Managing virtual machine migration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9250863-B1
Application number	US-98027010-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 28, 2010
Priority date	Dec 28, 2010
Publication date	Feb 2, 2016
Grant date	Feb 2, 2016

Abstract

Systems and method for the management of migrations of virtual machine instances are provided. A migration manager monitors the resource usage of a virtual machine instance over time in order to create a migration profile. When migration of a virtual machine instance is desired, the migration manager schedules the migration to occur such that the migration conforms to the migration profile.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for the migration of virtual machine instances in a virtual network, comprising:
a processor configured with specific computer-executable instructions to:
receive a set of migration policies, the policies including specified parameters for migration of a virtual machine instance from a first physical computing device to a second physical computing device;
monitor a resource use of the virtual machine instance;
determine, based on the monitored resource use of the virtual machine instance, a pattern of resource use of the virtual machine instance;
identify, based on the determined pattern of resource use of the virtual machine instance, a future pattern of resource use of the virtual machine instance;
create a migration profile based at least in part on the identified future pattern of resource use and the received migration policies; and
in response to receiving a request to cause migration of the virtual machine instance:
determine, for each of a set of potential future migration times distinct from a present point in time, an estimated unavailability of the virtual machine if migrated during the potential future migration time, wherein each estimated unavailability is determined based at least in part on the identified future pattern of resource use of the virtual machine;
select a migration time from the set of potential future migration times based at least in part on the estimated unavailability of the virtual machine if migrated at the selected migration time; and
cause the virtual machine instance to be migrated according to the migration profile at the selected migration time.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to cause the virtual machine instance to be migrated at least partially according to a copy-on-write mechanism.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identified future pattern of resource use includes time periods in which a resource use of the virtual machine will be below a specified resource use level.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received set of migration policies indicate time periods in which migration of a virtual machine instance may not occur.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received set of migration policies indicate time periods in which migration of a virtual machine instance is preferred to occur.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received set of migration policies specify a maximum amount of time virtual machine instances may be unavailable during migration.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the maximum amount of time virtual machine instances may be unavailable is variable.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the created migration profile includes periods of time in which migration of the virtual machine instance would result in the virtual machine instance being unavailable for not more than the maximum amount of time virtual machine instances may be unavailable during migration.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determined pattern of resource use is a pattern which occurs within a specified time period.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the migration manager is further operable to:
monitor a migration of the virtual machine instance; and
limit a rate of the migration such that the migration consumes network resources within a specified range.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the specified range is determined at least in part according to an amount of network resources available to the virtual machine instance.

12. A method for migrating virtual machine instances in a virtual network, the method comprising:
monitoring a resource use of the virtual machine instance;
determining a pattern of resource use of the virtual machine instance;
identifying a future pattern of resource use of the virtual machine instance;
creating a migration profile based at least in part on the identified future pattern of resource use; and
in response to receiving a request to cause migration of the virtual machine instance:
determining, for each of a set of potential future migration times distinct from a present point in time, an estimated unavailability of the virtual machine if migrated during the potential future migration time, wherein each estimated unavailability is determined based at least in part on the identified future pattern of resource use of the virtual machine;
selecting a migration time from the set of potential future migration times based at least in part on the estimated unavailability of the virtual machine if migrated at the selected migration time; and
causing the virtual machine instance to be migrated according to the migration profile at the selected migration time.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein causing the virtual machine instance to be migrated according to the migration profile includes causing the virtual machine instance to be migrated at least partially according to a copy-on-write mechanism.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the identified future pattern of resource use includes time periods in which a resource use of the virtual machine will be below a specified resource use level.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the determined pattern of resource use is a pattern which has occurred within a specified time period.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising:
receiving a set of migration policies, the policies including specified parameters for migration of a virtual machine instance from a first physical computing device to a second physical computing device;
wherein creating the migration profile includes creating the migration profile based at least in part on the received set of migration policies.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the received set of migration policies indicate time periods in which migration of a virtual machine instance may not occur.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the received set of migration policies indicate time periods in which migration of a virtual machine instance is preferred to occur.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the received set of migration policies specify a maximum amount of time virtual machine instances may be unavailable during migration.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the maximum amount of time virtual machine instances may be unavailable is based, at least in part, on a time period.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein creating the migration profile includes creating a migration profile including periods of time in which migration of the one or more virtual machine instances would result in the one or more virtual machine instances being unavailable for not more than the maximum amount of time virtual machine instances may be unavailable during migration.

22. The method of claim 12 further comprising:
monitoring a migration of the virtual machine instance; and
limiting a rate of the migration such that the migration consumes network resources within a specified range.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the specified range is determined at least in part according to an amount of network resources available to the virtual machine instance.

24. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for migration of virtual machine instances in a virtual network, the computer-executable instructions comprising:
a first set of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to monitor a resource use of the virtual machine instance

Assignees

• Vincent Pradeep
• Thomas Nathan
• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Vincent Pradeep
• Thomas Nathan

Classifications

• G06F2209/5019

  Workload prediction · CPC title

• G06F8/10 Primary

  Requirements analysis; Specification techniques · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

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

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title