Methods and apparatus to transfer physical hardware resources between virtual rack domains in a virtualized server rack

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016011900-A1
Application number	US-201514788210-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2015
Priority date	Jul 11, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to transfer physical hardware resources between virtual rack domains in a virtualized server rack are disclosed. An example method includes determining, using a processor, a subset of candidate hosts that includes a host capacity that meets a first threshold, the candidate hosts belonging to a first virtual rack domain; determining, using the processor, whether the first virtual rack domain will meet an operating requirement of the first virtual rack domain if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain; and when the first virtual rack domain will meet the operating requirement if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain, transferring the subset of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain to a second virtual rack domain.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
determining, using a processor, a subset of candidate hosts that includes a host capacity that meets a first threshold, the candidate hosts belonging to a first virtual rack domain; determining, using the processor, whether the first virtual rack domain will meet an operating requirement of the first virtual rack domain if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain; and when the first virtual rack domain will meet the operating requirement if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain, transferring the subset of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain to a second virtual rack domain.

2 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further including receiving, as part of a request to move the host capacity, a value of the first threshold via a user interface.

3 . A method as defined in claim 2 , wherein the host capacity includes at least one of processing capacity, random access memory capacity, storage capacity, or network bandwidth.

4 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein transferring the subset of the candidate hosts is performed in response to receiving an authorization, via a user interface, approving the transfer.

5 . A method as defined in claim 4 , further including presenting, via the user interface, an indication of an effect of moving the subset of the candidate hosts on a workload executing in the first virtual rack domain.

6 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein transferring the subset of the candidate hosts includes:
evacuating, from the subset of the candidate hosts, a first workload assigned to the subset of the candidate hosts; directing the subset of the candidate hosts to a maintenance mode;
removing an association between the subset of the candidate hosts and the first virtual rack domain; and
adding the subset of the candidate hosts to the second virtual rack domain.

7 . A method as defined in claim 6 , wherein adding the subset of the candidate hosts to the second virtual rack domain includes configuring the subset of the candidate hosts to include a characteristic of the second virtual rack domain.

8 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein determining whether the removal of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain will result in the first virtual rack domain failing to meet the operating requirement includes:
selecting the subset of the candidate hosts from a set of hosts configured to operate in the first virtual rack domain; calculating a characteristic of the first virtual rack domain based on the subset of the candidate hosts being removed from the first virtual rack domain; and comparing the characteristic to a characteristic threshold that corresponds to the operating requirement.

9 . An apparatus, comprising:
a host identifier to determine a subset of candidate hosts that includes host capacity that meets a first threshold, the candidate hosts belonging to a first virtual rack domain; a domain requirement analyzer to determine whether the first virtual rack domain will meet an operating requirement of the first virtual rack domain if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain; and a host transferor to, when the first virtual rack domain will meet the operating requirement if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain, transfer the subset of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain to a second virtual rack domain.

10 . An apparatus as defined in claim 9 , further including a user interface to receive, as part of a request to move the host capacity, a value of the first threshold.

11 . An apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein the host capacity includes at least one of processing capacity, random access memory capacity, storage capacity, or network bandwidth.

12 . An apparatus as defined in claim 9 , further including a user interface to receive an authorization approving the transfer, the domain requirement analyzer to calculate an effect on a workload executed in the first virtual rack domain, and the host transferor is to transfer the subset of the candidate hosts based on the authorization.

13 . An apparatus as defined in claim 12 , wherein the user interface is to present an indication of the effect of moving the subset of the candidate hosts on the workload executing in the first virtual rack domain.

14 . An apparatus as defined in claim 9 , wherein the host transferor includes:
a workload evacuator to evacuate, from the subset of the candidate hosts, a first workload assigned to the subset of the candidate hosts; a maintenance monitor to direct the subset of the candidate hosts to a maintenance mode; and
a domain monitor to remove an association between the subset of the candidate hosts and the first virtual rack domain and to add the subset of the candidate hosts to the second virtual rack domain.

15 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein host transferor is to add the subset of the candidate hosts to the second virtual rack domain by configuring the subset of the candidate hosts to include a characteristic of the second virtual rack domain.

16 . An apparatus as defined in claim 9 , wherein the domain requirement analyzer is to determine whether removal of the subset of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain will result in the first virtual rack domain failing to meet the operating requirement by:
selecting the subset of the candidate hosts from a set of hosts configured to operate in the first virtual rack domain;
calculating a characteristic of the first virtual rack domain based on the subset of the candidate hosts being removed from the first virtual rack domain; and
comparing the characteristic to a characteristic threshold that corresponds to the operating requirement.

17 . A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:
determine a subset of candidate hosts that includes a host capacity that meets a first threshold, the candidate hosts belonging to a first virtual rack domain; determine whether the first virtual rack domain will meet an operating requirement of the first virtual rack domain if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain; and when the first virtual rack domain will meet the operating requirement if the subset of the candidate hosts is removed from the first virtual rack domain, transferring the subset of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain to a second virtual rack domain.

18 . A storage medium as defined in claim 17 , wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to access, from a request to move the host capacity, a value of the first threshold.

19 . A storage medium as defined in claim 17 , wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to determine whether removal of the subset of the candidate hosts from the first virtual rack domain will result in the first virtual rack domain failing to meet the operating requirement by:
selecting the subset of the candidate hosts from a set of hosts configured to operate in the first virtual rack domain; calculating a characteristic of the first virtual rack domain based on the subset of the candidate hosts being removed from the first virtual rack domain; and comparing the characteristic to a characteristic threshold that corresponds to

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Reddy Thirumalesh
• Yavatkar Raj
• Indireddy Sreekantha
• Ankala Shreekanth

Classifications

• H04L47/70

  Admission control; Resource allocation · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L43/20

  the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV · CPC title

• H04L41/0897

  by horizontal or vertical scaling of resources, or by migrating entities, e.g. virtual resources or entities · CPC title

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title