Patent ID: 8407182

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for facilitating long-distance live migrations of virtual machines, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: identifying a request for a live migration of a virtual machine from a primary site to a secondary site, wherein: the primary site comprises a primary storage device used for storage by the virtual machine; the primary storage device is configured for active-passive replication to a secondary storage device at the secondary site; identifying the request for the live migration comprises determining that the physical distance between the primary site and the secondary site exceeds a predetermined threshold; in response to identifying the request for the live migration, initiating a failover of the active-passive replication from the primary storage device to the secondary storage device in response to the request; intercepting each write attempt made by the virtual machine at the secondary site to the secondary storage device before completion of the failover by interposing a virtual read-write layer between the virtual machine and the secondary site; buffering each intercepted write attempt; determining that the failover is complete; applying each buffered write attempt to the secondary storage device after determining that the failover is complete.