Patent ID: 8117613

Claim:
A method of placing a plurality of virtual machines onto a plurality of host devices, said method comprising: performing a first simulated consolidation using a first host capacity limit, said first simulated consolidation being performed by a method comprising: identifying a first set of said host devices being powered on host devices and a second set of said host devices being powered off host devices, each of said powered on host devices hosting at least one of said plurality of virtual machines; determining an efficiency for each of said plurality of host devices; identifying at least one of first set of said host devices being an inefficient host; identifying a set of virtual machines being those virtual machines operating on said at least one of said first set of said host devices; placing said set of virtual machines on other members of said first set of host devices to create a first mapping, said placing being performed such that each of said host devices has a capacity less than said first host capacity; performing a simulated load balancing operation using said first mapping to create a second mapping, said simulated load balancing comprising moving at least one virtual machine such that all of said host devices are below a second host capacity limit; performing a second simulated consolidation using said second mapping to create a third mapping, said second simulated consolidation being performed using a third host capacity limit; and placing said plurality of virtual machines onto said plurality of host devices according to said third mapping.