Virtual Machine Migration for Virtual Storage Redundancy

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Solution Overview

Problem

In information handling systems, when a storage resource fails and there are no available spare resources to rebuild the virtual storage resource, it can lead to a degraded state, increasing the risk of data loss due to subsequent failures.

Innovation Solution

A system and method that monitor storage resource failures in a pool of optimally-redundant virtual storage resources and migrate virtual machines to another virtual storage resource with sufficient redundancy to prevent data loss, ensuring continuous operation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If virtual machines are migrated proactively before storage resource failure, then data loss is prevented and system reliability is improved, but system complexity and migration overhead increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata loss preventionVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system monitors storage resource health metrics and triggers virtual machine migration before actual failure occurs. By detecting early signs of storage resource degradation and proactively migrating VMs to healthy storage resources, the system prevents data loss without requiring complex manual intervention or wait-for-failure protocols

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements continuous monitoring of storage resource health and uses this feedback to dynamically determine when migration is necessary. Health metrics from storage resources feed into the migration decision logic, creating a closed-loop system that automatically responds to changing storage conditions while maintaining simplicity through rule-based decision making

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If virtual machines are migrated immediately upon storage resource failure, then system availability is maintained, but migration time and potential service interruption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem availabilityVSAvoidmigration time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

By monitoring storage resource health metrics and triggering migration before failure occurs, the system eliminates the need for emergency post-failure migration. The VM is already migrated to a healthy storage resource when the source storage fails, reducing migration time to near-zero and maintaining continuous availability without service interruption

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system maintains health metrics and readiness information about alternative storage resources in advance. When migration becomes necessary, this pre-prepared information allows for rapid execution without the time penalty of searching for and validating target storage resources during the migration event

Inventive Principle:

Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

3Reliability

If continuous monitoring of storage resource health is implemented, then proactive migration decisions are enabled, but computational overhead and resource consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvefailure detection capabilityVSAvoidcomputational overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system monitors health metrics continuously but only triggers migration actions when specific thresholds or failure conditions are met. This partial action approach maintains low computational overhead by avoiding full migration processing during normal operation while still providing reliable failure detection through selective threshold-based triggering

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

Storage resources self-report their health metrics to the monitoring system, eliminating the need for complex active probing or testing. This self-service monitoring approach minimizes computational overhead on the management system while maintaining reliable failure detection through passive collection of health data from storage resources

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS9558028B2Systems and methods for migration of virtual machines across virtual storage resources

Publication Date: 2017.01.31 DELL PROD LP

AI summary

In accordance with these and other embodiments of the present disclosure, a system may include a processor and a program of executable instructions embodied in non-transitory computer-readable media accessible to the processor. The program of executable instructions may be configured to, when read and executed by the processor, monitor for a failure of a storage resource in a pool of storage resources configured as a plurality of optimally-redundant virtual storage resources, determine if a virtual storage resource comprising the storage resource is able to rebuild the virtual storage resource, and, in response to determining that the virtual storage resource comprising the storage resource is unable to rebuild the virtual storage resource, migrate each of one or more virtual machines mapped to the virtual storage resource to another virtual storage resource in an optimal redundancy state.