Method and apparatus for efficient memory replication for high availability (HA) protection of a virtual machine (VM)
US8413145B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 30, 2010 |
| Grant date | Apr 2, 2013 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 2, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/151
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
High availability (HA) protection is provided for an executing virtual machine. At a checkpoint in the HA process, the active server suspends the virtual machine; and the active server copies dirty memory pages to a buffer. During the suspension of the virtual machine on the active host server, dirty memory pages are copied to a ring buffer. A copy process copies the dirty pages to a first location in the buffer. At a predetermined benchmark or threshold, a transmission process can begin. The transmission process can read data out of the buffer at a second location to send to the standby host. Both the copy and transmission processes can operate substantially simultaneously on the ring buffer. As such, the ring buffer cannot overflow because the transmission process continues to empty the ring buffer as the copy process continues. This arrangement allows for smaller buffers and prevents buffer overflows.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.