Virtual NIC State Restore for Non-Disruptive Guest Resume
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hibernating and resuming a virtual machine (VM) or container guest environment disrupts network operations due to the purging and recreation of the virtual network interface card (VNIC) operating state, which requires disruptive requests for configuration settings and recreates communication channels, impacting network stack and applications.
Innovation Solution
A network virtual service client (NVSC) manages the VNIC power state and communication channels during hibernation and resumption, setting it to a low power state, saving the operating state in memory, and reenabling channels upon resumption, thus avoiding disruptive requests to upper layer protocols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If the virtual network interface card purges operating state during hibernation, then power consumption is reduced, but the network stack and applications are disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by saving the virtual network interface card's operating state to a file before hibernation occurs. This pre-saved state allows the VNIC to restore its network configuration without disrupting the network stack or applications during resume, thus reducing power consumption while maintaining network operation continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying by creating a copy of the VNIC's operating state and storing it externally in a file. This copy preserves the network configuration data, allowing the system to power down the VNIC during hibernation while maintaining the ability to restore the original state without disruption upon resume.
2Ease of operation
If communication channels are reestablished during resumption, then the virtual machine can resume normal operation, but downtime and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-saving the VNIC operating state to a file before hibernation. During resumption, the system simply restores this pre-saved state rather than reestablishing communication channels from scratch, significantly reducing downtime while enabling normal operation to resume.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses skipping by bypassing the time-consuming process of reestablishing communication channels during resumption. Instead, the system directly restores the VNIC state from the pre-saved file, rushing through the resumption process and minimizing downtime.
3Reliability
If the virtual network interface card recreates configuration settings during resumption, then network connectivity is restored, but resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses copying by storing a copy of the VNIC's operating state in a file during hibernation. During resumption, the system restores network connectivity by loading this pre-saved copy rather than recreating configuration settings, thereby restoring reliability while minimizing resource consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies self-service by enabling the VNIC to restore its own configuration state from the pre-saved file without requiring extensive external resources. The saved state file contains all necessary configuration information, allowing the VNIC to self-restore with minimal resource consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
Examples of the present disclosure describe systems and methods for non-disruptively hibernating and resuming a guest environment using a network virtual service client. In examples, when a guest environment is hibernated, a network virtual service client provides an instruction to a virtual network interface card to set the device power state of the virtual network interface card to a low power state. The network virtual service client disables the communication channels used by the network virtual service client and saves the operating state of the virtual network interface card. When the guest environment is resumed, the network virtual service client provides an instruction to set the device power state of the virtual network interface card to a full power state. The network virtual service client reenables the communication channels used by the network virtual service client and restores the operating state of the virtual network interface card.