Facilitating Customer-Initiated Virtual Machine Migration and Swapping

Abstract

Techniques for facilitating customer-initiated virtual machine (VM) migration and swapping. A method includes obtaining documentation of at least one performance parameter of two or more virtual machines running on two or more physical machines, obtaining a request for a virtual machine exchange from a user of a first virtual machine, wherein the request comprises a preference for at least one desired performance parameter in at least one additional virtual machine, matching the request from the user of the first virtual machine with at least one additional virtual machine that includes the at least one desired performance parameter without assistance from a cloud provider, and exchanging the first virtual machine with a virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine that includes the at least one desired performance parameter.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for exchanging two or more virtual machines miming on two or more physical machines, the method comprising:
 obtaining documentation of at least one performance parameter of two or more virtual machines running on two or more physical machines;   obtaining a request for a virtual machine exchange from a user of a first virtual machine, wherein the request comprises a preference for at least one desired performance parameter in at least one additional virtual machine;   matching the request from the user of the first virtual machine with at least one additional virtual machine that includes the at least one desired performance parameter; and   exchanging the first virtual machine with a virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine that includes the at least one desired performance parameter without assistance from a cloud provider;   wherein at least one of the steps is carried out by a computer device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 obtaining a second request for a virtual machine exchange from a user of a second virtual machine, wherein the request comprises a preference for at least one desired performance parameter in at least one additional virtual machine.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 matching the first request from the user of the first virtual machine with the second request from the user of the second virtual machine if:
 the first virtual machine includes the at least one desired performance parameter from the second request; and 
 the second virtual machine includes the at least one desired performance parameter from the first request. 
   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , comprising:
 exchanging the first virtual machine with the second virtual machine.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , comprising:
 obtaining assent from the first user and the second user for said exchanging.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one performance parameter comprises central processing unit, memory, network, storage, and/or number of hops between virtual machines. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said exchanging comprises:
 starting the first virtual machine and the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine in a stateless mode with each corresponding boot disk being unmounted.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , comprising:
 copying each used disk block from the first virtual machine to a temporary storage.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , comprising:
 copying the contents of the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine to a storage component of the first virtual machine.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , comprising:
 copying the contents of the first virtual machine from the temporary storage to a disk of the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said exchanging comprises using a third party broker. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising:
 obtaining assent, via the third party broker, from the user of the first virtual machine and the user of the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine for said exchanging.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising:
 revoking, via the third party broker, user access to the first virtual machine and the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine; and   shutting down, via the third party broker, the first virtual machine and the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , comprising:
 attaching, via the third party broker, a remote disk to each virtual machine;   setting, via the third party broker, the remote disks as boot; and   unmounting, via the third party broker, each virtual machine disk.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , comprising:
 restarting, via the third party broker, each virtual machine; and   swapping, via the third party broker, the virtual machine disks using an intermediary storage controlled by broker.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , comprising:
 removing, via the third party broker, the remote disks; and   restoring, via the third party broker, newly copied disks on the virtual machine disks and rebooting the virtual machines.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 verifying the documentation of the at least one performance parameter of the two or more virtual machines.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein said verifying comprises running at least one micro-benchmark of each virtual machine for comparison with the documentation. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  comprising:
 exchanging ownership of the first virtual machine and the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine in connection with exchanging the first virtual machine with the virtual machine from the at least one additional virtual machine.