Virtual Machine Migration Acceleration With Page State Indicators

Methods, systems, and computer program products are included for migrating a virtual machine. An example method of migrating a virtual machine includes providing a virtual machine by a source hypervisor. The source hypervisor initiates the running of a guest on the virtual machine. The source hypervisor sends the guest a migration indicator that corresponds to a migration of the virtual machine. The virtual machine is then placed in a suspended state. The source hypervisor receives a free memory page indicator from the guest that identifies one or more free memory pages. While the virtual machine is in the suspended state, the source hypervisor modifies a migration status of the identified one or more free memory pages to indicate that the identified one or more free memory pages are not to be migrated. After resuming operation of the virtual machine from the suspended state, the source hypervisor detects a dirty memory page indicator that identifies one or more dirty memory pages. The source hypervisor then modifies a migration status of the one or more dirty memory pages to indicate that the one or more dirty memory pages are to be migrated.