SR-IOV Virtual Machine Live Migration with Adapter State Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge in virtual machine live migration is the inability to migrate state information of an SR-IOV network adapter due to its storage in a storage medium unknown to the virtual machine manager, leading to service interruptions and incomplete migration.
Innovation Solution
A live migration module is introduced to obtain and migrate the state information of the SR-IOV network adapter by interacting with the physical function driver, locking task queues, and copying data to dedicated memory spaces, ensuring seamless migration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the virtual machine manager directly manages the SR-IOV network adapter, then the management simplicity is improved, but the ability to migrate state information is lost because the storage medium is unknown to the manager
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a live migration module as an intermediary component between the virtual machine manager and the SR-IOV network adapter. This module resides in the physical function driver and is responsible for obtaining state information from the network adapter's storage medium and facilitating its migration to the destination server, thereby resolving the information isolation problem without compromising management simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the network adapter management into two parts: the virtual machine manager handles virtual machine-level operations while the live migration module handles the physical network adapter state information extraction and migration. This segmentation allows each component to focus on its specific function, with the live migration module bridging the gap between management simplicity and migration capability
2Speed
If the state information is stored in the SR-IOV network adapter storage medium, then the network performance is improved through direct access, but the migration complexity increases because the virtual machine manager cannot access the storage medium
Solution Approach 1:
The live migration module serves as an intermediary that knows how to access the SR-IOV network adapter's storage medium and extract state information. It bridges the gap between the virtual machine manager and the physical storage medium, enabling migration without requiring the manager to directly interact with the complex hardware storage system
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements copying of state information from the source server's network adapter storage medium to the destination server. The live migration module reads the state information from the source adapter and transfers it to the destination adapter, enabling the virtual machine to resume operation with its network state preserved
3Productivity
If the virtual machine migrates without state information, then the migration speed is improved, but the service continuity is compromised due to incomplete migration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary extraction of state information from the source server's network adapter before the actual virtual machine migration begins. The live migration module obtains and prepares the state information in advance, so that when the migration completes, the destination server can immediately restore the network adapter state without interruption, ensuring service continuity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent ensures continuous service by migrating state information concurrently with the virtual machine migration process. The live migration module operates continuously to extract, transmit, and restore state information, minimizing the suspended time and maintaining service availability throughout the migration process
Data Source
AI summary
Example virtual machine live migration methods and apparatus are described. In one example method, a first virtual machine which runs on a source server is migrated to a destination server. The source server includes a single-root input/output virtualization (SR-IOV) network adapter. The virtual machine manager delivers a live migration command to the live migration module. The live migration module obtains, according to the live migration command, information that needs to be migrated and that is about the first virtual machine, and reports the information to the virtual machine manager, where the information includes state information of the first virtual network adapter and memory data of the first virtual machine. The virtual machine manager sends the state information and the memory data of the first virtual machine to the destination server.