Estimating migration costs for migrating logical partitions within a virtualized computing environment based on a migration cost history

1. A logically partitioned host system having a plurality of logical partitions of pools of virtualized resources and an operating system operating in each of the logical partitions, comprising:

a hypervisor operative on the host system, wherein the host system comprises at least one memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory, to manage the plurality of logical partitions of pools of virtualized resources and operative, responsive to determining that insufficient local resources are available for reservation to meet a performance parameter for at least one resource specified in a reservation request for a particular logical partition managed by the hypervisor in the host system, to identify another logical partition from among the plurality of logical partitions that is assigned the at least one resource meeting the performance parameter specified in the reservation request;

the hypervisor operative to record a plurality of costs of migrations of a plurality of logical partitions into and out of the host system in a history table;

the hypervisor, responsive to a number of the plurality of costs of migrations reaching a threshold number, operative to delete at least one oldest record in the plurality of costs of migrations from the history table;

the hypervisor operative to estimate a first cost of migrating the particular logical partition and a second cost of migrating the another logical partition to at least one other host system communicatively connected in a peer-to-peer network based on at least one previously recorded cost stored by the host system in the history table of migrating a previous logical partition to the at least one other host system; and

the hypervisor operative to select one of the particular logical partition and the another logical partition as a migration candidate based on a comparison of the first cost with the second cost, wherein the hypervisor negotiates for offers from the at least one other host system to migrate the migration candidate to the at least one other host system.

2. The logically partitioned host system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

the hypervisor operative to store the first cost and the second cost in the history table with the at least one previously recorded cost, wherein each of the first cost, the second cost, and the at least one previously recorded cost is further specified with at least one of a source host system identifier, a destination host system identifier, and a logical partition identifier;

the hypervisor operative to receive at least one offer to migrate the migration candidate from at least one of the at least one other host system, wherein the at least one offer specifies at least one additional cost;

the hypervisor operative to store the at least one additional cost in the history table specified with the destination host system identifier for the at least one of the at least one other host system.

3. The logically partitioned host system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a partition controller of the hypervisor, responsive to receiving a logical partition migration with a migration data header, operative to remove the migration data header from the logical partition migration;

a cost estimator of the host system operative to decode the migration data header into at least one identifier of at least one of a source host system, a destination host system, and a logical partition and at least one cost of at least one of an estimated cost and an actual cost; and

the cost estimator operative to store the decoded migration data header in the history table comprising a plurality of records of migration costs for at least one migration from the host system to at least one of the at least one other host system and the at least one previously recorded cost.

4. The logically partitioned host system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

the hypervisor operative to identify the plurality of previously recorded costs for migrations to the at least one other host system from the history table;

the hypervisor operative to identify a pricing policy applied by the host system;

the hypervisor, responsive to the host system applying an average pricing policy, operative to select a mean cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost;

the hypervisor, responsive to the host system applying an optimist pricing policy, operative to select a best case cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost; and

the hypervisor, responsive to the host system applying a pessimist pricing policy, operative to select a worst case cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost.

5. The logically partitioned host system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

the hypervisor operative to negotiate to reserve at least one available local resource in the host system that meets the performance parameter for the at least one resource specified in the reservation request by the particular logical partition from among a plurality of logical partitions of virtualized pools of resources managed by the hypervisor in the host system, wherein the at least one performance parameter is specified by a particular application initiating the reservation request from the particular logical partition; and

the hypervisor, responsive to determining that the at least one available resource is not available in the host system, operative to negotiate for offers to migrate the migration candidate to the at least one other host system, wherein the at least one other host system is managed by at least one other hypervisor that manages one or more other logical partitions of virtualized pools of resources.

6. The logically partitioned host system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

the hypervisor, responsive to selecting a remote host system from among the at least one other host system to migrate the migration candidate to, operative to call a cost estimator of the host system to create a migration header;

the cost estimator operative to select a selection of most recent previously recorded migration costs by the host system for a target logical partition and for the remote host system;

the cost estimator operative to encode a migration data header with the selection of most recent previously recorded migration costs; and

the hypervisor operative to encode the migration candidate with the migration data header, wherein the remote host system receives the migration candidate with the migration data header, removes the migration data header from the migration candidate, and records the selection of most recently previous recorded migration costs for the target logical partition and for the remote host system for estimating the cost of migrations from the remote host system.

