Abstract: Upon receiving a request to hibernate a hypervisor of a virtualization system running on a first computer, acts are carried out to capture a state of the hypervisor, where the state of the hypervisor comprises hypervisor logical resource parameters and an execution state of the hypervisor. After hibernating the hypervisor by quiescing the hypervisor and storing the state of the hypervisor into a data structure, the data structure is moved to a different location. At a later moment in time, the data structure is loaded onto a second computing machine and restored. The restore operation restores the hypervisor and all of its state, including all of the virtual machines of the hypervisor as well as all of the virtual disks and other virtual devices of the virtual machines. Differences between the first computing machine and the second computing machine are reconciled before execution of the hypervisor on the second machine.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products for configuring private cloud computing resources to run a workload in the execution context of a dynamically configured virtualization system. Embodiments commence upon receiving a computing workload demand specification from a resource demander. The workload demand specification is delivered to a brokerage service. The brokerage service in turn identifies an available computing resource of a private cloud provider that matches up with the received computing workload demand specification. A virtualization system that is dynamically configured for the specified workload is installed on some or all of the available computing resources of the private cloud provider. Once the virtualization system is configured, installed and able to accept a workload for execution, the computing workload is scheduled to run in the virtualization system.

Abstract: Systems for high-performance distributed computing. The systems include techniques for managing data and metadata across multiple nodes. A method embodiment commences by storing data at a node using a first storage mechanism that is local to the node. A first set of metadata is configured to identify a storage location for the stored data. The first set of metadata is stored using the same first storage mechanism that is local to the node. For accessing the first set of metadata, a second set of metadata is configured to identify a storage location for the first set of metadata. The second set of metadata is stored using a second storage mechanism that comprises a distributed metadata storage facility that stores metadata across multiple storage locations having at least one of the multiple storage locations that is not local to the node that stores data and metadata using the first storage mechanism.

Abstract: A system and method for dynamically adjusting the amount of memory allocated to a virtual machine includes generating, by a memory resizing system, a current memory usage profile for the virtual machine. The memory resizing system and the virtual machine are part of a virtual computing system and the current memory usage profile is generated by mapping, as a function of time, memory usage information from the virtual machine. The system and method also include computing an upper baseline based upon a peak memory usage in the current memory profile, updating an initial memory allocation of the virtual machine based upon the upper baseline and a predetermined threshold for obtaining an initial revised memory allocation, determining a moving average of memory usage from a historical memory usage profile, and updating the initial revised memory allocation based upon the moving average of memory usage for obtaining a final revised memory allocation.

Abstract: A computing node is configured to initialize by requesting a particular network resource from a network management server, and receiving acknowledgment of the particular network resource and an encryption key from the network management server to contact a configuration management server. The initialization further includes providing, using the particular network resource, a registration request message encrypted based on the encryption key to the configuration management server, and receiving configuration information corresponding to the computing node from the configuration management server in response to the registration request computing node.

Abstract: Systems and methods for policy-based apportionment of input/output operations (IOPS) in computing systems. Embodiments access a policy that specifies IOPS limits. Two or more virtual machines that are associated with the policy and two or more nodes that host those virtual machines are identified. In a first allocation stage, an inter-node policy manager prescribes an initial IOPS limit to the two or more nodes. The allocation amounts sent to the nodes depend at least in part on performance capabilities of respective nodes. In a second allocation stage, for each node that had received a limit amount, that amount is apportioned to the sets of virtual machines that execute on respective host nodes. Each node of the two or more nodes invokes its own node-local IOPS monitoring. Each node reports IOPS usage data to the inter-node policy manager, which in turn adjusts the node-level IOPS apportionments based on the node-level usage.

Abstract: A data storage site receives data from different data producer sites. Each of the data producer sites has a particular relationship to the data storage site, and each particular relationship carries corresponding data storage policies, constraints and commitments. When a data storage site receives a data storage request from a data producer, and that particular data is already present from a prior storage operation at the data storage site, the characteristics of the policies, constraints and commitments that were applied when that data was saved by the prior storage operation are reconciled with the policies, constraints and commitments of the requesting data producer. Deduplication logic reconciles different sets of policies, constraints and commitments such that the data can be effectively deduplicated by saving data-producer-specific metadata. Alternatively, the data can be effectively deduplicated by promoting the storage of the data so it covers a broader set of policies, constraints and commitments.

