Manageable external wake of virtual machines

• US 10,146,568 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2016
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsirkin, Michael, Laor, Dor
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US15/042,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20160162324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,026 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A processor of a computing system receives a message while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep. The processor determines whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the message.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a networking packet by a processor of a computer system while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep; and

determining, by the processor, whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the networking packet, wherein the parameter comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sequence number in the networking packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter further comprises a destination associated with the networking packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter further comprises a password in the networking packet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter further comprises a cookie in the networking packet.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is to host a plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the networking packet is directed to a hardware device of the computer system, and wherein the determination whether to wake the virtual machine is also based on whether the hardware device is mapped to a virtual device of the virtual machine.

6. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein that, when executed by a processor of a computer system, cause the processor to:

receive a message while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep, wherein the message is a networking packet; and

determine, by the processor, whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the message, wherein the parameter comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sequence number in the networking packet.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the parameter further comprises a destination virtual machine associated with the message.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the parameter further comprises a password in the message.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the parameter further comprises a cookie in the message.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor of a computer system operatively coupled to the memory, the processor to;

receive a networking packet while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep; and

determine whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the networking packet, wherein the parameter comprises a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sequence number in the networking packet.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the parameter further comprises a destination associated with the networking packet.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the parameter further comprises a password in the networking packet.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the parameter further comprises a cookie in the networking packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the computer system is to host a plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the networking packet is directed to a hardware device of the computer system, and wherein the determination whether to wake the virtual machine is also based on whether the hardware device is mapped to a virtual device of the virtual machine.