End node partitioning using virtualization

• US 20030061379A1
• Filed: 09/27/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Recio, Renato John, Craddock, David F., Schmidt, Donald William, Gregg, Thomas Anthony, Pfister, Gregory Francis, Elko, David Arlen
• Granted Patent: US 7,093,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/586 of virtual routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/76 Routing in software-defined topologies, e.g. routing between virtual machines

Abstract

A mechanism for allowing a single physical IB node to virtualize a plurality of host channel adapters is provided. This includes providing the appearance of both a router and multiple virtual HCA'"'"'s residing behind that router, to the external REAL subnet components. Each virtual host channel adapter will have unique access control levels. One or more InfiniBand subnets are virtualized in such a way that nodes residing both within the virtual subnets and in separate physical subnets are completely unaware of the virtualization. This virtualization of InfiniBand subnets significantly increases the horizontal scaling capabilities of a single InfiniBand physical component, while at the same time provides “native” network throughput for all the virtual hosts.

Claims

1. A method for partitioning a computer network end node, the method comprising:

virtualizing a plurality of network devices on a single multi-function chip by means of a combination of hardware and software; and

virtualizing at least one router on the multi-function chip by means of a combination of hardware and software, wherein the virtual router performs control-flow processing for the virtual network devices, and wherein the virtual router functions of destination lookup and packet forwarding are incurred only on control-flow processing;

wherein the virtual network devices and virtual router form a virtual subnet.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the virtual network devices are host channel adapters.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the virtual network devices are target channel adapters.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assigning unique identifiers to the virtual network devices.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising virtualizing a plurality of subnets on the multi-function chip by means of software.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising registering the virtual subnet with a physical subnet.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the physical subnet perceives the multi-function chip as only a single router with multiple HCAs residing behind it.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein nodes in the physical subnet communicate with the virtual subnet through the virtual router.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the multi-function chip provides resource configuration and allocation interface that allow software, firmware and hardware state machines to set an operating policy for the virtual devices.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the multi-function chip provides standard device functions directly to the virtual devices by means of physical queue pairs even though those devices logically reside behind a virtual router.

15. The computer program product according to claim 1, further comprising instructions for virtualizing a plurality of subnets on the multi-function chip by means of software.

11. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for use in a data processing system, for partitioning a computer network end node, the computer program product comprising:

instructions virtualizing a plurality of network devices on a single multi-function chip; and

instructions for virtualizing at least one router on the multi-function chip, wherein the virtual router performs control-flow processing for the virtual network devices, and wherein the virtual router functions of destination lookup and packet forwarding are incurred only on control-flow processing;

wherein the virtual network devices and virtual router form a virtual subnet.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the virtual network devices are host channel adapters.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein the virtual network devices are target channel adapters.

14. The computer program product according to claim 11, further comprising instructions for assigning unique identifiers to the virtual network devices.

16. The computer program product according to claim 11, further comprising instructions for registering the virtual subnet with a physical subnet.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein the physical subnet perceives the multi-function chip as only a single router with multiple HCAs residing behind it.

18. The computer program product according to claim 16, wherein nodes in the physical subnet communicate with the virtual subnet through the virtual router.

19. A system for partitioning a computer network end node, the system comprising:

a first virtualizing component which virtualizes a plurality of network devices on a single multi-function chip; and

a second virtualizing component which virtualizes at least one router on the multi-function chip, wherein the virtual router performs control-flow processing for the virtual network devices, and wherein the virtual router functions of destination lookup and packet forwarding are incurred only on control-flow processing;

wherein the virtual network devices and virtual router form a virtual subnet.