Virtual machine monitoring in cloud infrastructures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9612853-B2
Application number	US-201213606577-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2012
Priority date	Sep 7, 2012
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

A computer system, and computer program product monitor resource usage of a virtual machine. When a virtual machine is instantiated, resource usage of the virtual machine is monitored to form monitoring data. The monitoring is performed externally from the virtual machine. When the virtual machine is later suspended, the monitoring data is stored as metadata associated with the virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for monitoring resource usage of a virtual machine comprising a computer-readable storage device having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program code executable by a processing unit to cause the processing unit to instantiate the virtual machine;
computer readable program code executable by the processing unit to cause the processing unit to monitor resource usage of the virtual machine to form monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed externally from the virtual machine by a hypervisor having capabilities of a monitoring proxy for virtual machines that it hosts;
computer readable program code executable by the processing unit to cause the processing unit to suspend the virtual machine;
computer readable program code executable by the processing unit to cause the processing unit, responsive to suspending the virtual machine, to format and store the monitoring data, appended by the hypervisor specifically as metadata attached to a virtual machine image in combination with virtual resources associated with the virtual machine, in an image software library, obviating a requirement in monitoring environments to make associations during migration of virtual machines and during configuration changes to applications executing within the virtual machine by maintaining associations between the monitoring data, virtual machine identifiers and virtual machines and tracking changes in virtual machine identifiers, including Internet Protocol IP addresses and media access control addresses of the virtual machine;
computer readable program code executable by the processing unit to cause the processing unit to maintain the monitoring data, as the metadata stored in combination with virtual resources, when one of the virtual machine, or a composite application, migrates to a different cloud environment and when moving the virtual machine between cloud infrastructures including a private cloud and a public cloud; and
computer readable program code executable by the processing unit to cause the processing unit to access the monitoring data as the metadata while the virtual machine is suspended and stored in the image software library and to enable automated population of monitoring data for cloned virtual machine images.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring data is first monitoring data, the computer readable program code further comprising:
computer readable program code for restarting the virtual machine; and
computer readable program code, for monitoring after a restart of the virtual machine, resource usage of the virtual machine to form second monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed externally from the virtual machine by the hypervisor.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 , the computer readable program code further comprising:
computer readable program code for appending, by the hypervisor, the second monitoring data to the first monitoring data as additional metadata.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the computer readable program code for monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form the first monitoring data is performed within a first cloud environment, and wherein the computer readable program code for restarting the virtual machine further comprises:
computer readable program code for migrating the virtual machine and the metadata attached to the virtual machine image associated with the virtual machine to a new cloud environment; and
computer readable program code for restarting the virtual machine in the new cloud environment.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the computer readable program code for monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form second monitoring data is performed within a second cloud environment, the computer readable program code further comprising:
computer readable program code for appending, by the hypervisor, the second monitoring data generated within the second cloud environment to the first monitoring data generated within the first cloud environment as the additional metadata.

6. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the virtual machine is a first virtual machine, and wherein the computer readable program code for monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form monitoring data further comprises:
computer readable program code for monitoring resource usage of the first virtual machine to form the second monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed by a monitoring system executing in a second virtual machine, wherein an interface is defined between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the computer readable program code for suspending the first virtual machine further comprises:
computer readable program code for receiving a call from the image software library of the first virtual machine by the monitoring system;
computer readable program code responsive to receiving the call from the image software library of the first virtual machine by the monitoring system, for forwarding the first monitoring data from the monitoring system to the image software library; and
computer readable program code for appending, by the hypervisor, the first monitoring data as the metadata to existing metadata associated with the first virtual machine as the additional metadata.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the computer readable program code for restarting the first virtual machine further comprises:
computer readable program code for receiving a call from the image software library of the first virtual machine by the monitoring system, wherein the call from the image software library of the first virtual machine instructs the monitoring system to begin collecting the second monitoring data.

9. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the computer readable program code for monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form monitoring data further comprises:
computer readable program code for monitoring resource usage of the virtual machine to form the second monitoring data, wherein the monitoring is performed by the hypervisor.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the computer readable program code for suspending the first virtual machine further comprises:
computer readable program code for suspending the first virtual machine by the hypervisor; and
computer readable program code for appending the first monitoring data as the metadata to the existing metadata associated with the first virtual machine as the additional metadata, wherein the appending is performed by the hypervisor.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 further comprising:
computer readable program code for receiving a set of monitoring requirements for the first virtual machine, wherein the set of monitoring requirements is received by the hypervisor;
computer readable program code for monitoring the resource usage of the first virtual machine according to the set of monitoring requirements for the first virtual machine to form the first monitoring data; and
computer readable program code for appending the first monitoring data as the metadata to the existing metadata associated with the first virtual machine as the additional metadata, wherein the appending is performed by the hypervisor.

12. A computer comprising:
a bus;
a memory, connected to the bus, having computer readable program code embodied therewith for monitoring resource usage of a virtual machine;
at least

Assignees

• Agrawal Dakshi
• Pappas Vasileios
• IBM

Inventors

• Agrawal Dakshi
• Pappas Vasileios

Classifications

• G06F11/3476

  Data logging (G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title