Adjusting virtual machine migration plans based on alert conditions related to future migrations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9928100-B2
Application number	US-201514869769-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2015
Priority date	Jun 23, 2015
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Migration of virtual machines within a computing environment is facilitated. A processor obtains a current virtual machine to host mapping in the computing environment, as well as a plurality of future virtual machine to host mappings. A current migration plan to migrate from a current state of the computing environment to another state of the computing environment is also obtained. Based on the current virtual machine to host mapping and one or more future virtual machine to host mappings of the plurality of future virtual machine to host mappings a determination is made that one or more potential alert conditions exist in the current migration plan. The current migration plan and/or one or more future virtual machine to host mappings are displayed. The current migration plan is adjusted to address at least one potential alert condition of the one or more potential alert conditions to improve processing within the computing environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating migration of virtual machines within a computing environment, said computer-implemented method comprising:
obtaining, by a processor, a current virtual machine-to-host mapping identifying a plurality of virtual machines executing in a current state of the computing environment;
obtaining, by the processor, a plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings, each of the future virtual machine-to-host mappings identifying the virtual machines to be executed in a future state of the computing environment;
obtaining, by the processor, a current migration plan including scheduled migration destinations and scheduled migration times for a subset of the virtual machines, the current migration plan to improve processing within the computing enviroment;
determining, based on the current virtual machine-to-host mapping and one or more future virtual machine-to-host mappings of the plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings, whether one or more alert conditions exist in the current migration plan, wherein determining an alert condition of the one or more alert conditions comprises:
selecting a virtual machine (VM) from the subset of virtual machines; and
identifying a ping-pong effect for the selected virtual machine, the ping-pong effect indicating that the virtual machine is scheduled to move from its current host of the computing environment to a future destination host, and then return back to the current host within a predefined amount of time;

displaying, on a graphical user interface, the current virtual machine-to-host mapping and at least multiple future virtual machine-to-host mappings of the plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings, wherein the displaying further comprises:
displaying the at least multiple future virtual machine-to-host mappings at different points of time in the future, in response to control action of a slider bar on the graphical user interface; and
visually alerting a user about the identified ping-pong effect associated with the selected VM;

responsive to the determined alert condition and the identified ping-pong effect, adjusting the current migration plan by modifying a migration destination corresponding to the selected VM and delaying a scheduled migration time with an adjusted interval to address the alert condition; and
migrating the plurality of virtual machines according to the adjusted current migration plan, the migration transitioning the computing environment from the current state to the future state.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the displaying includes providing an indication on the graphical user interface that one or more alert conditions exist, based on determining the one or more alert conditions exist.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the displaying comprises displaying on the graphical user interface a table, the table including one or more future virtual machine-to-host mappings at a particular point in time, and specifying the one or more alert conditions.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the displaying comprises displaying a graphical representation on the graphical user interface, the graphical representation including at least a portion of the plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings, and indicating that one or more alert conditions exist.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting comprises:
determining, by the processor, that an adjustment is to be made to the current migration plan; and
performing, by the processor, the adjustment to the current migration plan to provide a revised current migration plan.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting comprises:
obtaining, by the processor, an indication by a user that an adjustment is to be made to the current migration plan; and
performing, by the processor, the adjustment to the current migration plan to provide a revised current migration plan.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the obtaining the indication comprises determining that the user performed an action on the graphical user interface to indicate that an adjustment is to be made.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the action comprises at least one of a drag and drop of a selected virtual machine on a chosen host, or a pin action to pin a virtual machine on a host.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining the plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings comprises:
determining a time interval in which the plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings are to be obtained; and
obtaining the plurality of future virtual machine-to-host mappings based on the time interval.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the determining the time interval comprises one of: obtaining the time interval from a user via the graphical user interface or selecting, by the processor, the time interval.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the different points in time are selected by a user sliding the slider bar on the graphical user interface.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dow Eli M
• Gilchrist James P
• Schmidt Steven K
• Stocker Iv Charles J

Classifications

• G06F2009/4557

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

• G06F3/04847

  Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials · CPC title

• H04L41/0856

  by backing up or archiving configuration information · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title