Virtual Machine Placeholder for Seamless Archiving
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Companies face challenges in managing and protecting virtual machines with low resource utilization, leading to underutilization and increased storage costs, as existing solutions do not efficiently archive or migrate these machines without impacting productivity.
Innovation Solution
A data storage system with a virtual machine archiving module that monitors usage and archives low-utilization virtual machines, reducing resource allocation and migrating them to low-cost storage, while maintaining accessibility through virtual machine placeholders.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If virtual machines with low utilization are archived to reduce resource allocation and storage costs, then storage costs and resource utilization improve, but accessibility and user productivity may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a placeholder (a simplified copy or representation) of the archived virtual machine that remains in the primary storage system. This placeholder allows users to access and interact with the archived VM without actually restoring it to primary storage, thereby maintaining accessibility while keeping the actual VM data in low-cost secondary storage.
2Loss of energy
If virtual machines are migrated from primary storage to secondary storage, then storage costs decrease, but access speed and system performance may worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The placeholder acts as an intermediary between the user and the archived virtual machine. When a user accesses a placeholder, the system transparently retrieves the necessary data from secondary storage and presents it as if the VM were still in primary storage, thus maintaining fast access speeds without requiring the actual VM to reside in high-speed primary storage.
3Productivity
If virtual machines are archived to reduce resource allocation, then resource utilization improves, but system complexity increases due to archiving and restoring operations
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically monitors virtual machine utilization metrics and performs archiving operations based on predefined thresholds and policies, without requiring manual intervention. The placeholder creation and VM restoration processes are automated, reducing the operational complexity burden on users and administrators.
4Productivity
If virtual machines are archived based on usage monitoring, then resource allocation efficiency improves, but measurement and monitoring complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a universal monitoring framework that tracks multiple utilization metrics (CPU, memory, storage, network) across diverse virtual machine types and workloads using a single set of tools and policies. This multi-functional approach simplifies monitoring complexity by providing consistent measurement capabilities regardless of the specific VM characteristics.
Data Source
AI summary
The data storage system according to certain aspects can manage the archiving of virtual machines to (and restoring of virtual machines from) secondary storage. The system may archive virtual machines (VMs) that are determined to have a low level of utilization. The system may create a virtual machine placeholder for an archived VM, which may be a “light” or minimal version of the VM that acts like the actual VM. By using a VM placeholder, a VM may appear to be active and selectable by the user. When the user selects the VM, the VM placeholder can interact with the user in similar manner as the VM. Accessing the VM placeholder may trigger restore of the archived VM from secondary storage. The restore of the archived VM may be “seamless” to the user since the VM remains available while it is being restored.