Virtual Machine Health Monitoring via CPU Cycle Contention Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for monitoring the health of virtual environments are inadequate as they do not effectively capture contentions for CPU cycles, leading to misleading system utilization readings and failure to detect system instability or deadlocks.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that receive input data for virtual machines, determine entitled and actual CPU cycles, and compare them to display a health status, identifying potential contentions and system health issues through automated processing.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If system utilization metric is used to monitor virtual environment health, then ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates because it cannot detect CPU cycle contentions and deadlock states

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of monitoringVSAvoidhealth status accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the monitoring approach by introducing a new metric dimension (CPU cycle contention measurement) that operates independently from traditional system utilization metrics. This segmentation allows the system to maintain ease of operation while improving measurement precision through multi-dimensional health assessment

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary measurement mechanism that captures CPU cycle contention data between virtual machines and the hypervisor. This intermediary layer provides detailed contention information without replacing the existing system utilization monitoring, thus maintaining ease of operation while enhancing measurement precision

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Device complexity

If traditional system utilization monitoring is implemented, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability deteriorates due to inability to detect deadlock states and system instability

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemonitoring system complexityVSAvoidsystem health detection reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary action by proactively measuring CPU cycle entitlement versus actual allocation before deadlock conditions fully manifest. This early detection capability improves reliability without significantly increasing device complexity, as the measurement mechanism is integrated into the existing virtualization monitoring infrastructure

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent establishes a feedback loop that continuously compares entitled CPU cycles with actual CPU cycles allocated to virtual machines. This feedback mechanism provides reliable deadlock detection while maintaining manageable device complexity through automated threshold-based alerting and integrated reporting

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS10235264B2Method and system for monitoring health of a virtual environment

Publication Date: 2019.03.19 INFOSYS LTD

AI summary

A method and system for monitoring health of virtual environment includes receiving input data for one or more virtual machines in the virtual environment. A number of entitled CPU cycles for each of the virtual machines based on the input data are determined. A number of actual CPU cycles obtained by each of the virtual machines based on the input data are computed. The number of entitled CPU cycles is compared with the number of actual CPU cycles for each of the virtual machines. A health status of the virtual machines based on the comparison is displayed.