17529891. LIVE MIGRATION BETWEEN HOSTS OF A VIRTUAL MACHINE CONNECTION TO A HOST INTERFACE simplified abstract (International Business Machines Corporation)

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LIVE MIGRATION BETWEEN HOSTS OF A VIRTUAL MACHINE CONNECTION TO A HOST INTERFACE

Organization Name

International Business Machines Corporation

Inventor(s)

JONAS ALEXANDER Pfefferle of RUESCHLIKON (CH)

NIKOLAS Ioannou of Zurich (CH)

JOSE GABRIEL Castanos of Yorktown Heights NY (US)

DANNY Harnik of Tel Aviv (IL)

GAUTAM H. Shah of Shrewsbury MA (US)

LIVE MIGRATION BETWEEN HOSTS OF A VIRTUAL MACHINE CONNECTION TO A HOST INTERFACE - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 17529891 titled 'LIVE MIGRATION BETWEEN HOSTS OF A VIRTUAL MACHINE CONNECTION TO A HOST INTERFACE

Simplified Explanation

The abstract describes a method for live migration of a virtual machine (VM) from one host to another. The migration involves establishing multipath connections between the VM and the host interface functions on the source host. The connections include a direct passthrough path and a software-virtualized path provided by the hypervisor.

  • The passthrough path is switched to the emulated path in case of a failure.
  • The state of the emulated path is saved.
  • The functions corresponding to the source host are exposed on the destination host.
  • The VM is migrated to the destination host.
  • The VM resumes communication with the destination host's host interface from the saved state via the emulated path.
  • Once communication is resumed, a passthrough path is established between the VM and the host interface of the destination host.

Potential Applications

  • Cloud computing: Allows for seamless migration of VMs between different hosts in a cloud environment.
  • Data centers: Enables efficient and uninterrupted VM migration for load balancing or hardware maintenance purposes.

Problems Solved

  • Disruption-free migration: The method ensures continuous communication between the VM and the host interface during the migration process, minimizing downtime.
  • Multipath redundancy: The use of both passthrough and emulated paths provides redundancy and failover capabilities, enhancing the reliability of the migration process.

Benefits

  • Seamless migration: VMs can be migrated between hosts without interrupting their communication with the host interface.
  • Improved reliability: The use of multipath connections and failover mechanisms ensures uninterrupted communication during migration, reducing the risk of data loss or service disruption.


Original Abstract Submitted

Live migration of a virtual machine (VM) includes establishing multipath connections between the VM and functions of host interface on a source host. The multipath connections include a passthrough path and a software-virtualized (or emulated) path provided by a hypervisor of the source host. A failover of the passthrough path to the emulated path is executed, and a state of the emulated path is thereafter saved. On a host interface of a destination host, functions corresponding to those of the source host are exposed. The VM is then migrated from the source host to the destination host. The VM resumes host interface communication with the host interface of the destination host from the saved state via an emulated path provided by a hypervisor of the destination host. After resuming communication, a passthrough path of communication between the VM and the host interface of the destination host is established.

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