Virtual Machine Replication Across Heterogeneous Hypervisors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing virtualization technologies face challenges in replicating virtual machines across heterogeneous computing environments that use multiple hypervisors, such as VMware and Microsoft, which are common in multi-vendor setups, making it difficult to manage and synchronize virtual machines across different platforms.
Innovation Solution
A method for replicating virtual machines between servers connected over a network, involving the transmission of virtual disks, capturing and transmitting updates, and storing them in a format compatible with both VMware and Microsoft hypervisors, using a filter driver and replication service to ensure seamless synchronization and migration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If virtual machines are replicated within a single hypervisor environment, then replication is straightforward and reliable, but the system lacks adaptability to heterogeneous multi-vendor environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a format conversion service as an intermediary component that translates virtual disk formats between different hypervisor platforms. This mediator handles the complexity of format translation, allowing source virtual machines in one hypervisor environment to be replicated to target virtual machines in another hypervisor environment without requiring direct compatibility between the different platforms.
Solution Approach 2:
The replication system is designed with universal components that can operate across multiple hypervisor types. The format conversion service and replication service work universally to handle different virtual disk formats (such as VMware VMDK and Microsoft VHDX), enabling a single replication infrastructure to serve heterogeneous environments without requiring platform-specific replication mechanisms.
2Adaptability or versatility
If virtual disk formats are standardized across all hypervisors, then interoperability improves, but existing proprietary formats cannot be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of virtual disk format representation by introducing a universal internal format that can represent different proprietary formats. The format conversion service translates between various virtual disk formats (VMDK, VHDX, etc.) and this universal representation, allowing the system to maintain support for existing proprietary formats while achieving interoperability through the common internal representation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses copying of data blocks with format translation. Instead of requiring the original proprietary format to be directly compatible with the target hypervisor, the system creates a copy of the virtual disk data and translates its format representation during the replication process. This allows preservation of the source format while producing a compatible target format.
3Reliability
If all virtual disk updates are transmitted to ensure complete synchronization, then data consistency is achieved, but network bandwidth and transmission time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the changed data blocks from the virtual disks during replication. Instead of transmitting entire virtual disks or all updates, the replication service identifies and transmits only the modified blocks since the last synchronization point. This extraction of delta changes maintains data consistency while significantly reducing the volume of data that needs to be transmitted over the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual disk is segmented into individual data blocks, and the replication process operates on these discrete blocks rather than treating the entire disk as a single unit. This segmentation allows the system to transmit only the necessary blocks that have changed, improving transmission efficiency while maintaining complete synchronization through block-level updates.
Data Source
AI summary
A first virtual machine executing in a first computer server is replicated to a second virtual machine executing in a second computer server, which is connected to the first computer server over a network. Virtual disks of the first virtual machine are transmitted to the second server, where each transmitted virtual disk corresponds to one of the virtual disks of the second virtual machine, the virtual disks of the first virtual machine having a format different from the format of the virtual disks of the second virtual machine. A plurality of updates to the virtual disks of the first virtual machine is captured, and contiguous data blocks from the virtual disks of the first virtual machine that are subject to the captured updates are identified. The identified contiguous data blocks are then transmitted to the second server for storage in the virtual disks of the second virtual machine.