Managed orchestration of virtual machine instance migration

Abstract

Techniques for managing the migration of virtual machine instances are described herein. A migration of a virtual machine from a source host to a destination host is determined to be predicted to fail. The migration is cancelled by stopping the virtual machine at the destination host as a result of said determination.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 determining that a migration of a virtual machine instance from a source host to a destination host is predicted to fail; and   as a result of said determining, cancelling the migration by stopping the virtual machine instance at the destination host.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein determining that the migration is predicted to fail is based at least in part on a historical system state of a previous migration. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein cancelling the migration further includes removing a connection between the virtual machine instance at the destination host and a block storage device. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising initiating the migration by starting to copy, while the virtual machine instance is running on the source host, a set of state information of the virtual machine instance from the source host to the destination host. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 4 , wherein:
 initiating the migration further includes locking a virtual machine abstraction associated with the virtual machine instance by preventing the virtual machine instance from processing requests that would change the virtual machine abstraction; and   cancelling the migration further includes unlocking the virtual machine abstraction.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising causing packets that are received from an external entity by the virtual machine instance running on the source host to be forwarded to the destination host. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , further comprising causing other packets received at the destination host to be forwarded to the virtual machine instance running on the source host. 
     
     
         8 . A system, comprising:
 one or more processors; and   memory including computer-executable instructions that, as a result of execution by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
 determine whether a migration of a virtual machine from a source host to a destination host is predicted to fail or succeed; and 
 if the migration is predicted to fail, cancel the migration by causing the system to stop the virtual machine running at the destination host. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further include instructions that cause the system to determine the whether the migration is predicted to fail based at least in part on an outcome of a previous virtual machine migration. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the computer-executable instructions further include instructions that cause the system to lock a virtual machine abstraction associated with the virtual machine; and   the computer-executable instructions that cause the system to cancel the migration further include instructions that cause the system to unlock the virtual machine abstraction.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the system to lock the virtual machine abstraction further include instructions that cause the system to prevent the virtual machine instance from processing requests that would change the virtual machine abstraction. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further include instructions that cause the system to, if the migration is predicted to succeed, cause the system to:
 complete the migration;   stop the virtual machine running on the source host; and   start the virtual machine running on the destination host.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein:
 the virtual machine running on the source host includes a first network interface; and   the computer-executable instructions that cause the cause the system to start the virtual machine running on the destination host further include instructions that cause the system to configure the virtual machine on the second host with a second network interface that matches the first network interface such that a request directed to the virtual machine is received by the virtual machine running on the destination host at the second interface.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the system to start the virtual machine running on the destination host further include instructions that cause the computer to start the virtual machine running on the destination host as a result of determining that a difference between a state of the virtual machine on the source host and a state of the virtual machine on the destination host is below a threshold. 
     
     
         15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, as a result of execution by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to:
 initiate a virtual machine migration to duplicate a virtual machine on a destination host;   determine whether the virtual machine migration is predicted to fail; and   on condition that the virtual machine migration is predicted to fail, cancel the virtual machine migration by causing the computer system to stop the second virtual machine.   
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the executable instructions that cause the computer system to cancel the virtual machine migration further include instructions that cause the computer system to store information about the virtual machine migration in a migration history data store. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the executable instructions that cause the cause the computer system to determine the whether the virtual machine migration is predicted to fail further include instructions that cause the computer system to:
 input the current state into a machine learning algorithm; and   determine whether the virtual machine migration is predicted to fail based at least in part on an output of the machine learning algorithm.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , further comprising training the machine learning algorithm using migration history of previous virtual machine migrations. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 15 , wherein the executable instructions further include instructions that cause the computer system to initiate the migration further include instructions that cause the computer system to lock a virtual machine abstract associated with the virtual machine and the second virtual machine. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein the executable instructions that cause the cause the computer system to cancel the virtual machine migration further include instructions that cause the computer system to unlock the virtual machine abstraction.