Patent ID: 9336103
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A computer implemented method for maintaining a production site containing multiple virtual machines distributed across multiple host computers on which a first instance of a multi-tiered application executes, maintaining a physically disparate disaster recovery site containing corresponding multiple virtual machines distributed across corresponding multiple host computers, to which the multi-tiered application can be failed over in the event of a disaster level failure at the production site, and enabling a second instance of the multi-tiered application to be brought up, executed and tested on the disaster recovery site, while continuing to execute the first instance of the multi-tiered application on the production site, with the disaster recovery site simultaneously remaining available for failover of the multi-tiered application from the production site, wherein the production site and the disaster recovery site are communicatively coupled over a physical channel, the method comprising the steps of: on each host computer on the disaster recovery site maintained to failover the multi-tiered application from the production site, cloning each virtual machine executing on the each host computer, wherein cloning a virtual machine executing on a host computer results in a source virtual machine and a corresponding cloned virtual machine both executing on the host computer and each having a copy of a first virtual adapter with a public IP address configured for communicating on the physical channel; on each host computer on the disaster recovery site on which at least one virtual machine is cloned, creating a virtual switch configured for cloned virtual machines to communicate with each other without being visible on the physical channel; for each cloned virtual machine on each host computer on the disaster recovery site, creating a second virtual adapter with a private IP address not visible on the physical channel, wherein the each cloned virtual machine does not communicate externally using its first virtual adapter with the public IP address but instead communicates externally using its second virtual adapter with the private IP address; on the each host computer on the disaster recovery site on which at least one virtual machine is cloned, configuring a virtual router with a public virtual adapter having a public IP address that is visible on the physical channel, and with a private virtual adapter having a private IP address that is not visible on the physical channel, wherein the public virtual adapter of the virtual router on a given host computer is communicatively coupled to the physical channel and the private virtual adapter of the virtual router on the given host computer is communicatively coupled to the virtual switch configured for cloned virtual machines on the given host computer; wherein the source virtual machines distributed across the multiple host computers on the disaster recovery site are configured to communicate with each other using the public IP addresses over the physical channel, via the virtual switches on the host computers, are visible on the physical channel and are available for the failover of the multi-tiered application from the production site; and wherein the cloned virtual machines distributed across the multiple host computers on the disaster recovery site are configured to communicate with each other using the private IP addresses via the virtual switches and private virtual adapters of the virtual routers, and form a network bubble on the disaster recovery site, the network bubble not being visible on the physical channel.