Guest Hypervisor Multi-VM Snapshot Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hypervisor technologies do not provide effective solutions for taking multi-virtual-machine snapshots or synchronized single-virtual-machine snapshots, which are crucial for maintaining a consistent state of multi-tiered business applications like web services, database applications, and analytics across different virtual machines with varying hardware configurations.
Innovation Solution
A process is developed where a host virtual machine with a guest hypervisor is created, allowing other virtual machines to be migrated onto it, and a snapshot is taken of the host virtual machine, which includes the state data of all migrated virtual machines, effectively creating a multi-VM snapshot from a single-VM snapshot.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a snapshot is taken of each virtual machine individually, then the snapshot process is simple to implement, but the system state consistency across multiple virtual machines cannot be ensured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple virtual machine snapshots into a single consolidated snapshot by introducing a snapshot manager that coordinates snapshot operations across multiple VMs. The snapshot manager collects state information from multiple virtual machines and merges them into one unified snapshot record, ensuring consistency while simplifying the overall snapshot process.
Solution Approach 2:
The snapshot manager acts as an intermediary between the hypervisor and multiple virtual machines. It receives snapshot requests, coordinates the snapshotting process across all involved VMs, and ensures that the resulting snapshot represents a consistent system state without requiring complex direct coordination between individual VMs.
2Reliability
If synchronized snapshots of multiple virtual machines are taken simultaneously, then consistent state across multi-tiered applications is achieved, but the time required for snapshot operations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The snapshot manager performs preliminary actions by first identifying all virtual machines that need to be snapshot and preparing their state information before finalizing the consolidated snapshot. This preliminary organization of data from multiple VMs allows for more efficient snapshot creation and reduces the overall time required for synchronized snapshot operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The snapshot process is segmented into distinct phases: identification of involved VMs, collection of state information, and consolidation into a unified snapshot. This segmentation allows the system to manage multiple VM snapshots in an organized manner, reducing the time overhead of coordinating synchronized snapshots across multiple virtual machines.
3Adaptability or versatility
If hardware differences between computers are accommodated, then virtual machines can be transferred between different hardware configurations, but the complexity of maintaining hardware compatibility increases
Solution Approach 1:
The snapshot format is designed to be universal and hardware-agnostic, capturing only the software state of virtual machines without embedding hardware-specific information. This universal snapshot structure allows the same snapshot to be restored on different hardware configurations, providing adaptability while avoiding the complexity of hardware compatibility management.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transferring actual virtual machine instances between different hardware configurations, the patent creates and transfers copies in the form of snapshots. These snapshot copies contain all necessary state information in a standardized format that can be restored on any compatible system, eliminating hardware compatibility issues while maintaining the ability to transfer VM states across different hardware platforms.
Data Source
AI summary
A process of obtaining, in effect, a multi-virtual-machine snapshot by taking a single-virtual-machine snapshot begins with creating, by a host hypervisor, a host virtual machine and a guest hypervisor. The guest hypervisor executes on the host virtual machine. Virtual machines to be included together in an effective multi-virtual-machine snapshot are migrated to the guest hypervisor. A single-virtual-machine snapshot is taken, by the host hypervisor, of the host virtual machine. The snapshot contains the state data for the virtual machines migrated to the guest hypervisor.