Patent ID: 8255508

Claim:
A method of administration of virtual machine affinity in a data center, the data center comprising a plurality of virtual machines (‘VMs’), each VM comprising a module of automated computing machinery installed upon a computer in the data center and characterized by a Universally Unique Identifier (‘UUID’), at least two of the VMs having an affinity requirement to be installed on separate computers, the data center further comprising a data center administration server operably coupled to the VMs through a VM manager implemented as a module of automated computing machinery on the data center administration server and VM agents that are implemented as modules of automated computing machinery in the VMs, the VM manager on the data center administration server comprising administrative functions that communicate with the VM agents on the VMs to configure the VMs in the data center, the method comprising: installing, by the data center administration server upon the VMs having the affinity requirement, an affinity manager, the affinity manager comprising a further module of automated computing machinery; communicating, by at least one of the VMs having the affinity requirement to the data center administration server, the UUIDs of the VMs having the affinity requirement, including: communicating, by each of the affinity managers of the VMs having the affinity requirement to at least one of the affinity managers of the VMs having the affinity requirement, the UUIDs of the VMs having the affinity requirement; communicating, by at least one of the affinity managers of the VMs having the affinity requirement to its VM agent, the UUIDs of the VMs having the affinity requirement; and communicating, by at least one of the VM agents of the VMs having the affinity requirement to the VM manager, the UUIDs of the VMs having the affinity requirement; and moving by the data center administration server the VMs having the affinity requirement to separate computers in the data center.