Cloning live virtual machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9727274-B2
Application number	US-201313777892-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2013
Priority date	Feb 26, 2013
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for cloning a live virtual machine (i.e., a virtual machine that is running). In accordance with one example, a computer system prepares an area of a storage device for a clone of a live virtual machine, and a transaction is then executed that comprises: creating the clone of the live virtual machine based on a live snapshot of the live virtual machine, copying the clone to the area of the storage device, and mirroring a change to a virtual disk of the live virtual machine that occurs after the live snapshot is created, wherein the mirroring is via one or more write operations to the virtual disk and to a replica of the virtual disk associated with the clone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
allocating, by a processing device of a computer system comprising main memory, an area of a storage device for a clone of a live virtual machine running on the computer system by preventing the area from being used for storage and cloning operations other than for the clone of the live virtual machine, wherein the live virtual machine comprises a virtual disk;
creating a live snapshot of the live virtual machine by copying the live virtual machine and the virtual disk; and
executing, after the creating the live snapshot, a transaction, wherein the executing comprises:
creating the clone of the live virtual machine on a portion of the main memory in view of the live snapshot of the live virtual machine, the clone comprising a replica of the virtual disk;
copying the clone from the portion of the main memory to the area of the storage device; and
mirroring a change to the virtual disk that occurs after the live snapshot is created, the change comprising a first write operation to the virtual disk, and the mirroring comprising performing a second write operation to the replica of the virtual disk to update the clone with the change, the second write operation corresponding to the change to the virtual disk.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting a failure in at least one of the creating the clone, the copying of the clone, or the mirroring.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising deleting, in response to the detecting, the clone from the area of the storage device.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising rolling back, in response to the detecting, the first and second write operations to the virtual disk and to the replica of the virtual disk, respectively.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising initializing the area.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first write operation and the second write operation are concurrent.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the copying and the mirroring are executed concurrently.

8. An apparatus comprising:
a memory to store a live virtual machine comprising a virtual disk; and
a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to:
allocate an area of a storage device for a clone of the live virtual machine running on the apparatus by preventing the area from being used for storage and cloning operations other than for the clone of the live virtual machine;
create a live snapshot of the live virtual machine by copying the live virtual machine and the virtual disk; and
execute, after the live snapshot is created, a transaction, wherein to execute, the processing device is to:
create the clone of the live virtual machine on a portion of the memory in view of the live snapshot of the live virtual machine, the clone comprising a replica of the virtual disk;
copy the clone from the portion of the memory to the area of the storage device; and
mirror a change to the virtual disk that occurs after the live snapshot is created, the change comprising a first write operation to the virtual disk, wherein to mirror, the processing device is to perform a second write operation to the replica of the virtual disk to update the clone with the change, the second write operation corresponding to the change to the virtual disk.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing device is further to detect a failure in at least one of the creation of the clone, the copying of the clone, or the mirroring.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the processing device is further to delete, in response to the detecting, the clone from the area of the storage device.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the processing device is further to roll back, in response to the detecting, the first and second write operations to the virtual disk and to the replica of the virtual disk, respectively.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the first write operation and the second write operation are concurrent.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the copying and the mirroring are executed concurrently.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a processing device to:
allocate, by the processing device of a computer system comprising main memory, an area of a storage device for a clone of a live virtual machine running on the computer system by preventing the area from being used for storage and cloning operations other than for the clone of the live virtual machine, wherein the live virtual machine comprises a virtual disk;
creating a live snapshot of the live virtual machine by copying the live virtual machine and the virtual disk; and
execute, after the creating the live snapshot, a transaction, wherein to execute, the processing device is to:
create the clone of the live virtual machine on a portion of the main memory in view of the live snapshot of the live virtual machine, the clone comprising a replica of the virtual disk;
copy the clone from the portion of the main memory to the area of the storage device; and
mirror a change to the virtual disk that occurs after the live snapshot is created, the change comprising a first write operation to the virtual disk, wherein to mirror, the processing device is to perform a second write operation to the replica of the virtual disk to update the clone with the change, the second write operation corresponding to the change to the virtual disk.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the processing device is further to detect a failure in at least one of the creation of the clone, the copying of the clone, or the mirroring.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the processing device is further to delete, in response to the detection of the failure, the clone from the area of the storage device.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the processing device is further to roll back, in response to the detection of the failure, the first and second write operations to the virtual disk and to the replica of the virtual disk.

Assignees

• Baron Ayal
• Simoncelli Federico
• Red Hat Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Baron Ayal
• Simoncelli Federico

Classifications

• G06F3/0662

  Virtualisation aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/0605

  by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator · CPC title

• G06F3/0611

  in relation to response time · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title