VMware, Inc.
USAGE PATTERN VIRTUAL MACHINE IDLE DETECTION

Abstract:

The detection of utilized virtual machines through usage pattern analysis is described. In one example, a computing device can collect utilization metrics from a virtual machine over time. The utilization metrics can be related to one or more processing usage, disk usage, network usage, and memory usage metrics, among others. The utilization metrics can be used to determine a number of clusters, and the clusters can be used to organize the utilization metrics into groups. Depending upon the number or overall percentage of the utilization metrics assigned to individual ones of the plurality of clusters, it is possible to determine whether or not the virtual machine is a utilized or an idle virtual machine. Once identified, utilized virtual machines can be migrated in some cases. Idle virtual machines can be shut down to conserve processing resources and costs in some cases.