Virtual Machine Network Address Translation for Suspend Resume
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Solution Overview
Problem
In virtualized computer systems, existing technologies fail to effectively preserve stateful network connections between virtual machines during suspend and resume cycles, leading to disruptions in network communication and resource management inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that uses a control instance to manage network traffic routing between virtual machines, tracks and reconfigures network addresses, and sets up routers for network address translation to maintain consistent communication by mapping new addresses to original addresses during resume operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If virtual machines are suspended to save resources, then energy consumption and computing power usage are reduced, but network connections are disrupted and stateful communication cannot be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
Before suspending the virtual machine, the control instance tracks and records the network addresses and routing information. This preliminary action ensures that when the VM resumes, the network connections can be restored without disruption, maintaining stateful communication while enabling resource savings during suspension.
2Adaptability or versatility
If network addresses are dynamically assigned during suspend, then address management flexibility is improved, but network protocol timeouts occur and communication reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The controlinstance tracks network addresses before suspension and uses this information during resume operations to request and configure the same addresses again. This preliminary tracking prevents protocol timeouts by ensuring address consistency, while still allowing dynamic address management through the routing setup.
Solution Approach 2:
The controlinstance acts as an intermediary that manages the network address translation and routing configuration. It mediates between the suspended VM's original network state and the resumed state, ensuring seamless transition without losing connection state or causing timeouts.
3Reliability
If network address translation is configured during resume, then network connectivity is restored, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network restoration process is segmented into distinct phases: tracking during suspension, requesting addresses during resume, and configuring translation rules. This segmentation simplifies the overall complexity by breaking down the complex task of restoring network connectivity into manageable steps handled by the controlinstance.
Data Source
AI summary
Stateful network connections between a first virtual machine and at least a second virtual machine are preserved during a suspend and resume cycle. The virtual machines are interconnected by a network. A control instance is provided to manage a routing of network traffic of the virtual machines to the network. In case of a suspend operation, the control instance tracks network addresses of each virtual machine, whereas in case of a resume operation, the control instance sets up a router for each virtual machine and requests new network addresses for each router. The control instance configures a network address translation on the router assigned to each virtual machine to map the new network addresses to the network addresses used before suspending the virtual machines.