Abstract: A system is provided that enables efficient traffic forwarding in a hypervisor. During operation, the hypervisor determines that a packet is from a first virtual machine (VM) running on the hypervisor and destined to a second VM running on a remote hypervisor. The hypervisor then includes a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier of a transit VLAN (TVLAN) in a layer-2 header of the packet. The TVLAN is dedicated for inter-VM traffic associated with a distributed virtual routing (DVR) instance operating on the hypervisor and the remote hypervisor. Subsequently, the hypervisor sets a first media access control (MAC) address of the hypervisor as a source MAC address and a second MAC address of the remote hypervisor as a destination MAC address in the layer-2 header. The hypervisor then determines an egress port for the packet based on the second MAC address.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to request, from each of a plurality of services spanning multiple clusters, a plurality of time instances. A plurality of snapshots were taken during the plurality of time instances. The processor has programmed instructions to present, to a user, the plurality of time instances and a plurality of identifiers. Each of the plurality of identifiers corresponds to one of the plurality of services. The processor has programmed instructions to receive, from the user, a first selection of a first time instance of the plurality of time instances and a second selection of a subset of the plurality of identifiers. Each of the subset of identifiers corresponds to one of a subset of the plurality of services. The processor has programmed instructions to apply, to a target, a subset of the plurality of snapshots.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system. During operation, the system determines a first set of ciphers supported by a name server based on a name lookup response message. The system then inserts an entry associated with the name server in a data structure stored in a local storage device. Subsequently, the system identifies a second set of ciphers supported by a local name server in a name lookup query message destined to the name server. The system then selects the name lookup query message for an update operation based on the entry in the data structure. The update operation includes removing ciphers from the name lookup query message except a common cipher, which is present in both the first and second sets of ciphers. The system determines an egress port corresponding to the name server for the updated name lookup query message.

Abstract: A system and method for transmitting data from a local management system of a remote office branch office site in a virtual computing system to a central management system includes assigning, by the local management system, an initial priority to each piece of data, identifying data requested by the central management system since a previous data transmission, and updating the initial priority of each piece of data to an updated priority. The data requested by the central management system is prioritized higher than other data. The system and method also include combining, by the local management system, at least a portion of the data starting with data having a highest priority, into a data packet until the data packet achieves a computed data packet size, transmitting the data packet to the central management system, and updating the initial priority with the updated priority for future data transmissions.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: An approach for full-path data encryption, where user virtualized computers (e.g., user VMs) are configured to communicate with other virtualized computers or VMs using IPsec protocol encryption standards. The user VMs may send a first encryption or authorization key to the other VMs, which the other VMs may use to authenticate the user VMs and encrypt and decrypt data stored to storage devices using a second encryption key. In some approaches, the other VMs may interpret or decrypt the data sent via IPsec and then perform data optimizations (e.g., compression, deduplication) on the data before decrypting/encrypting with the second key.

Abstract: A data center communicates with a cloud-based backup system. Client-server roles are established such that a client role is assigned to the data center and a server role is assigned to the cloud-based backup system. On an ongoing basis, backup operations are performed. In the event of disaster or other cause of an outage of the data center, a failover protocol might be invoked such that the cloud-based backup system takes on additional processing operations beyond the aforementioned backup operations. After remediation, the data center issues a data restoration message to the cloud-based backup system. The remediated data center initiates a failback protocol that reverses the client-server roles of the data center and the cloud-based backup system such that the server role is assigned to the data center and the client role is assigned to the cloud-based backup system. After performing system restoration operations, the roles may be reversed again.

Abstract: Systems for distributed data storage. A method embodiment commences upon capturing a history of storage I/O activity over a recent time period. A predictive model is derived from the captured storage I/O activity, and the predictive model is then used for predicting future storage I/O activity. A set of snapshot planning parameters comprising objectives (e.g., to minimize costs or to maximize likelihood completing a snapshot activity by a prescribed time) and/or constraints (e.g., don't wait more than one day to start a snapshot) are applied to the predicted storage I/O characteristics to generate a set of feasible snapshot plans. One of the feasible snapshot plans is selected for scheduling so as to begin the planned snapshot activity at a prescribed time. The snapshot planning parameters are normalized based on the predicted storage I/O characteristics.

Abstract: A method of determining an optimal host machine to place a virtual machine in a virtualization environment is described. The virtualization environment includes a first rack of host machines and a second rack of host machines, where a first host machine of the first rack of host machines is designated as a leader node. The method includes receiving a request to launch a second virtual machine configured to communicate with a first virtual machine. The method includes identifying, from the first rack of host machines and the second rack of host machines, a cluster of host machines. The method includes computing, for each host machine of the cluster, an aggregate network bandwidth consumed by the host machine. The method includes selecting a host machine from the cluster based on the aggregate network bandwidth computed for the selected host machine. The method includes launching the second virtual machine on the selected host machine.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein for writing data, including storing, by a storage client, a cache copy of the data in a memory of the storage client and receiving, by the storage client, acknowledgement indicating that a single replica of the data is made in a storage node remote to the storage client.