Abstract: Techniques for dynamically managing a sleep state of a virtual machine are provided. The techniques include detecting idleness of a virtual machine, putting the idle virtual machine into a sleep state, implementing a virtual machine surrogate, wherein the virtual machine surrogate listens to network traffic, enabling the virtual machine to handle network traffic that is capable of being handled by the virtual machine, and enabling the virtual machine to queue network traffic and wake-up the virtual machine in the sleep state for network traffic that the virtual machine surrogate is incapable of handling.

Abstract: A method (and system) for managing a distributed-memory parallel application running on multiple servers, includes dynamically moving a plurality of executable program components, where each of the plurality of executable program components are running on one of a plurality of virtual machines, using migration of the virtual machines between physical servers. The load balancing is operated based on a workload of each of the virtual machines and servers, where a virtual machine, or a plurality of virtual machines, are transferred to balance the workload between each of the servers.

Abstract: A service-level specification for information technology services is obtained from a user. The service-level specification is mapped into an information technology specific deployment plan. Information technology specific resources are deployed in accordance with the information technology specific deployment plan to provide the information technology services.

Abstract: A method monitors machine activity of multiple virtual computing devices operating through at least one physical computing device by running a monitoring agent. The monitoring agent monitors performance of the multiple virtual computing devices. The method measures simple operating characteristics of only a base level virtual computing device. The method monitors complex operating characteristics using the monitoring agent by: measuring the complex operating characteristics for each of the multiple virtual computing devices (using each of the multiple virtual computing devices); recording the complex operating characteristics of each of the multiple virtual computing devices on a corresponding memory page of each of the multiple virtual computing devices; and sharing each the corresponding memory page with the base level virtual computing device through an interdomain communications channels to transfer the complex operating characteristics to the monitoring agent.

Abstract: A system, program product, and method are provided for copying a virtual machine image. An image library comprising a plurality of system images is provided by a target data processing system. A source image selection is received at the target data processing system. A given image from the image library is selected by the target system based on the received source image. The selected given image is transformed into a copy of the virtual machine image by receiving blocks from a source system that are part of the virtual machine image but not a part of the selected given image, such that only the blocks missing from the selected given image are transferred from the source system to the target system in order to form the copy of the virtual machine image. The source image is preferably a virtual data processing system image.

Abstract: Method, apparatus and computer program product are configured to perform computer monitoring activities; to collect information regarding computer system status during the computer monitoring activities; to detect a problem in dependence on the information collected during the computer monitoring activities; and to determine whether to launch a diagnostic probe when the problem is detected. The monitoring activities may be performed on a periodic or event-driven basis. The determination whether to launch a diagnostic probe is based on a rule included in a hierarchy of rules. The hierarchy of rules is based on problem tickets; system logs; and computer system configuration information.

Abstract: A system and method for determining application dependent components includes capturing interactions of an application stored in memory of a first environment with other components at runtime. The interactions are parsed and categorized to determine dependency information. The application is migrated to a new environment using the dependency information to reconfigure the application after migration without application-specific knowledge.

Abstract: A method of deploying a software application on the Internet cloud that is failure-tolerant includes identifying those aspects of a software application that need to be persisted in the event of failure, and those aspects of the application that do not need to be persisted, and deploying the application where aspects that need to be persisted are deployed to persistent storage and aspects that aspects that do not need to be persisted are deployed ton non-persistent virtual partitions, where when a virtual partition or an application component fails, an instance of the application is recreatable from those application aspects that were deployed to persistent storage.

Abstract: A method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for automated validation of compliance in a cloud server. The method includes remotely accessing a target cloud server to discover at least one configuration setting of the target cloud server, integrating the at least one configuration setting from the target cloud server with information from at least one back-end tool to produce compliance evidence, and automatically answering a set of at least one checklist question for activation compliance validation of the target cloud server based on the compliance evidence.

Abstract: A system for transferring a live application from a source to a target machines includes memory capture component that monitors and captures memory segments associated with one or more memories, one or more sets of these memory segments comprising one or more applications, the memory segments changing while the live application is in execution. A frequency ranking component organizes the memory segments in an order determined by memory segment change frequency. A link identification component identifies one or more connecting links to one or more sets of peer machines, each set of machines connecting said source machine to said target machine, the link identifier further determining the bandwidth associated with each connecting link. A routing component preferentially routes one or more of the memory segments over said connecting links based on said order.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing communications between a plurality of applications are presented. A determination is made as to whether an address in a message is a prior address for a second application in the plurality of applications in response to receiving a message from a first application in the plurality of applications. The message is sent onto a virtual network configured to handle prior addresses for the plurality of applications in response to the address in the message being the prior address for the second application being located on another virtual machine from the first application.

