Patent ID: 8775625

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, by a device, that a virtual machine should be moved from a first physical system to a second physical system; sending, from the device, a first set of instructions to one or more service appliances at the first physical system; sending, from the device, the first set of instructions to one or more service appliances at the second physical system, the first set of instructions instructing the one or more service appliances at the first physical system and the one or more service appliances at the second physical system to perform state synchronization, and a first session associated with the virtual machine being suspended during the state synchronization; sending, from the device and after performance of the state synchronization, a second set of instructions to instantiate a copy of the virtual machine in the second physical system; instantiating, by the device, the copy of the virtual machine at the second physical system, the copy of the virtual machine beginning a second session and processing data upon instantiation, the instantiation being based on an image, the image being: associated with a memory of the virtual machine, captured while the virtual machine is located at the first physical system, and used to generate another image, based on the image, to instantiate the copy of the virtual machine at the second physical system; and shutting down, by the device, the virtual machine at the first physical system, the device, when shutting down of the virtual machine, being further to: remove the virtual machine from the first physical system.