VM Group Fault Tolerance via Synchronized Failover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing virtual machine (VM) fault tolerance systems face challenges in controlling backup cycles and response times due to inconsistent data generation and multi-layer network architectures, leading to prolonged delays that can cause disconnection or transaction failures in sensitive applications like real-time transactions or game servers.
Innovation Solution
A fault tolerance method and system that establishes synchronized backup connections between primary and backup virtual machines through a synchronizer, allowing for coordinated failover and snapshot management to reduce response times by ensuring data transmission before the output flush stage and managing fault tolerance states across a group of VMs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional backup approach is used to compare and transmit system difference to backup end, then fault tolerance capability is provided, but backup time cannot be controlled and response time of work demands increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by establishing fault tolerance backup connections and performing synchronized snapshots before actual failover events occur. The synchronizer coordinates backup operations in advance, ensuring that backup virtual machines are ready to take over immediately when needed, thus reducing response time while maintaining fault tolerance capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback through the synchronizer that monitors the states of primary and backup virtual machines, coordinates snapshot operations, and manages failover processes. This feedback mechanism ensures synchronized operations and controlled timing, allowing the system to maintain reliability while minimizing delays in response to work demands.
2Reliability
If each VM performs fault tolerance backup independently in multi-layer network architecture, then fault tolerance is provided for each VM, but additional delay accumulates across multiple server nodes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges independent fault tolerance operations into a coordinated group-level operation. By grouping multiple virtual machines and implementing synchronized snapshots managed by a central synchronizer, the system reduces accumulated delay across multi-layer network architecture while maintaining fault tolerance for each VM through the coordinated backup mechanism.
3Productivity
If backup cycle is increased to improve system performance, then processing speed increases, but delay of work demands becomes harder to control
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by implementing synchronized snapshot technology that allows flexible control of backup timing. The synchronizer can dynamically coordinate snapshot operations across multiple virtual machines, enabling the system to adjust backup frequency and timing based on actual needs, thus maintaining both high system performance and controllable response times for work demands.
Data Source
AI summary
A fault tolerance method and system for a virtual machine group is proposed. The method includes: establishing fault tolerance backup connections of virtual machines between a virtual machine hypervisor of at least one primary host and a virtual machine hypervisor of at least one backup host to perform fault tolerance backups of the virtual machines, wherein the plurality of virtual machines are included in a fault tolerance group; when a synchronizer determines that a failover of at least one first virtual machine among the primary virtual machines in the fault tolerance group is being performed. Informing, by the synchronizer, to perform a failover of other remaining primary virtual machines among the primary virtual machines in the fault tolerance group, or to return other remaining primary virtual machines among the primary virtual machines in the fault tolerance group back to a last fault tolerance backup state of each and continue performing fault tolerance backups of the other remaining primary virtual machines.