Systems and methods for modifying power states in a virtual environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9933832-B2
Application number	US-201313828144-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software are described herein for operating a power management system including identifying a virtual machine load in a virtual machine environment, identifying a power state for at least one real machine in the virtual machine environment based on the virtual machine load, and modifying the power state for the at least one real machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
identifying a virtual machine load for a plurality of computers based at least on polling hypervisors executing on the plurality of computers, wherein each computer in the plurality of computers executes at least one hypervisor, and wherein the virtual machine load for the plurality of computers comprises a quantity of virtual machines executing on the plurality of computers and a quantity of virtual machines waiting to be started on the plurality of computers;
identifying at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from at least one computer to one or more other computers in the plurality of computers based on the virtual machine load;
identifying a modified power state for the at least one computer in the plurality of computers;
migrating the at least one virtual machine to the one or more other computers; and
in response migrating the at least one virtual machine, changing a current power state for the at least one computer to the modified power state for the at least one computer, wherein the modified power state comprises a power saving state over the current power state.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from the at least one computer to the one or more other computers in the plurality of computers comprises identifying the at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from the at least one computer to the one or more other computers, wherein the one or more other computers have capacity to process the at least one virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying at least one secondary computer in the plurality of computers without any executing virtual machines, identifying a second modified power state for the at least one secondary computer, and changing a current power state for the at least one secondary computer to the second modified power state for the at least one secondary computer, wherein the second modified power state comprises a power saving state over the current power state for the at least one secondary computer.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein changing the current power state for the at least one secondary computer to the second modified power state for the at least one secondary computer comprises one of:
changing the at least one secondary computer from a powered on state to a powered off state; or
changing the at least one secondary computer from an awake state to a sleep state.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the current power state comprises a powered on state and the modified power state comprises a powered off state.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the current power state comprises an awake state and the modified power state comprises a sleep state.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having program instruction stored thereon that, when executed by a computing system, direct the computing system to at least:
identify a virtual machine load for a plurality of computers based at least on polling hypervisors executing on the plurality of computers, wherein each computer in the plurality of computers executes at least one hypervisor, and wherein the virtual machine load for the plurality of computers comprises a quantity of virtual machines executing on the plurality of computers and a quantity of virtual machines waiting to be started on the plurality of computers;
identify at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from at least one computer to one or more other computers in the plurality of computers based on the virtual machine load;
identify a modified power state for the at least one computer in the plurality of computers;
migrate the at least one virtual machine to the one or more other computers; and
in response to migrating the at least one virtual machine, change a current power state for the at least one computer to the modified power state for the at least one computer, wherein the modified power state comprises a power saving state over the current power state.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the program instructions, to direct the computing system to identify the at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from the at least one computer to the one or more other computers, direct the computing system to identify the at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from the at least one computer to the one or more other computers, wherein the one or more other computers have capacity to process the at least one virtual machine.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the program instructions further direct the computing system to identify at least one secondary computer in the plurality of computers without any executing virtual machines, identify a second modified power state for the at least one secondary computer, and change a current power state for the at least one secondary computer to the second modified power state for the at least one secondary computer, wherein the second modified power state comprises a power saving state over the current power state for the at least one secondary computer.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the program instructions, to direct the computing system to change the current power state for the at least one secondary computer to the second modified power state for the at least one secondary computer, direct the computing system to:
change the at least one secondary computer from a powered on state to a powered off state; or
change the at least one secondary computer from an awake state to a sleep state.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the current power state comprises a powered on state and the modified power state comprises a powered off state.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 wherein the current power state comprises an awake state and the modified power state comprises a sleep state.

13. A power management system comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media;
a processing system operatively coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media; and
program instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media that, when read and executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least:
identify a virtual machine load for a plurality of computers based at least on polling hypervisors executing on the plurality of computers, wherein each computer in the plurality of computers executes at least one hypervisor, and wherein the virtual machine load for the plurality of computers comprises a quantity of virtual machines executing on the plurality of computers and a quantity of virtual machines waiting to be started on the plurality of computers;
identify at least one virtual machine that can be consolidated from at least one computer to one or more other computers in the plurality of computers based on the virtual machine load, and identify a modified power state for the at least one computer in the plurality of computers; and
migrate the at least one virtual machine to the one or more other computers and, in response to migrating the at least one virtual machine, change a current power state for the at least one computer to the modified power state for the at least one computer, wherein the modified power state comprises a power saving state over the current power state.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the current power state comprises a powered on state and the modified power state comprises a powered

Assignees

• Cloudvolumes Inc
• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Conover Matthew
• Parekh Rajesh H

Classifications

• G06F1/3287

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title

• G06F1/3206

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title

• Y02B60/1282

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F1/3228

  Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands · CPC title

• G06F1/3234 Primary

  Power saving characterised by the action undertaken · CPC title