7. The logically partitioned host system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

the hypervisor operative to broadcast a request for bids for migrating the migration candidate to the at least one other host system;

the hypervisor, responsive to receiving at least one offer from at least one of the at least one other host system, operative to select a particular offer from among the at least one offer from a selected remote host system from among the at least one other host system;

the hypervisor operative to migrate the migration candidate logical partition to the selected remote host system; and

the hypervisor, responsive to migrating the another logical partition marked as the migration candidate, operative to reserve at least one freed resource previously assigned to the another logical partition for satisfying the reservation request for the particular logical partition.

8. A computer program product for managing requests for resources, said computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer readable storage medium and comprising computer executable instructions which cause a computer to:

responsive to a hypervisor determining that insufficient local resources are available for reservation to meet a performance parameter for at least one resource specified in a reservation request for a particular logical partition managed by the hypervisor in a host system, identify another logical partition managed by the hypervisor in the host system that is assigned the at least one resource meeting the performance parameter specified in the reservation request;

record, by the hypervisor, a plurality of costs of migrations of a plurality of logical partitions into and out of the host system in a history table;

responsive to a number of the plurality of costs of migrations reaching a threshold number, delete, by the hypervisor, at least one oldest record in the plurality of costs of migrations from the history table;

estimate, by the hypervisor, a first cost of migrating the particular logical partition and a second cost of migrating the another logical partition to at least one other host system communicatively connected in a peer-to-peer network based on at least one previously recorded cost stored in the history table by the host system of migrating a previous logical partition to the at least one other host system; and

select, by the hypervisor, one of the particular logical partition and the another logical partition as a migration candidate based on a comparison of the first cost with the second cost, wherein the hypervisor negotiates for offers from the at least one other host system to migrate the migration candidate to the at least one other host system.

9. The computer program product according to claim 8 , further comprising computer executable instructions which cause a computer to:

store, by the host system, the first cost and the second cost in the history table with the at least one previously recorded cost, wherein each of the first cost, the second cost, and the at least one previously recorded cost is further specified with at least one of a source host system identifier, a destination host system identifier, and a logical partition identifier;

receive, by the host system, at least one offer to migrate the migration candidate from at least one of the at least one other host system, wherein the at least one offer specifies at least one additional cost; and

store, by the host system, the at least one additional cost in the history table specified with the destination host system identifier for the at least one of the at least one other host system.

10. The computer program product according to claim 8 , further comprising computer executable instructions which cause a computer to:

responsive to receiving a logical partition migration with a migration data header, remove the migration data header from the logical partition migration;

decode the migration data header into at least one identifier of at least one of a source host system, a destination host system, and a logical partition and at least one cost of at least one of an estimated cost and an actual cost; and

store the decoded migration data header in the history table comprising a plurality of records of migration costs for at least one migration from the host system to at least one of the at least one other host system and the at least one previously recorded cost.

11. The computer program product according to claim 8 , further comprising computer executable instructions which cause a computer to:

identify a plurality of previously recorded costs for migrations to the at least one other host system;

identify a pricing policy applied by the host system;

responsive to the host system applying an average pricing policy, select a mean cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost;

responsive to the host system applying an optimist pricing policy, select a best case cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost; and

responsive to the host system applying a pessimist pricing policy, select a worst case cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost.