Abstract: A virtual machine is migrated between a source cloud and a destination cloud. A temporary storage is mounted to a partition management firmware of the source cloud and to a partition management firmware of the destination cloud. A first storage location migration migrates the virtual machine from the source cloud to the at least one temporary storage. A second storage location migration migrates the virtual machine from the at least one temporary storage to final destination storage of the destination cloud. The temporary storage is then unmounted from the partition management firmware of the source cloud and from the partition management firmware of the destination cloud.

Abstract: Method, apparatus and computer program product manage a plurality of networks with a single tenant network management tool using virtualization and implement control plane virtualization of the single tenant management tool; data storage virtualization of a data storage apparatus and network address virtualization of an available address range. A virtual machine may be implemented for each network of the plurality of networks to contain an instance of the single tenant management tool. In one implementation, a proxy is used to implement data storage virtualization. In another implementation, separate data storage is maintained for each network and data storage virtualization is achieved by managing the network protocol stack virtualization. The network address virtualization may be implemented using machine-level virtualization or operating-system-level virtualization.

Abstract: A service-level specification for information technology services is obtained from a user. The service-level specification is mapped into an information technology specific deployment plan. Information technology specific resources are deployed in accordance with the information technology specific deployment plan to provide the information technology services.

Abstract: The structure attributes and unstructured attributes of a ticket are used to generate a problem signature. For structured attributes, correlation between field values is determined and fields with the highest weight are identified. For unstructured attributes, data mining techniques are applied to generate a plurality of keywords with a ranking for each ticket by identifying keywords, and commonly used acronyms and corpus variances. The set of structured attributes and the plurality of keywords from unstructured attributes form the signature of a given problem ticket.

Abstract: Techniques for establishing a performance metric are provided for facilitating a negotiation between a provider and a user. The techniques include the following steps. Resource utilization is calculated, wherein resource utilization comprises system capacity utilized for executing a task. Work lost is calculated, wherein work lost comprises an amount of work lost as a result of a potential failure. Quality of service (QoS) is calculated, wherein QoS comprises a probability of success for executing the task by a deadline. User behavior is calculated, wherein user behavior comprises an amount of risk that the user is willing to accept. Also the calculated resource utilization, work lost, QoS and user behavior are used to establish a performance metric, wherein the performance metric facilitates a negotiation between a provider and a user.

Abstract: A system, program product, and method are provided for copying a virtual machine image. An image library comprising a plurality of system images is provided by a target data processing system. A source image selection is received at the target data processing system. A given image from the image library is selected by the target system based on the received source image. The selected given image is transformed into a copy of the virtual machine image by receiving blocks from a source system that are part of the virtual machine image but not a part of the selected given image, such that only the blocks missing from the selected given image are transferred from the source system to the target system in order to form the copy of the virtual machine image. The source image is preferably a virtual data processing system image.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing communications between a plurality of applications are presented. A determination is made as to whether an address in a message is a prior address for a second application in the plurality of applications in response to receiving a message from a first application in the plurality of applications. The message is sent onto a virtual network configured to handle prior addresses for the plurality of applications in response to the address in the message being the prior address for the second application being located on another virtual machine from the first application.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for network distribution and provisioning of applications, such as transactional applications and parallel applications, across multiple administrative domains that ensure compliance with service level agreements. For example, a method of provisioning one or more resources in a distributed computing network to ensure compliance with a service level agreement associated with a computer application includes the following steps. Network performance is monitored between a local domain and one or more cooperating domains connected to the local domain by network paths. A present or predicted violation of the service level agreement is identified based on at least a portion of results of the monitoring step. One or more cooperating domains are selected that can effect compliance with the service level agreement by instantiating one or more network resources within at least one of the selected cooperating domains in response to a request from the local domain.

Abstract: Techniques for dynamically managing a sleep state of a virtual machine are provided. The techniques include detecting idleness of a virtual machine, putting the idle virtual machine into a sleep state, implementing a virtual machine surrogate, wherein the virtual machine surrogate listens to network traffic, enabling the virtual machine to handle network traffic that is capable of being handled by the virtual machine, and enabling the virtual machine to queue network traffic and wake-up the virtual machine in the sleep state for network traffic that the virtual machine surrogate is incapable of handling.