Virtual machine placement in a cloud computing environment based on factors including optimized processor-memory affinity

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor;

a source system with a plurality of virtual machines and a target system; and

a smart migration mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, wherein the smart migration mechanism generates multiple move lists wherein each move list comprises one permutation of an ordered list for placing the plurality of virtual machines on the target system;

wherein the smart migration mechanism predicts an optimization score for each of the multiple move lists to determine an optimal move list having the best optimization score, wherein the optimization score is a calculated theoretical score for the multiple move lists using primary factors that include score improvements of processor memory affinity of the virtual machines placed on the target system;

wherein the smart migration mechanism provides a user with a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for each of the ranked move lists and allows the user to select a move list; and

wherein the smart migration mechanism uses the selected move list to move at least one virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines from the source system to the target system.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the optimization score is calculated using dynamic platform optimization.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the smart migration mechanism scores the multiple move lists with primary and secondary factors, wherein the primary factors further include score degradation within set minimums.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the smart migration mechanism creates a no-move list that is referenced when scoring the multiple permutations to create the optimal move list.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism allows the user to change initial parameters, and when the user changes parameters, the smart migration mechanism repeats predicting an optimization score for the multiple move lists.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the smart migration mechanism determines no move lists are needed and performs simple virtual machine migrations.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates virtual machines to target systems according to the optimal move list.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates a virtual machine to a system that causes a lower priority virtual machine to drop below a minimum score but the migration also causes a higher priority virtual machine a significant increase in score that results in an overall increase in system performance.

9. A program product comprising:

a smart migration mechanism that generates multiple move lists wherein each move list comprises one permutation of an ordered list for placing a plurality of virtual machines on a target system; and

wherein the smart migration mechanism predicts an optimization score for each of the multiple move lists to determine an optimal move list having the best optimization score, wherein the optimization score is a calculated theoretical score for the multiple move lists using primary factors that include score improvements of processor memory affinity of the virtual machines placed on the target system;

wherein the smart migration mechanism provides a user with a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for each of the ranked move lists and allows the user to select a move list;

wherein the smart migration mechanism uses the selected move list to move at least one virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines from a source system to the target system; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium bearing the smart migration mechanism.

10. The program product of claim 9 wherein the optimization score is calculated using dynamic platform optimization.

11. The program product of claim 10 wherein the smart migration mechanism scores the multiple move lists with primary and secondary factors, wherein the primary factors further include score degradation within set minimums.

12. The program product of claim 11 wherein the smart migration mechanism creates a no-move list that is referenced when scoring the multiple permutations to create the optimal move list.

13. The program product of claim 9 wherein the smart migration mechanism gives a user a plurality of ranked move lists with scores for the ranked move lists and allows the user to select a move list from the plurality of ranked move lists to use as the optimal move list.

14. The program product of claim 9 wherein the smart migration mechanism allows the user to change initial parameters, and when the user changes parameters, the smart migration mechanism repeats predicting an optimization score for the multiple move lists.

15. The program product of claim 14 wherein the smart migration mechanism determines no move lists are needed and performs simple virtual machine migrations.

16. The program product of claim 9 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates virtual machines to target systems according to the optimal move list.

17. The program product of claim 9 wherein the smart migration mechanism migrates a virtual machine to a system that causes a lower priority virtual machine to drop below a minimum score but the migration also causes a higher priority virtual machine a significant increase in score that results in an overall increase in system performance.