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to the failure to receive the heartbeat based on an average of monitored performance values.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the average of monitored performance values comprises averaging the amount of time that elapsed after a reset and before the first virtual machine transmitted a heartbeat for multiple resets.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform method comprising:
receiving, from an agent within a first virtual machine running on a hypervisor, a policy message associated with the first virtual machine with regard to a policy, the policy message comprising a report of a performance of the first virtual machine, the report comprising an amount of time that elapsed before the first virtual machine transmitted a heartbeat or since the first virtual machine transmitted the heartbeat;
based at least on the amount of time that elapsed, determining, by the hypervisor, an amount of delay the hypervisor observes before resetting the first virtual machine; and
updating, by the hypervisor, the policy based at least on the determined amount of delay the hypervisor observes before resetting the first virtual machine.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the policy includes how the hypervisor reacts to an error message from the agent, the error message indicating a problem with a functionality of the first virtual machine.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the policy message includes an amount of time that elapsed after a reset and before the first virtual machine transmitted the heartbeat.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the policy includes an amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to a failure to receive the heartbeat from the first virtual machine.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein updating the policy comprises updating the amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to the failure to receive the heartbeat based on a cumulative of monitored performance values.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein updating the policy comprises updating the amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to the failure to receive the heartbeat based on an average of monitored performance values.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the average of monitored performance values comprises averaging the amount of time that elapsed after a reset and before the first virtual machine transmitted a heartbeat for multiple resets.

15. An apparatus comprising a processing device, wherein the processing device executes instructions that cause one or more processors to:
receiving, from an agent within a first virtual machine running on a hypervisor, a policy message associated with the first virtual machine with regard to a policy, the policy message comprising a report of a performance of the first virtual machine, the report comprising an amount of time that elapsed before the first virtual machine transmitted a heartbeat or since the first virtual machine transmitted the heartbeat;
based at least on the amount of time that elapsed, determining, by the hypervisor, an amount of delay the hypervisor observes before resetting the first virtual machine; and
updating, by the hypervisor, the policy based at least on the determined amount of delay the hypervisor observes before resetting the first virtual machine.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the policy includes how the hypervisor reacts to an error message from the agent, the error message indicating a problem with a functionality of the first virtual machine.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the policy message includes an amount of time that elapsed after a reset and before the first virtual machine transmitted the heartbeat.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the policy includes an amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to a failure to receive the heartbeat from the first virtual machine.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein updating the policy comprises updating the amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to the failure to receive the heartbeat based on a cumulative of monitored performance values.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein updating the policy comprises updating the amount of time the hypervisor waits before reacting to the failure to receive the heartbeat based on an average of monitored performance values, and wherein the average of monitored performance values comprises averaging the amount of time that elapsed after a reset and before the first virtual machine transmitted a heartbeat for multiple resets.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Vavrick Rostislav
• Farkas Keith
• Desai Smriti
• Oxman Baruch

Classifications

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title

• G06F9/445

  Program loading or initiating (bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F11/0712

  in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title