Virtual machine placement in a cloud computing environment based on factors including optimized processor-memory affinity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017060611-A1
Application number	US-201514839967-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 29, 2015
Priority date	Aug 24, 2015
Publication date	Mar 2, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Optimized placement of virtual machines in a cloud environment is based on factors that include processor-memory affinity. A smart migration mechanism (SMM) predicts an optimization score for multiple permutations of placing virtual machines on a target system to create an optimal move list. The optimization score is a theoretical score calculated using dynamic platform optimization (DPO). The SMM may allow the user to set initial parameters and change the parameters to create potential changes lists. The move lists are ranked to allow the user to select the optimal change list to provide the best affinity, quickest fulfillment of requirements and least disruption for a given set of parameters.

First claim

1 . An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a source system with a plurality of virtual machines and a target system; and a smart migration mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, wherein the smart migration mechanism generates multiple move lists wherein each move list comprises one permutation of an ordered list for placing the plurality of virtual machines on the target system; and wherein the smart migration mechanism predicts an optimization score for each of the multiple move lists to determine an optimal move list having the best optimization score and using the optimal move list to move the at least one virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines from the source system to the target system.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the optimization score is a theoretical score calculated using dynamic platform optimization.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the smart migration mechanism scores the multiple move lists with primary and secondary factors, wherein the primary factors include processor memory affinity of the virtual machines placed on the target systems.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the smart migration mechanism creates a no-move list that is referenced when scoring the multiple permutations to create the optimal move list.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism gives a user a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for the ranked move lists and allows the user to select a move list from the plurality of ranked move lists to use as the optimal move list.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism ranks the multiple move lists and provides a user with a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for each of the ranked move lists, and allows the user to change initial parameters, and when the user changes parameters, the smart migration mechanism repeats predicting an optimization score for the multiple move lists.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the smart migration mechanism determines no move lists are needed and performs simple virtual machine migrations.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates virtual machines to target systems according to the optimal move list.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates a virtual machine to a system that causes a lower priority virtual machine to drop below a minimum score but the migration also causes a higher priority virtual machine a significant increase in score that results in an overall increase in system performance.

10 . A program product comprising:
a smart migration mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, wherein the smart migration mechanism generates multiple move lists wherein each move list comprises one permutation of an ordered list for placing a plurality of virtual machines on a target system; and wherein the smart migration mechanism predicts an optimization score for each of the multiple move lists to determine an optimal move list having the best optimization score and using the optimal move list to move the at least one virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines from a source system to the target system; and computer-readable media bearing the smart migration mechanism.

11 . The program product of claim 10 wherein the optimization score is a theoretical score calculated using dynamic platform optimization.

12 . The program product of claim 11 wherein the smart migration mechanism scores the multiple move lists with primary and secondary factors, wherein the primary factors include processor memory affinity of the virtual machines placed on the target systems.

13 . The program product of claim 12 wherein the smart migration mechanism creates a no-move list that is referenced when scoring the multiple permutations to create the optimal move list.

14 . The program product of claim 10 wherein the smart migration mechanism gives a user a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for the ranked move lists and allows the user to select a move list from the plurality of ranked move lists to use as the optimal move list.

15 . The program product of claim 10 wherein the smart migration mechanism ranks the multiple move lists and provides a user with a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for each of the ranked move lists, and allows the user to change initial parameters, and when the user changes parameters, the smart migration mechanism repeats predicting an optimization score for the multiple move lists.

16 . The program product of claim 15 wherein the smart migration mechanism determines no move lists are needed and performs simple virtual machine migrations.

17 . The program product of claim 10 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates virtual machines to target systems according to the optimal move list.

18 . The program product of claim 10 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates a virtual machine to a system that causes a lower priority virtual machine to drop below a minimum score but the migration also causes a higher priority virtual machine a significant increase in score that results in an overall increase in system performance.

19 . An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a source system with a plurality of virtual machines and a target system; and a smart migration mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, wherein the smart migration mechanism generates multiple move lists wherein each move list comprises one permutation of an ordered list for placing the plurality of virtual machines on the target system; wherein the smart migration mechanism predicts an optimization score for each of the multiple move lists to determine an optimal move list having the best optimization score and using the optimal move list to move the at least one virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines from the source system to the target system; wherein the optimization score is a theoretical score calculated using dynamic platform optimization; wherein the smart migration mechanism scores the multiple move lists with primary and secondary factors, wherein the primary factors include processor memory affinity of the virtual machines placed on the target systems; and wherein the smart migration mechanism ranks the multiple move lists and provides a user with a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for each of the ranked move lists, and allows the user to change initial parameters, and when the user changes parameters, the smart migration mechanism repeats predicting an optimization score for the multiple move lists.

20 . The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates a virtual machine to a system that causes a lower priority virtual machine to drop below a minimum score but the migration also causes a higher priority virtual machine a significant increase in score that results in an overall increase in system performance.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Birkestrand Daniel C
• Heyrman Peter J
• Prosser Edward C

Classifications

• G06F2009/4557

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

• G06F9/5088

  involving task migration · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/5016

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• G06F9/4856

  resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration (G06F9/5088 takes precedence) · CPC title