Virtual Machine Migration for Packet Load Balancing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cloud providers face inefficiencies in distributing packets among virtual CPUs due to uneven traffic distribution, leading to processing delays and the inability to easily change packet distribution destinations without modifying cloud user applications.
Innovation Solution
A management apparatus acquires traffic data for applications on virtual machines, identifies overloaded CPUs, and migrates applications to balance traffic by changing the virtual machine associated with each application, thereby adjusting the hash value for packet distribution without modifying the application itself.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If packet distribution is based on hash value calculated from transmission source and destination addresses, then packet distribution is determined automatically, but traffic becomes unevenly distributed among virtual CPUs causing processing delays
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically monitors traffic distribution among virtual CPUs and automatically migrates applications between virtual machines to balance the load. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by adapting the static hash-based distribution to changing traffic patterns, preventing processing delays while maintaining automatic distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The management apparatus continuously monitors traffic amounts for each virtual CPU and uses this feedback to determine when application migration is needed. This feedback mechanism ensures that packet processing efficiency is maintained by detecting and correcting uneven distribution before it causes processing delays.
2Productivity
If packet distribution destinations are changed to balance traffic, then traffic distribution improves, but cloud user applications must be modified which reduces ease of operation
Solution Approach 1:
The management apparatus acts as an intermediary between cloud users and the virtualization infrastructure. It migrates applications between virtual machines at the infrastructure level without requiring any modification to cloud user applications, thus improving traffic distribution while maintaining ease of operation for cloud users.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the packet distribution control function from the cloud user applications and places it in the management apparatus. By taking out this function, the system can optimize traffic distribution independently without affecting or requiring changes to the cloud user applications, preserving their ease of operation.
3Productivity
If applications are migrated between virtual machines, then packet distribution is rebalanced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The management apparatus automatically monitors traffic distribution and performs application migration without requiring manual intervention or complex configuration. This self-service approach balances the increased system complexity by automating the management tasks, maintaining productivity through load balancing while reducing the operational burden.
Data Source
AI summary
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a process including acquiring, for each of a plurality of applications executed on a plurality of virtual machines, an amount of traffic of packets transmitted to any of a plurality of CPUs, identifying, for each of the plurality of applications, a CPU to which packets are transmitted, calculating, for each of the plurality of CPUs, a total amount of traffic of packets that are received by the CPU, identifying, among the plurality of CPUs, a specific CPU of which the calculated total amount exceeds a predetermined threshold, identifying, among applications those transmit packets to the specific CPU, a specific application, and identifying, among the plurality of virtual machines, a specific virtual machine, a CPU to which packets are transmitted from the specific application being changed by moving the specific application to the specific virtual machine.