Virtual machine suspension

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9971616-B2
Application number	US-201313777201-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2013
Priority date	Feb 26, 2013
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

A method and system for suspending and resuming a virtual machine. The method and system include a hypervisor to provide a guest operating system of a virtual machine with an instruction for the virtual machine to enter a sleep mode. The hypervisor receives, from the guest operating system, a confirmation that the virtual machine is in the sleep mode. Following receipt of confirmation that the virtual machine is in sleep mode, the hypervisor suspends the virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
in response to receiving a request to suspend an operation of a virtual machine executed by a processing device of a host computing system comprising host storage, providing, by the processing device executing a hypervisor to a guest operating system of the virtual machine, an instruction for the virtual machine to enter a sleep mode, wherein entering the sleep mode comprises:
storing state information of the virtual machine to a random access memory (RAM) of the guest operating system, wherein the RAM remains powered in the sleep mode; and
sending, during the sleep mode, a suspension notification to an application of the virtual machine to enable the application to flush data to a disk prior to suspension of the virtual machine;

receiving, by the hypervisor from the guest operating system, a confirmation that the virtual machine is in the sleep mode; and
in response to receiving the confirmation, migrating the state information of the virtual machine to the host storage.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the host storage comprises at least one of a local disk or an external disk.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
migrating, by the hypervisor, the virtual machine information from the host storage to the RAM; and
issuing, by the hypervisor, a resume instruction to the guest operating system to wake up the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the instruction for the virtual machine to enter the sleep mode comprises a S3 ACPI command.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the confirmation received by the hypervisor confirms that the state information of the virtual machine has been stored in a file within the RAM.

6. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:
in response to receiving a request to suspend an operation of a virtual machine executed by the processing device of a host computing system comprising host storage, provide, by the processing device executing a hypervisor to a guest operating system of the virtual machine, an instruction for the virtual machine to enter a sleep mode, wherein entering the sleep mode wherein entering the sleep mode causes the processing device to:
store state information of the virtual machine to a random access memory (RAM) of the guest operating system, wherein the RAM remains powered in the sleep mode; and
send, during the sleep mode, a suspension notification to an application of the virtual machine to enable the application to flush data to a disk prior to suspension of the virtual machine;

receive, by the processing device from the guest operating system, a confirmation that the virtual machine is in the sleep mode; and
in response to receipt of the confirmation, migrate the state information of the virtual machine to the host storage.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the host storage comprises at least one of a local disk or an external disk.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 ,
wherein the processing device further to:
migrate, by the processing device, the virtual machine information from the host storage to the RAM; and
issue, by the processing device, a resume instruction to the guest operating system to wake up the virtual machine.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the instruction for the virtual machine to enter the sleep mode comprises a S3 ACPI command.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the confirmation received by the hypervisor confirms the state information of the virtual machine has been stored in a file within the RAM.

11. A system comprising:
a memory to store instructions; and
a processing device of a host computing system, operatively coupled to the memory, to execute the instructions to cause the processing device to:
in response to a request to suspend an operation of a virtual machine, provide an instruction for the virtual machine to enter a sleep mode, wherein entering the sleep mode causes the processing device to:
store state information of the virtual machine to a random access memory (RAM) of the guest operating system, wherein the RAM remains powered in the sleep mode; and
send, during the sleep mode, a suspension notification to an application of the virtual machine to enable the application to flush data to a disk prior to suspension of the virtual machine;

receive a confirmation that the virtual machine is in the sleep mode; and
in response to receipt of the confirmation, migrate the virtual machine the state information of the virtual machine to the memory.

12. The system of claim method of claim 11 , the processing device to:
migrate the virtual machine information from the memory to the RAM; and
issue a resume instruction to the guest operating system to wake up the virtual machine.

13. The system of claim 11 , the virtual machine to enter the sleep mode comprises a S3 ACPI command.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the confirmation confirms the state information of the virtual machine has been stored in a file within the RAM.

Assignees

• Red Hat Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Kaul Yaniv

Classifications

• G06F2009/45575

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

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title