Hypervisor-Agnostic Virtual Machine Configuration via Snapshotting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cloud computing systems face inefficiencies in virtual machine management, particularly in waking, migrating, and configuring virtual machines, due to the need for shared storage, which is costly and prone to single points of failure, and inefficient sleep states that consume resources.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for remotely managing operating environments using a hypervisor that allows virtual machines to be dynamically instantiated, moved, or configured with minimal downtime without shared storage, using snapshotting and differential updates, and enabling wake-on-LAN-like functionality for efficient power management across various states, including creating, waking, moving, and destroying virtual machines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If shared storage is used to transfer virtual machines between servers, then virtual machine migration is enabled, but system cost increases and single point of failure risk appears
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the virtual machine image data from shared storage and transfers it directly between servers through network connections. The virtual machine migration process no longer depends on shared storage infrastructure, eliminating the single point of failure while maintaining migration capability through direct peer-to-peer data transfer between source and destination servers.
2Productivity
If virtual machines are transferred while running, then service continuity is maintained, but transfer time increases significantly for large virtual machines
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pausing the virtual machine before transfer, allowing the entire virtual machine image to be copied efficiently without the complexity of live migration. This preliminary pause enables a simpler, faster transfer process, and the virtual machine is quickly resumed at the destination, minimizing total downtime while avoiding the performance overhead of live migration protocols.
3Use of energy by moving object
If virtual machines use traditional sleep states, then power consumption is reduced, but resource allocation efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal configuration management system that can rapidly provision and activate virtual machines in response to demand. Instead of relying on static sleep states, the system maintains a pool of configurable virtual machine templates that can be quickly instantiated and allocated to different workloads, enabling both power efficiency through selective activation and high resource allocation efficiency through flexible, on-demand provisioning.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, there is a method for configuring a virtual machine where there are two storage mechanisms available to the virtual machine: a first storage containing virtual machine operating information, and a second storage including virtual machine configuration information. The configuration information in the second storage is used to configure the virtual machine, including changing the information in the operating storage. The configuration information can pertain to the hypervisor, any logical container within the hypervisor, and any operating environment within one of the logical containers. In a further embodiment, the configuration information from the second storage can be saved and provided to another virtual machine, and used to configure the second virtual machine in a similar fashion. Each virtual machine can have an independent copy of the second storage, or the storage can be mounted in the first machine, unmounted, and then mounted in the second machine.