Abstract: Described is a technology by which a virtual machine may be safely migrated to a computer system with a different platform. Compatibility of the virtual machine may be checked by comparing the virtual machine's capabilities against those of the new platform. To ensure compatibility, when created the virtual machine may have its capabilities limited by the lowest common capabilities of the different platforms available for migration. Computer systems may be grouped into migration pools based upon similar capabilities, and/or a virtual machine may be mapped to certain computer systems based upon capabilities needed by that virtual machine, such as corresponding to needed performance, fault tolerance and/or flexibility.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to backing up a virtual machine cluster and to determining virtual machine node ownership prior to backing up a virtual machine cluster. In one scenario, a computer system determines which virtual machines nodes are part of the virtual machine cluster, determines which shared storage resources are part of the virtual machine cluster and determines which virtual machine nodes own the shared storage resources. The computer system then indicates to the virtual machine node owners that at least one specified application is to be quiesced over the nodes of the virtual machine cluster, such that a consistent, cluster-wide checkpoint can be created. The computer system further creates a cluster-wide checkpoint which includes a checkpoint for each virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster.

Abstract: Techniques for providing the ability to live migrate a virtual machine from one physical host to another physical host employ shared storage as the transfer medium for the state of the virtual machine. In addition, the ability for a virtualization module to use second-level paging functionality is employed, paging-out the virtual machine memory content from one physical host to the shared storage. The content of the memory file can be restored on another physical host by employing on-demand paging and optionally low-priority background paging from the shared storage to the other physical host.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to establishing efficient virtual machine reference points and to specifying a virtual machine reference point to query incremental changes. In one scenario, a computer system accesses a stable virtual machine checkpoint that includes portions of underlying data stored in data storage, where the checkpoint is associated with a specific point in time. The computer system then queries the data storage to determine data storage identifiers that reference the point in time associated with the checkpoint and stores the determined data storage identifiers as a virtual machine reference point, where each subsequent change to the data storage results in an update to the data storage identifier, so that virtual machine reference point is usable to identify incremental changes from specific points in time on.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to backing up a virtual machine cluster and to determining virtual machine node ownership prior to backing up a virtual machine cluster. In one scenario, a computer system determines which virtual machines nodes are part of the virtual machine cluster, determines which shared storage resources are part of the virtual machine cluster and determines which virtual machine nodes own the shared storage resources. The computer system then indicates to the virtual machine node owners that at least one specified application is to be quiesced over the nodes of the virtual machine cluster, such that a consistent, cluster-wide checkpoint can be created. The computer system further creates a cluster-wide checkpoint which includes a checkpoint for each virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to establishing efficient virtual machine reference points and to specifying a virtual machine reference point to query incremental changes. In one scenario, a computer system accesses a stable virtual machine checkpoint that includes portions of underlying data stored in data storage, where the checkpoint is associated with a specific point in time. The computer system then queries the data storage to determine data storage identifiers that reference the point in time associated with the checkpoint and stores the determined data storage identifiers as a virtual machine reference point, where each subsequent change to the data storage results in an update to the data storage identifier, so that virtual machine reference point is usable to identify incremental changes from specific points in time on.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to backing up a virtual machine cluster and to determining virtual machine node ownership prior to backing up a virtual machine cluster. In one scenario, a computer system determines which virtual machines nodes are part of the virtual machine cluster, determines which shared storage resources are part of the virtual machine cluster and determines which virtual machine nodes own the shared storage resources. The computer system then indicates to the virtual machine node owners that at least one specified application is to be quiesced over the nodes of the virtual machine cluster, such that a consistent, cluster-wide checkpoint can be created. The computer system further creates a cluster-wide checkpoint which includes a checkpoint for each virtual machine in the virtual machine cluster.

Abstract: Techniques for providing the ability to live migrate a virtual machine from one physical host to another physical host employ shared storage as the transfer medium for the state of the virtual machine. In addition, the ability for a virtualization module to use second-level paging functionality is employed, paging-out the virtual machine memory content from one physical host to the shared storage. The content of the memory file can be restored on another physical host by employing on-demand paging and optionally low-priority background paging from the shared storage to the other physical host.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which a virtual hard disk is migrated from a source storage location to a target storage location without needing any shared physical storage, in which a machine may continue to use the virtual hard disk during migration. This facilitates use the virtual hard disk in conjunction with live-migrating a virtual machine. Virtual hard disk migration may occur fully before or after the virtual machine is migrated to the target host, or partially before and partially after virtual machine migration. Background copying, sending of write-through data, and/or servicing read requests may be used in the migration. Also described is throttling data writes and/or data communication to manage the migration of the virtual hard disk.

Abstract: Techniques for migrating a virtual machine from a source computer system to a target computer system are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, a group of pages can be mapped writable in response to determining that the guest operating system attempted to change a specific page. In the same, or other embodiments, pages can be compressed prior to sending such that throughput of a communication channel is maximized. In the same, or other embodiments, storage IO jobs can be canceled on a source computer system and reissued by a target computer system.

