Nondisruptive Virtual Machine Updates via Snapshot Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing networked computing environments face disruptions and inefficiencies during virtual machine (VM) maintenance, such as updates and patches, which can lead to downtime and impact user productivity and organizational costs.
Innovation Solution
A method for facilitating nondisruptive VM maintenance by creating a snapshot of an active VM, applying updates to the snapshot while saving changes, and seamlessly switching to the updated snapshot as the new active VM, allowing continuous operation without interruption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If updates are installed on the active VM, then the VM becomes outdated and security vulnerabilities are resolved, but service disruption and downtime occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a snapshot of the active VM before applying updates. This preliminary action captures the current state, allowing the update to be applied to the snapshot while the active VM continues to operate. The snapshot serves as a prepared copy that can be switched to once updated, eliminating service disruption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copy (snapshot) of the active VM and applies updates to this copy rather than the original. This allows the active VM to continue serving users while the snapshot is being updated in the background. Once updated, the snapshot can be activated, providing security updates without downtime.
2Ease of manufacture
If the active VM is shut down for maintenance, then updates can be applied, but user productivity and organizational efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a snapshot of the active VM before maintenance begins. This preliminary copying action allows maintenance to proceed on the snapshot while the active VM remains operational, eliminating downtime and maintaining user productivity throughout the update process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables continuous operation of the active VM during the update process by applying updates to a snapshot in parallel. The active VM continues to serve users without interruption, maintaining continuous useful action while maintenance is performed on the snapshot copy.
3Productivity
If a snapshot is created and updated in parallel with the active VM, then nondisruptive maintenance is achieved, but computing resources and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a snapshot (copy) of the active VM that initially requires additional storage resources. However, this copying enables nondisruptive maintenance where the active VM continues to operate while the snapshot is updated, achieving service continuity that outweighs the temporary storage cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The snapshot serves as a temporary copy that can be discarded after successful update and activation. The storage resources used for the snapshot are recovered once the updated snapshot replaces the active VM, making the additional storage requirement temporary rather than permanent.
Data Source
AI summary
As indicated above, aspects of the present invention provide an approach for facilitating nondisruptive virtual machine (VM) maintenance in a networked computing environment. In an embodiment, a request for an update to an active VM is received, and a copy of the active VM is taken to create a snapshot VM. An update is installed on the snapshot VM. While the snapshot VM is being updated, all changes made to the active VM are saved. Once the update is installed on the snapshot VM, the saved changes are applied to the snapshot VM. A switch is made over to the snapshot VM in real time so that the snapshot VM becomes the active VM. The process allows a user to work continuously with the software as a service (SaaS) VM without disruption.