Providing optimized quality of service to prioritized virtual machines and applications based on quality of shared resources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9515899-B2
Application number	US-201213720566-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2012
Priority date	Dec 19, 2012
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

Quality of service is provided to prioritized VMs and applications, based on the varied quality of different shared computing resources. Each VM or application has an associated priority. A quality rating is dynamically assigned to each shared computing resource. Requests for shared computing resources made by specific VMs or applications are received. For each specific received request, the current priority of the requesting VM or application is identified. In response to each received request, a specific shared computing resource is assigned to the specific requesting VM or application. This assignment is made based on the current priority of the requesting VM or application and the current quality rating of the shared computing resource, thereby providing quality of service to the requesting VM or application corresponding to its current priority.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
dynamically assigning a quality rating to each one of a plurality of shared computing resources, wherein
the quality rating quantifies a plurality of static and dynamic qualitative factors concerning the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources, and
the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources is accessible by one or more applications executed by one or more virtual machines executed by a physical computer;

receiving one or more requests for a shared computing resource from one or more requesting applications, wherein
each of the one or more requesting applications is assigned a priority;

identifying, for each of the one or more requests, the priority of the requesting application; and
in response to the each of the one or more requests, assigning a shared computing resource to the requesting application, wherein
the assigning is based on the priority of the requesting application and the quality rating of the shared computing resource.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the one or more applications executed by the one or more virtual machines executed by the physical computer further comprise a plurality of virtual machines executed by a single host.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the one or more applications executed by the one or more virtual machines further comprises an application executed by a specific virtual machine executed by a single host.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources further comprises a resource that is shared among the one or more applications executed by the one or more virtual machines executed by the physical computer.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
periodically evaluating the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources;
determining a current quality rating for the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources, based on a current status of the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources; and
assigning the current quality rating to the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the quality rating quantifies a plurality of qualitative factors concerning a specific type of shared computing resource.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the quality rating quantifies a plurality of qualitative factors concerning the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the quality rating further comprises a single quantification of an overall quality of the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the priority of the one or more applications further comprises an indicator of a quality of service to be provided to the requesting application relative to other applications executed by the one or more virtual machines executed by the physical computer.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the receiving one or more requests for a shared computing resource further comprises:
the one or more requests for a shared computing resource being made by the one or more virtual machines to a hypervisor.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the receiving one or more requests for a shared computing resource further comprises:
receiving requests to access a virtual disk made by the one or more virtual machines.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the identifying, for the each one of the plurality of requests, the priority of the requesting application further comprises:
identifying the requesting application, from the one or more requesting applications, that made the request; and
retrieving a current priority of the requesting application.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 wherein the identifying the requesting application, from the one or more requesting applications, that made the request further comprises:
identifying a logical unit identifier (LUN) of a storage unit targeted by an input/output (IO) operation, the IO operation comprising the request.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein:
the receiving one or more requests for a shared computing resource further comprises receiving one or more requests to initiate input/output (IO) operations targeting a storage device;
the plurality of shared computing resources further comprises a plurality of queues, wherein
each queue of the plurality of queues is configured to access the storage device with a different level of priority; and

the assigning a shared computing resource to the requesting application further comprises assigning one queue of the plurality of queues to the requesting application.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
logging information documenting usage of the plurality of shared computing resources by the one or more applications over time.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the receiving one or more requests for a shared computing resource further comprises:
receiving one or more requests to access a multipathed storage device from the one or more requesting applications.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 wherein:
the plurality of shared computing resources further comprises a plurality of queues, wherein
each queue of the plurality of queues is configured to access one path of a plurality of paths to physical storage; and

the dynamically assigning a quality rating to the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources further comprises assigning a level of priority to each queue of the plurality of queues.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 wherein:
the plurality of shared computing resources further comprises a plurality of paths to physical storage; and
the dynamically assigning a quality rating to the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources further comprises
assigning one or more quality ratings to each path of the plurality of paths, wherein
the one or more quality ratings quantify the quality of the each path of the plurality of paths.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable to:
dynamically assign a quality rating to each one of a plurality of shared computing resources, wherein
the quality rating quantifies static and dynamic qualitative factors concerning the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources, and
the each one of the plurality of shared computing resources is accessible by one or more applications executed by one or more virtual machines executed by a physical computer;

receive one or more requests for a shared computing resource from one or more requesting applications, wherein
each of the one or more requesting applications is assigned a priority;

identify, for each of the one or more requests, the priority of the requesting application; and
in response to the each of the one or more requests, assign a shared computing resource to the requesting application, wherein
assigning is based on the priority of the requesting application and the quality rating of the shared computing resource.

20. A computer system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory coupled to the one or mo

Assignees

• Veritas Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Vemuri Hari Krishna
• Goyal Shweta
• Awasthi Nirendra

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04L41/5022 Primary

  by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service · CPC title

• H04L67/322

  Electricity · mapped topic