Activity initiated virtual machine migration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9760389-B2
Application number	US-201313844711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

Briefly, embodiments of methods or systems for activity initiated virtual machine migration are disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
issuing a first at least one executable instruction to a host operating system of a first computing device to operate as a low-power computing device via labeling;
issuing a second at least one executable instruction to a host operating system of a second computing device to operate as a performance computing device via labeling;
wherein the low-power computing device and the performance computing device has same hardware characteristics;
detecting a decrease in activity performed by a first virtual machine;
migrating the first virtual machine to the low-power computing device responsive to the detected decrease in activity; and
wherein migration of the first virtual machine from the performance computing device to the low-power computing device is to bring about a reduction in power consumed by the first virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the migrating comprises live migration of the first virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the migrating further comprises:
pre-copying contents of a first plurality of memory locations from a plurality of memory locations accessible to the first virtual machine;
suspending the activity performed by the first virtual machine; and
post-copying contents of a second plurality of memory locations from a plurality of memory locations accessible to the first virtual machine after the suspending.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the suspending is at least partially in response to detecting that a rate of the pre-copying is within 10% of a threshold modification rate of the first plurality of memory locations.

5. The method of claim 3 , and further comprising:
restarting the first virtual machine at the low-power computing device.

6. The method of claim 3 , and further comprising:
detecting an increase in activity performed by a second virtual machine functioning on the low-power computing device; and
migrating the second virtual machine to a performance computing device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting the decrease in activity performed by the first virtual machine comprises:
detecting that the decrease in activity approaches a threshold.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first at least one executable instruction is for the first computing device to accommodate a first number of virtual machines.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the second at least one executable instruction is for the second computing device to accommodate a second number of virtual machines.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the migration of the first virtual machine is to bring about a reduction in power consumed by the first virtual machine of at least a threshold amount.

11. An apparatus comprising:
one or more processors to:
issue a first at least instructions to a host operating system of a first computing device to operate, as a low-power computing device via label;
issue a second at least one instruction to a host operating system of a second computing device to operate as a performance computing device via label;
wherein the low-power computing device and the performance computing device has same hardware characteristics;
detect a change in a level of activity to be performed by a virtual machine via the execution on the one or more processors; and
initiate migration of the virtual machine to the low-power computing device based, at least in part, on the to be detected change in a level of activity;
wherein migration of the virtual machine from the performance computing device to the low-power computing device is to bring about a reduction in power to be consumed by the virtual machine.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the change in the level of activity to comprise a decrease in the level of activity, and wherein the migration to comprise live migration of the virtual machine to the low-power computing device.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the change in the level of activity to comprise an increase in the level of activity, and wherein the migration to comprise live migration of the virtual machine from the low-power computing device to a performance computing device.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors is additionally to:
receive direction from a virtual machine manager, the direction to bring about the one or more processors to initiate the migration of the virtual machine.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors is additionally to:
receive direction from the virtual machine manager, the direction to bring about a suspension of an operation of at least one of the one or more processors.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the change in the level of activity to comprise a change in electronic message traffic between the low-power computing device and at least one external device.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 , further comprising:
a memory array coupled to the one or more processing units, wherein the threshold reduction in power to be consumed by the virtual machine to correspond to within 4.5% to 5.5% of allocated capacity.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the first at least one instruction for the first computing device is to accommodate a first number of virtual machines and the second at least one instruction for the second computing device is to accommodate a second number of virtual machines.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the migration of the virtual machine is to bring about a reduction in power consumed by the virtual machine of at least a threshold amount.

20. An article comprising:
a non-transitory storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by a special purpose computing apparatus to:
issue a first at least one executable instruction to a first computing device to operate as a low-power computing device via label;
issue a second at least one executable instruction to a second computing device to operate as a performance computing device via label;
wherein the low-power computing device and the performance computing device has same hardware characteristics;
initiate migration of a virtual machine from the performance device to the low-power computing device in response to detection of a decrease in activity to be performed by the virtual machine;
wherein migration of a virtual machine from the performance computing device to the low-power computing device is to bring about a reduction in power to be consumed by the virtual machine.

21. The article of claim 20 , wherein the non-transitory storage medium additionally comprises machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:
copy portions of at least a first memory block to be accessible to the virtual machine; and
suspend the activity to be performed by the virtual machine.

22. The article of claim 21 , wherein the non-transitory storage medium additionally comprises machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:
copy portions of at least a second memory block to be accessible to the virtual machine after the suspension.

23. The article of claim 21 , wherein the non-transitory storage medium additionally comprises machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by the special purpose computing apparatus to:
detect that a rate of the copying is with

Assignees

• Excalibur Ip Llc

Inventors

• Daly Tim
• Budzinski Jeff
• Cheng Annie

Classifications

• G06F2009/4557

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

• G06F2009/45591

  Monitoring or debugging support · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45575

  Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances · CPC title