Abstract: A health monitoring technique monitors the health and performance of applications executing in a guest partition in a virtualized environment. In an embodiment, a guest integration component interacts with an application through an application programming interface in order for the virtualization platform to monitor the health and performance of the application. In another embodiment, the guest integration component may include a monitoring agent that accesses an event log and/or a performance monitor log to access the health and performance of the application. The health and performance of the application may then be analyzed by the virtualization platform to determine an appropriate remedial action.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which a virtual hard disk is migrated from a source storage location to a target storage location without needing any shared physical storage, in which a machine may continue to use the virtual hard disk during migration. This facilitates use the virtual hard disk in conjunction with live-migrating a virtual machine. Virtual hard disk migration may occur fully before or after the virtual machine is migrated to the target host, or partially before and partially after virtual machine migration. Background copying, sending of write-through data, and/or servicing read requests may be used in the migration. Also described is throttling data writes and/or data communication to manage the migration of the virtual hard disk.

Abstract: Embodiments provide a method and system for transferring data between different computing devices. Specifically, a communication session is established between a first computing device and a second computing device. The communication session may be established using a first communication protocol. The first computing device creates a virtual memory object which is bound to one or more memory blocks of the first computing device. A path to the virtual memory object is generated and the path is transmitted to the second computing device using the communication session. The second computing device may then read or write data directly into/from the virtual memory object using a second communication protocol that is different from the first communication protocol. The data is written into and read from the virtual memory object using file system commands.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which a virtual hard disk is migrated from a source storage location to a target storage location without needing any shared physical storage, in which a machine may continue to use the virtual hard disk during migration. This facilitates use the virtual hard disk in conjunction with live-migrating a virtual machine. Virtual hard disk migration may occur fully before or after the virtual machine is migrated to the target host, or partially before and partially after virtual machine migration. Background copying, sending of write-through data, and/or servicing read requests may be used in the migration. Also described is throttling data writes and/or data communication to manage the migration of the virtual hard disk.

Abstract: A health monitoring technique monitors the health and performance of applications executing in a guest partition in a virtualized environment. In an embodiment, a guest integration component interacts with an application through an application programming interface in order for the virtualization platform to monitor the health and performance of the application. In another embodiment, the guest integration component may include a monitoring agent that accesses an event log and/or a performance monitor log to access the health and performance of the application. The health and performance of the application may then be analyzed by the virtualization platform to determine an appropriate remedial action.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which a virtual hard disk is migrated from a source storage location to a target storage location without needing any shared physical storage, in which a machine may continue to use the virtual hard disk during migration. This facilitates use the virtual hard disk in conjunction with live-migrating a virtual machine. Virtual hard disk migration may occur fully before or after the virtual machine is migrated to the target host, or partially before and partially after virtual machine migration. Background copying, sending of write-through data, and/or servicing read requests may be used in the migration. Also described is throttling data writes and/or data communication to manage the migration of the virtual hard disk.

Abstract: A health monitoring technique monitors the health and performance of applications executing in a guest partition in a virtualized environment. In an embodiment, a guest integration component interacts with an application through an application programming interface in order for the virtualization platform to monitor the health and performance of the application. In another embodiment, the guest integration component may include a monitoring agent that accesses an event log and/or a performance monitor log to access the health and performance of the application. The health and performance of the application may then be analyzed by the virtualization platform to determine an appropriate remedial action.

Abstract: The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically transferring configuration of a virtual machine from one cluster to another cluster. The invention enables an administrator to transfer configuration of a virtual machine by simply specifying a virtual machine to be transferred. The invention then inspects the configuration of the virtual machine on the old cluster as well as the configuration of the old cluster, including the storage (e.g. virtual hard disk) used by the cluster, and then configures a new virtual machine on a new cluster accordingly to match the configuration of the old virtual machine. Similar techniques can also be applied to transfer configuration of an SMB file server.

Abstract: Migration of a virtual machine and associated files to a destination host may be performed. A source host may initiate establishment of a temporary network file share at a destination location of the destination host to provide the source host and the destination host with access to the file share. While the virtual machine is running at the source host, a storage migration and a live migration may be initiated. Using the network file share, the source host may copy the associated files to the destination location. A runtime state of the virtual machine may be copied to the destination host. In a final phase of the migration, the virtual machine at the source host may be stopped, the storage migration may be completed, the copying of the runtime state may be completed, and the virtual machine may be started at the destination host.

Abstract: Migration of a virtual machine and associated files to a destination host may be performed. A source host may initiate establishment of a temporary network file share at a destination location of the destination host to provide the source host and the destination host with access to the file share. While the virtual machine is running at the source host, a storage migration and a live migration may be initiated. Using the network file share, the source host may copy the associated files to the destination location. A runtime state of the virtual machine may be copied to the destination host. In a final phase of the migration, the virtual machine at the source host may be stopped, the storage migration may be completed, the copying of the runtime state may be completed, and the virtual machine may be started at the destination host.