Post-copy based live virtual machine migration using adaptive pre-paging and dynamic self-ballooning

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of post-copy based live migration for virtual machines (VMs) across a Gigabit LAN. Live migration is an indispensable feature in today’s virtualization technologies. Post-copy migration defers the transfer of a VM’s memory contents until after its processor state has been sent to the target host. This deferral is in contrast to the traditional pre-copy approach, which first copies the memory state over multiple iterations followed by a final transfer of the processor state. The post-copy strategy can provide a “win-win” by reducing total migration time closer to its equivalent time achieved by non-live VM migration. This is done while maintaining the liveness benefits of the pre-copy approach. We compare post-copy extensively against the traditional pre-copy approach on top of the Xen Hypervisor. Using a range of VM workloads we show improvements in several migration metrics including pages transferred, total migration t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: VEE
• Authors: Michael R. Hines, Kartik Gopalan
• Keywords: Live Migration, Pre-copy Approach, Total Migration Time, VEE 2009