Method and apparatus for providing virtual server blades

• US 20060184349A1
• Filed: 12/10/2004
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Zimmer, Vincent J., Rothman, Michael A., Goud, Gundrala D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,694,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

A first virtual machine (VM) in a processing system may emulate a first server blade, and a second VM in the processing system may emulate a second server blade. The emulated server blades may be referred to as virtual server blades. A virtual machine monitor (VMM) in the processing system may provide a communication channel to at least one of the virtual server blades. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

using a first virtual machine (VM) in a processing system to emulate a first server blade;

using a second VM in the processing system to emulate a second server blade; and

using a virtual machine monitor (VMM) in the processing system to provide a communication channel to at least one of the emulated server blades.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

executing a virtual blade supervisor within the VMM, the virtual blade supervisor to manage the emulated server blades.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the VMM, data pertaining to an operational status of one of the emulated server blades; and

forwarding the data pertaining to the operational status of the emulated server blade from the VMM to a remote data processing system.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

using the VMM to emulate a chassis management module (CMM) to manage the emulated server blades.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the operation of using a VMM in the processing system to provide a communication channel to at least one of the emulated server blades comprises:

using the VMM to emulate an out-of-band communication channel for at least one of the emulated server blades.

6. A method according to claim 5, further comprising:

using the emulated out-of-band communication channel to communicate data pertaining to an operational status of one of the emulated server blades to server blade management software.

7. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

using the VMM to emulate a baseboard management controller (BMC) for at least one of the emulated server blades.

8. A method according to claim 7, further comprising:

receiving status data from one of the emulated BMCs, wherein the status data pertains to an operational status of the emulated server blade associated with the emulated BMC.

9. A method according to claim 8, further comprising:

automatically modifying an operational parameter of one or more of the emulated server blades, in response to receiving the data from the emulated BMC.

10. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving policy data from a policy database associated with the processing system; and

configuring at least one of the emulated server blades in accordance with the policy data from the policy database.

11. A processing system comprising:

a machine accessible medium;

a processor responsive to the machine accessible medium;

on or more processing cores in the processor; and

instructions encoded in the machine accessible medium, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, perform operations comprising;

using a first virtual machine (VM) in the processing system to emulate a first server blade;

using a second VM in the processing system to emulate a second server blade; and

using a virtual machine monitor (VMM) in the processing system to provide a communication channel to at least one of the emulated server blades.

12. A processing system according to claim 11, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

receiving, at the VMM, data pertaining to an operational status of one of the emulated server blades; and

forwarding the data pertaining to the operational status of the emulated server blade from the VMM to a remote data processing system.

13. A processing system according to claim 11, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

using the VMM to emulate a chassis management module (CMM) to manage the emulated server blades.

14. A processing system according to claim 11, wherein the operation of using a VMM in the processing system to provide a communication channel to at least one of the emulated server blades comprises:

using the VMM to emulate an out-of-band communication channel for at least one of the emulated server blades.

15. A processing system according to claim 14, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

using the emulated out-of-band communication channel to communicate data pertaining to an operational status of one of the emulated server blades to server blade management software.

16. A processing system according to claim 11, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

using the VMM to emulate a baseboard management controller (BMC) for at least one of the emulated server blades.

17. A processing system according to claim 16, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

receiving status data from one or more of the emulated BMCs, the status data pertaining to an operational status of the corresponding emulated server blade.

18. A processing system according to claim 17, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

automatically modifying an operational parameter of one or more of the emulated server blades, in response to receiving the status data from the emulated BMC.

19. A processing system according to claim 11, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

retrieving policy data from a policy database associated with the processing system; and

configuring at least one of the emulated server blades in accordance with the policy data from the policy database.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a machine accessible medium; and

instructions encoded in the machine accessible medium, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processing system, perform operations comprising;

using a first virtual machine (VM) in the processing system to emulate a first server blade;

using a second VM in the processing system to emulate a second server blade; and

using a virtual machine monitor (VMM) in the processing system to provide a communication channel to at least one of the emulated server blades.

21. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

receiving, at the VMM, data pertaining to an operational status of one of the emulated server blades; and

forwarding the data pertaining to the operational status of the emulated server blade from the VMM to a remote data processing system.

22. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

using the VMM to emulate a chassis management module (CMM) to manage the emulated server blades.

23. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the operation of using a VMM in the processing system to provide a communication channel to at least one of the emulated server blades comprises:

using the VMM to emulate an out-of-band communication channel for at least one of the emulated server blades.

24. An apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

using the emulated out-of-band communication channel to communicate data pertaining to an operational status of one of the emulated server blades to server blade management software.

25. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

using the VMM to emulate a baseboard management controller (BMC) for at least one of the emulated server blades.

26. An apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

receiving status data from one or more of the emulated BMCs, the status data pertaining to an operational status of the corresponding emulated server blade.

27. A processing system according to claim 26, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

automatically modifying an operational parameter of one or more of the emulated server blades, in response to receiving the status data from the emulated BMC.

28. An apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the operations performed by the instructions further comprise:

retrieving policy data from a policy database associated with the processing system; and

configuring at least one of the emulated server blades in accordance with the policy data from the policy database.