Modeling the virtual machine allocation problem∗

Finding the right allocation of virtual machines (VM) in cloud data centers is one of the key optimization problems in cloud computing. Accordingly, many algorithms have been proposed for the problem. However, lacking a single, generally accepted formulation of the VM allocation problem, there are many subtle differences in the problem formulations that these algorithms address; moreover, in several cases, the exact problem formulation is not even defined explicitly. Hence in this paper, we present a comprehensive generic model of the VM allocation problem. We also show how the often-investigated problem variants fit into this general model.