Method and apparatus for efficient memory replication for high availability (HA) protection of a virtual machine (VM)
US8656388B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 16, 2011 |
| Grant date | Feb 18, 2014 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 19, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/2038
- 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 asynchronously on the ring buffer. The ring buffer cannot overflow because the transmission process continues to empty the ring buffer as the copy process continues. This arrangement allows for using smaller buffers and prevents buffer overflows, and thereby, it reduces the VM suspension time and improves the system efficiency.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.