Virtual machine homogenization to enable migration across heterogeneous computers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9626206-B2
Application number	US-72635910-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 18, 2010
Priority date	Mar 18, 2010
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

Described is a technology by which a virtual machine may be safely migrated to a computer system with a different platform. Compatibility of the virtual machine may be checked by comparing the virtual machine's capabilities against those of the new platform. To ensure compatibility, when created the virtual machine may have its capabilities limited by the lowest common capabilities of the different platforms available for migration. Computer systems may be grouped into migration pools based upon similar capabilities, and/or a virtual machine may be mapped to certain computer systems based upon capabilities needed by that virtual machine, such as corresponding to needed performance, fault tolerance and/or flexibility.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In a computing environment, a method performed on at least one processor, comprising:
identifying platform-related capabilities of a plurality of computer systems, in which at least two of the computer systems have different hardware-related characteristics;
limiting platform-related capabilities of a virtual machine that is instantiated on a computer system of the plurality of computer systems to a compatible set of hardware-related characteristics that is present among the plurality of computer systems to make the virtual machine compatible with any of the plurality of computer systems, the hardware-related characteristics including non-uniform memory access topologies, or non-uniform I/O access topologies, or both non-uniform memory access topologies and non-uniform I/O access topologies;
providing a virtual non-uniform memory access topology based on a physical non-uniform memory access topology of the plurality of computer systems; and migrating the virtual machine from the computer system of the plurality of computer systems to another computer system of the plurality of computer systems.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein limiting the platform-related capabilities of the virtual machine comprises virtualizing a processor feature set provided to the virtual machine to match a compatible processor feature set that is present among the plurality of computer systems.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein virtualizing the processor feature set comprises selecting features common between different processors of a single vendor, selecting features common between different processors of different vendors, or both selecting features common between different processors of a single vendor and selecting features common between different processors of different vendors.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein limiting the platform-related capabilities of the virtual machine comprises virtualizing processor cache characteristics to match a compatible set of processor cache characteristics that is present among the plurality of computer systems.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein limiting the platform-related capabilities of the virtual machine comprises virtualizing processor-related characteristics to match a compatible set of processor-related characteristics that is present among the plurality of computer systems, the processor-related characteristics including characteristics of control registers, model-specific registers, memory type range registers or address range registers, or any combination of control registers, model-specific registers, memory type range registers or address range registers.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein limiting the platform-related capabilities of the virtual machine comprises virtualizing hardware-related characteristics to match a compatible set of hardware-related characteristics that is present among the plurality of computer systems.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, providing a virtual machine monitor that is compatible with a plurality of versions of virtual machines, or providing a virtual machine operating system that is compatible with a plurality of versions of virtual machine monitors, or both providing a virtual machine monitor that is compatible with a plurality of versions of virtual machines and providing a virtual machine operating system that is compatible with a plurality of versions of virtual machine monitors.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein migrating the virtual machine includes verifying the compatibility of the virtual machine on the other computer system to which the virtual machine is being migrated.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, persisting capability data of the virtual machine on the other computer system to which the virtual machine is being migrated.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, notifying the virtual machine of the migration.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising, grouping computer systems based upon platform-related capabilities to provide a migration pool comprising the plurality of computer systems.

12. In a computing environment, a method performed on at least one processor, comprising:
receiving information corresponding to platform-related capabilities of a plurality of computer systems of which a virtual machine is running on a computer system of the plurality of computer systems; and
mapping the virtual machine to a subset of the plurality of computer systems, including virtualizing hardware-related characteristics of the virtual machine to match a compatible set of hardware-related characteristics that is present among the plurality of computer systems, wherein virtualizing the hardware-related characteristics further comprises configuring the virtual machine with a virtual machine-aware operating system that is operative to adjust to a virtual machine monitor version, the hardware-related characteristics including non-uniform memory access topologies, or non-uniform I/O access topologies, or both non-uniform memory access topologies and non-uniforms I/O access topologies.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the information corresponding to the platform-related capabilities needed by the virtual machine comprises selecting the
platform-related capabilities based upon needed performance, fault tolerance or flexibility, or any combination of performance, fault tolerance or flexibility.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising, running the virtual machine on one computer system of the subset, and migrating the virtual machine to another computer system of the subset, including verifying the compatibility of the virtual machine on the other computer system to which the virtual machine is being migrated.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein verifying the compatibility includes providing capability data of the virtual machine to the other computer system, and further comprising, persisting the capability data of the virtual machine on the other computer system.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein migrating the virtual machine includes, on the other computer system, obtaining CPUID instruction results in response to a CPUID instruction from the virtual machine, adjusting the CPUID instruction results into adjusted CPUID instruction results, returning the adjusted CPU ID instruction results to the virtual machine, restarting the virtual machine, and persisting the adjusted CPUID instruction results.

17. In a computing environment, a system comprising at least one processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and including components comprising:
a system manager coupled to a virtual machine monitor on each of the plurality of computer systems, the system manager controlling migration of a virtual machine from one computer system to another computer system of the plurality of the computer systems by providing capability data of the virtual machine to the virtual machine monitor of the other computer system for use in determining whether the virtual machine running on the one computer system is compatible with the other computer system, virtualizing a compatible set of hardware-related characteristics that is present among the plurality of computer systems to make the virtual machine compatible with the other computer system, configuring the virtual machine to adjust to running on the virtual machine monitor in a different platform, performing live migration of the virtual machine to the other computer system, and persisting the capability data of the virtual machine on the other computer system.

18. The

Assignees

• Bennett Robert Bradley
• Vega René A
• Ganguly Shuvabrata
• Hendel Matthew Douglas
• Davé Rajesh Natvarlal
• Reuther Lars
• Gál Tamás
• Zheng Yuan
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Bennett Robert Bradley
• Vega René A
• Ganguly Shuvabrata
• Hendel Matthew Douglas
• Davé Rajesh Natvarlal
• Reuther Lars
• Gál Tamás
• Zheng Yuan

Classifications

• G06F3/0683

  Plurality of storage devices · CPC title

• G06F9/5055

  considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine · CPC title

• G06F3/0647

  Migration mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/0664

  at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system · CPC title