Sharing a kernel of an operating system among logical partitions

• US 20070136721A1
• Filed: 12/12/2005
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dunshea, Andrew, Flemming, Diane
• Granted Patent: US 9,189,291 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• 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

Sharing a kernel of an operating system among logical partitions, including installing in a partition manager a kernel of a type used by a plurality of logical partitions; installing in the partition manager generic data structures specifying computer resources assigned to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and providing, by the kernel to the logical partitions, kernel services in dependence upon the generic data structures.

Claims

1. A method for sharing a kernel of an operating system among logical partitions, the method comprising:

installing in a partition manager a kernel of a type used by a plurality of logical partitions;

installing in the partition manager generic data structures specifying computer resources assigned to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and

providing, by the kernel to the logical partitions, kernel services in dependence upon the generic data structures.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

dispatching to run state by the partition manager a logical processor of a logical partition that uses the kernel; and

providing to the kernel a pointer to a generic data structure of the partition manager, the generic data structure specifying computer resources assigned to the logical partition.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising vectoring through the partition manager system calls to kernel services of the kernel from application programs running in the logical partitions.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising specifying, upon initial program load of the entire computer system, in a data structure globally available to kernels in the partition manager, computer resources available on the computer system for use through logical partitions.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein installing generic data structures further comprises specifying, by the kernel in a generic data structure at boot time for a logical partition in dependence upon resource specifications globally available to all kernels of the partition manager, computer resources of the computer system assigned for use through the booted logical partition.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising upgrading the kernel on behalf of one or more of the plurality of logical partitions, including updating a kernel identifier in a data structure that associates a kernel identifier with an identifier of the logical partitions subject to the upgrade and a pointer to a generic data structure that specifies computer resources assigned for use through each logical partition subject to the upgrade.

7. A system for sharing a kernel of an operating system among logical partitions, the system comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions capable of:

installing in a partition manager a kernel of a type used by a plurality of logical partitions;

installing in the partition manager generic data structures specifying computer resources assigned to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and

providing, by the kernel to the logical partitions, kernel services in dependence upon the generic data structures.

8. The system of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

dispatching to run state by the partition manager a logical processor of a logical partition that uses the kernel; and

providing to the kernel a pointer to a generic data structure of the partition manager, the generic data structure specifying computer resources assigned to the logical partition.

9. The system of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions capable of vectoring through the partition manager system calls to kernel services of the kernel from application programs running in the logical partitions.

10. The system of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions capable of specifying, upon initial program load of the entire computer system, in a data structure globally available to kernels in the partition manager, computer resources available on the computer system for use through logical partitions.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein installing generic data structures further comprises specifying, by the kernel in a generic data structure at boot time for a logical partition in dependence upon resource specifications globally available to all kernels of the partition manager, computer resources of the computer system assigned for use through the booted logical partition.

12. The system of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions capable of upgrading the kernel on behalf of one or more of the plurality of logical partitions, including computer program instructions capable of updating a kernel identifier in a data structure that associates a kernel identifier with an identifier of the logical partitions subject to the upgrade and a pointer to a generic data structure that specifies computer resources assigned for use through each logical partition subject to the upgrade.

13. A computer program product for sharing a kernel of an operating system among logical partitions, the computer program product disposed upon a signal bearing medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions capable of:

installing in a partition manager a kernel of a type used by a plurality of logical partitions;

installing in the partition manager generic data structures specifying computer resources assigned to each of the plurality of logical partitions; and

providing, by the kernel to the logical partitions, kernel services in dependence upon the generic data structures.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the signal bearing medium comprises a recordable medium.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the signal bearing medium comprises a transmission medium.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of:

dispatching to run state by the partition manager a logical processor of a logical partition that uses the kernel; and

providing to the kernel a pointer to a generic data structure of the partition manager, the generic data structure specifying computer resources assigned to the logical partition.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of vectoring through the partition manager system calls to kernel services of the kernel from application programs running in the logical partitions.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of specifying, upon initial program load of the entire computer system, in a data structure globally available to kernels in the partition manager, computer resources available on the computer system for use through logical partitions.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein installing generic data structures further comprises specifying, by the kernel in a generic data structure at boot time for a logical partition in dependence upon resource specifications globally available to all kernels of the partition manager, computer resources of the computer system assigned for use through the booted logical partition.

20. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions capable of upgrading the kernel on behalf of one or more of the plurality of logical partitions, including computer program instructions capable of updating a kernel identifier in a data structure that associates a kernel identifier with an identifier of the logical partitions subject to the upgrade and a pointer to a generic data structure that specifies computer resources assigned for use through each logical partition subject to the upgrade.