Architecture and method for managing the sharing of logical resources among separate partitions of a logically partitioned computer system

• US 20050182788A1
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Thurber, Steven Mark, Mealey, Bruce G., Arndt, Richard Louis
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45541 Bare-metal, i.e. hypervisor runs directly on hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for sharing resources among logical partitions in a logical partitioned data processing system and for managing the changes to resources in such a way that the sharing operating systems are able to handle the various transitions in a graceful manner. Four hypervisor functions plus a specific return code manage the granting of access of resources owned by one partition to another (client) partition, accepting of granted resources by client partitions, returning of granted resources by client partitions, and rescinding of access by the owning partition. These four hypervisor functions are invoked either explicitly by the owning and client partitions or automatically by the hypervisor in response to partition termination. The hypervisor functions provide the needed infrastructure to manage the sharing of logical resources among partitions.

Claims

1. A method for managing shared resources in a logical partitioned data processing system, the method comprising:

granting, by a server partition in the logical partitioned data processing system, a logical resource to a client partition in the logical partitioned data processing system, wherein the logical resource corresponds to a physical resource; and

mapping, by the client partition, the logical resource to the physical resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an identifier for the logical resource.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifier is unique within the client partition.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifier cannot be used to access the logical resource outside the client partition.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

returning, by the client partition, the logical resource to the server partition.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

rescinding, by the server partition, the logical resource.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a determination, at the server partition, that the client partition is incapable of gracefully returning the logical resource, performing a forced rescind operation.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

preventing translation tables in the client partition from containing references to a physical address of the logical resource.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to a failure of the server partition, notifying the client partition of the failure of the server partition;

recovering outstanding shared logical resources for the server partition; and

restarting the server partition.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

delaying for a period of time prior to the step of recovering the outstanding shared logical resources for the server partition.

11. A logical partitioned data processing system, comprising:

a server partition;

at least one client partition; and

a hypervisor, wherein the hypervisor performs functions and services for partitions to create and enforce partitioning of the logical partitioned data processing system,

wherein the server partition grants a logical resource to the client partition, wherein the logical resource corresponds to a physical resource, and wherein a sharing client partition, within the at least one client partition, maps the logical resource to the physical resource.

12. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 11, wherein the hypervisor generates an identifier for the logical resource.

13. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 12, wherein the identifier is unique within the sharing client partition.

14. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 12, wherein the identifier cannot be used to access the logical resource outside the sharing client partition.

15. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 11, wherein the sharing client partition returns the logical resource to the server partition.

16. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 15, wherein the server partition rescinds the logical resource.

17. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 11, wherein the server partition, responsive to a determination that the sharing client partition is incapable of gracefully returning the logical resource, performs a forced rescind operation.

18. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 17, wherein the hypervisor, responsive to the forced rescind operation, prevents translation tables in the sharing client partition from containing references to a physical address of the logical resource.

19. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 11, wherein the hypervisor, responsive to a failure of the server partition, notifies the sharing client partition of the failure of the server partition, recovers outstanding shared logical resources for the server partition, and restarts the server partition.

20. The logical partitioned data processing system of claim 19, wherein the hypervisor delays for a period of time prior to recovering the outstanding shared logical resources for the server partition.

21. A computer program product for managing shared resources in a logical partitioned data processing system, the computer program product comprising:

instructions for granting, by a server partition in the logical partitioned data processing system, a logical resource to a client partition in the logical partitioned data processing system, wherein the logical resource corresponds to a physical resource; and

instructions for mapping, by the client partition, the logical resource to the physical resource.