Fast transparent migration for virtual machines

Abstract

This paper describes the design and implementation of a system that uses virtual machine technology [1] to provide fast, transparent application migration. This is the first system that can migrate unmodified applications on unmodified mainstream Intel x86-based operating system, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Novell NetWare and others. Neither the application nor any clients communicating with the application can tell that the application has been migrated. Experimental measurements show that for a variety of workloads, application downtime caused by migration is less than a second. 1