Method and system for determining a cost-benefit metric for potential virtual machine migrations

摘要

A cost-benefit metric for load balancing virtual machines is used to estimate a net gain in resource availability achieved by a proposed virtual machine migration. The cost-benefit metric can be used together with any other known metrics to evaluate candidate migrations. The metric takes into account stability of loads as well as migration cost, hence can protect a system from thrashing, i.e., frequently migrating virtual machines without gaining resource availability.