Patent ID: 9342373
Filing Date: 2016-05-17
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus for virtual machine management among networked servers, the servers coupled for data communications with a data communications network that includes a network switch and a Virtual Machine Management Module (‘VMMM’), the apparatus comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of: monitoring, by the network switch, network traffic of a first user-level application including monitoring bandwidth used by the first user-level application, wherein the first user-level application is one of a plurality of user-level applications executing in virtual machines of the servers, wherein the network switch is separate from the servers and coupled to the servers via the data communications network, and wherein the network traffic is monitored by the network switch at an application layer; determining, by the network switch, in dependence upon the monitored network traffic, whether the first user-level application's network traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold, the first user-level application executing in a particular virtual machine of a particular server, wherein the first user-level application exceeding the predetermined threshold indicates that a second user-level application on the particular server has insufficient bandwidth; if the first user-level application's network traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold, allocating, by the VMMM, an additional virtual machine in a different server including allocating the additional virtual machine only after receiving, by the VMMM via the data communications network, a notification from the network switch that the first user-level application's network traffic exceeds the predetermined threshold; and instantiating, by the VMMM, in the additional virtual machine at least one user-level application, wherein instantiating at least one user-level application comprises: