Method of Facilitating Live Migration of Virtual Machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016188378-A1
Application number	US-201514976430-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 21, 2015
Priority date	Dec 31, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiment pertain to facilitation of live migration of a virtual machine in a network system. The network system includes a first host, a second host, a first appliance for providing service to the first host, a second appliance for providing service to the second host, and a third appliance. At least one virtual machine is disposed on the first host and has an ongoing first network flow. The first appliance has generated state information about the first network flow. During the migration of the at least one virtual machine to the second host, the third appliance obtains a copy of the state information about the first network flow; and the third appliance takes over from the first appliance to serve the first network flow during the migration of the at least one virtual machine, until the first network flow is terminated.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of facilitating live migration of a virtual machine comprising:
configuring a network system including a first host, a second host, a first appliance, a second appliance, and a third appliance;
the first appliance providing service to the first host and the second appliance providing service to the second host,
at least one virtual machine being disposed on the first host and having a first network flow that is ongoing, and the first appliance generating state information about the first network flow, wherein during the migration of the at least one virtual machine to the second host, the method further comprising:
controlling the third appliance and obtaining a copy of the state information about the first network flow; and
controlling the third appliance to take over from the first appliance and providing service to the first network flow during the migration of the at least one virtual machine until the first network flow terminates.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the state information about the first network flow includes a count of specific network events.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising: controlling the second appliance to provide service to a second network flow of the at least one virtual machine occurring after the migration of the at least one virtual machine to the second host.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the network system further includes a third host, and the method further comprising:
disposing the third appliance on the third host as a virtual appliance in response to the migration of the at least one virtual machine.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the network system further includes a third host, and the third appliance is disposed on the third host as a virtual appliance, and the method further comprising:
removing the third appliance from the third host after the first network flow terminates.

6 . A system comprising:
a management controller, disposed in a network system including a first host, a second host, a first appliance, a second appliance, and a third appliance;
the first appliance provides service to the first host and the second appliance provides service to the second host, and
at least one virtual machine disposed on the first host and having a first network flow that is ongoing, and the first appliance generates state information about the first network flow, wherein during the migration of the at least one virtual machine to the second host;
the management controller to manage live migration of the at least one virtual machine, the live migration further comprising:
the management controller to control the third appliance and obtain a copy of the state information about the first network flow; and
and management controller to control the third appliance to take over from the first appliance and provide service to the first network flow during the migration of the at least one virtual machine until the first network flow terminates.

7 . The network system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the third appliance is independent from the first host and the second host.

8 . The network system as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising a third host, wherein the third appliance is disposed on the third host as a virtual appliance.

9 . The network system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the first appliance is disposed on the first host as a virtual appliance.

10 . The network system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the second appliance is disposed on the second host as a virtual appliance.

11 . The network system as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising a network controller operatively coupled to the management controller, the network controller to route the first network flow of the at least one virtual machine to the third appliance during the migration of the at least one virtual machine to the second host until the first network flow terminates.

12 . The network system as claimed in claim 6 , further comprising a network switch in communication with the at least one virtual machine to the first host, the management controller to modify a setting of the network switch to redirect the first network flow to the third appliance, wherein the first network flow redirection requires the third application to take over from the first appliance and provide service to the first network flow.

13 . The network system as claimed in claim 12 , further comprising the third application to monitor the first network flow for a malicious attack again the migrated at least one virtual machine.

14 . The network system as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the third appliance contains a complete historical record of the first network flow, the record including a count of network events.

15 . The network system as claimed in claim 12 , further comprising a second network flow generated after the migration, the second network flow directed to the first appliance.

16 . The network system as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising the first application to monitor the second network flow.

17 . The network system as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising the management controller to release the third appliance following termination of the first network flow.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Chao Chih-Wen
• Lee Cheng-Ta
• Suen Wei-Shiau
• Wu Travis
• Yuan Lun Pin

Classifications

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title

• G06F9/505

  considering the load · CPC title

• G06F9/5088 Primary

  involving task migration · CPC title