Hybrid Network VM Migration via Secure Tunneling
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Solution Overview
Problem
The process of live migration of virtual machines in hybrid networks faces challenges such as hardware incompatibility, virtualization software incompatibility, network address portability, and secure communication channel establishment, especially when migrating between private and public networks.
Innovation Solution
A framework and procedure are developed to establish a secure communication channel and network tunnel infrastructure between disparate networks, enabling the migration of virtual machines by replicating their state and transferring network addresses, using techniques like pre-copy and post-copy approaches, and establishing a secure tunnel infrastructure for live migration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If live migration is performed between hosts in different network environments (private to public network), then resource mobility and flexibility are improved, but hardware incompatibility and virtualization software incompatibility issues arise
Solution Approach 1:
A network tunnel is established as an intermediary layer between the private network and public network, enabling virtual machine migration across heterogeneous network environments. The tunnel abstracts the underlying network differences and provides a unified communication channel, resolving hardware and software incompatibility issues between different network domains.
2Duration of action of moving object
If virtual machine state is replicated during live migration, then service continuity is maintained, but network address portability challenges occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a network address translation layer that operates in the network dimension, separating the virtual machine's internal address space from the external network address space. This allows the virtual machine to maintain its original network identity during migration while the translation layer handles address mapping between different network environments.
3Reliability
If secure communication channels are established between private and public network hosts, then data security is improved, but migration complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple functions into the network tunnel infrastructure: encryption/decryption, address translation, and data forwarding are integrated into a single tunnel mechanism. This merging reduces the number of separate security components needed and simplifies the overall migration system architecture while maintaining comprehensive security.
4Productivity
If virtual machines are migrated across hybrid networks, then resource utilization and availability are improved, but migration time and setup overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The network tunnel infrastructure is pre-established between the source and target hosts before the virtual machine migration begins. This preliminary setup of the secure communication channel and address translation mechanisms eliminates the need for time-consuming configuration during the actual migration process, reducing overall migration time.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are described herein for migrating network addresses between host computers in a hybrid network environment. Before migrating a network address between a source host computer in a first network and a target host computer in a second network, potentially affected host computers in the networks are notified of the upcoming migration. This may cause an address translation module of an affected host computer to enter a fast polling mode. The networking infrastructures of the first and second networks are then reconfigured to effect transfer of the network address. This may include updating overlay IP mappings for the network address being migrated to point to the target host computer. Finally, the affected host computers are notified that migration of the network address is complete, causing the address translation module of the affected host computer to stop fast polling and return to normal operation with update mappings.