12. A method for managing requests for resources, comprising:

responsive to a hypervisor running determining that insufficient local resources are available for reservation to meet a performance parameter for at least one resource specified in a reservation request for a particular logical partition managed by the hypervisor in a host system, identifying another logical partition managed by the hypervisor in the host system that is assigned the at least one resource meeting the performance parameter specified in the reservation request;

recording, by the hypervisor, a plurality of costs of migrations of a plurality of logical partitions into and out of the host system in a history table;

responsive to a number of the plurality of costs of migrations reaching a threshold number, deleting, by the hypervisor, at least one oldest record in the plurality of costs of migrations from the history table;

estimating, by the hypervisor, a first cost of migrating the particular logical partition and a second cost of migrating the another logical partition to at least one other host system communicatively connected in a peer-to-peer network based on at least one previously recorded cost stored by the host system in the history table of migrating a previous logical partition to the at least one other host system; and

selecting, by the hypervisor, one of the particular logical partition and the another logical partition as a migration candidate based on a comparison of the first cost with the second cost, wherein the hypervisor negotiates for offers from the at least one other host system to migrate the migration candidate to the at least one other host system.

13. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

storing, by the hypervisor, the first cost and the second cost in the history table with the at least one previously recorded cost, wherein each of the first cost, the second cost, and the at least one previously recorded cost is further specified with at least one of a source host system identifier, a destination host system identifier, and a logical partition identifier;

receiving, by the hypervisor, at least one offer to migrate the migration candidate from at least one of the at least one other host system, wherein the at least one offer specifies at least one additional cost; and

storing, by the hypervisor, the at least one additional cost in the history table specified with the destination host system identifier for the at least one of the at least one other host system.

14. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

responsive to receiving a logical partition migration with a migration data header, removing, by the hypervisor, the migration data header from the logical partition migration;

decoding, by a cost estimator of the host system, the migration data header into at least one identifier of at least one of a source host system, a destination host system, and a logical partition and at least one cost of at least one of an estimated cost and an actual cost; and

storing, by the cost estimator of the host system, the decoded migration data header in the history table comprising a plurality of records of migration costs for at least one migration from the host system to at least one of the at least one other host system and the at least one previously recorded cost.

15. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

identifying, by the hypervisor, the plurality of previously recorded costs for migrations to the at least one other host system from the history table;

identifying, by the hypervisor, a pricing policy applied by the host system;

responsive to the host system applying an average pricing policy, selecting, by the hypervisor, a mean cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost;

responsive to the host system applying an optimist pricing policy, selecting, by the hypervisor, a best case cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost; and

responsive to the host system applying a pessimist pricing policy, selecting, by the hypervisor, a worst case cost of the plurality of previously recorded costs to estimate the first cost and the second cost.

16. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

negotiating, by the hypervisor, to reserve at least one available local resource in the host system that meets the performance parameter for the at least one resource specified in the reservation request by the particular logical partition from among a plurality of logical partitions of virtualized pools of resources managed by the hypervisor in the host system, wherein the at least one performance parameter is specified by a particular application initiating the reservation request from the particular logical partition; and

responsive to determining that the at least one available resource is not available in the host system, negotiating, by the hypervisor, for offers to migrate the migration candidate to the at least one other host system, wherein the at least one other host system is managed by at least one other hypervisor that manages one or more other logical partitions of virtualized pools of resources.

17. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

responsive to selecting a remote host system from among the at least one other host system to migrate the migration candidate to, call, by the hypervisor, a cost estimator of the host system to create a migration header;

selecting, by the cost estimator, a selection of most recent previously recorded migration costs by the host system for a target logical partition and for the remote host system;

encoding, by the cost estimator, a migration data header with the selection of most recent previously recorded migration costs; and

encoding, by the hypervisor, the migration candidate with the migration data header, wherein the remote host system receives the migration candidate with the migration data header, removes the migration data header from the migration candidate, and records the selection of most recently previous recorded migration costs for the target logical partition and for the remote host system for estimating the cost of migrations from the remote host system.

18. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising:

broadcasting, by the hypervisor, a request for bids for migrating the migration candidate to the at least one other host system;

responsive to receiving at least one offer from at least one of the at least one other host system, selecting, by the hypervisor, a particular offer from among the at least one offer from a selected remote host system from among the at least one other host system;

migrating, by the hypervisor, the migration candidate logical partition to the selected remote host system; and

responsive to migrating the another logical partition marked as the migration candidate, reserving, by the hypervisor, at least one freed resource previously assigned to the another logical partition for satisfying the reservation request for the particular logical partition.