Data Collection and Restoration for Process Migration
Summary
When moving a running software process from one machine to another, the computer's memory state must be preserved. However, different types of computers represent data and memory addresses differently.
This patent describes a method to snapshot a process's complex memory structures, including pointers (indirect memory references) and dynamic data, and convert them into a universal, machine-independent format. This "information stream" is then transmitted to the destination machine, where it is decoded and reconstructed in the new memory space, allowing applications to migrate mid-execution across entirely different hardware platforms.
Inventors
- Xian-He Sun
- Kasidit Chanchio
Technical Abstract
A technique for process migration between computers is disclosed, particularly for collecting the memory contents of a process on one computer in a machine-independent information stream, and for restoring the data content from the information stream to the memory space of a new process on a different computer. The data collection and restoration method enables sophisticated data structures such as indirect memory references to be migrated appropriately between heterogeneous computer environments.