SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING RESOURCE REVOCATION IN A MULTI-GUEST COMPUTER SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A computer system comprising:
- a host system including at least one hardware processor and a hardware memory; and
one or more virtual machines, each configured to run on said at least one hardware processor using regions of the hardware memory that have been allocated thereto,wherein each of the virtual machines includes (i) a guest operating system that allocates guest physical memory to software modules that are executed therein, and (ii) a memory reservation software module that is executed in response to a memory quantity request from the host system, andwherein a portion of the hardware memory corresponding to the guest physical memory that is allocated to the memory reservation software module by the guest operating system is made available to the host system for reallocation.
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Abstract
At least one guest system, for example, a virtual machine, is connected to a host system, which includes a system resource such as system machine memory. Each guest system includes a guest operating system (OS). A resource requesting mechanism, preferably a driver, is installed within each guest OS and communicates with a resource scheduler included within the host system. If the host system needs any one the guest systems to relinquish some of the system resource it currently is allocated, then the resource scheduler instructs the driver within that guest system'"'"'s OS to reserve more of the resource, using the guest OS'"'"'s own, native resource allocation mechanisms. The driver thus frees this resource for use by the host, since the driver does not itself actually need the requested amount of the resource. The driver in each guest OS thus acts as a hollow “balloon” to “inflate” or “deflate,” that is, reserve more or less of the system resource via the corresponding guest OS. The resource scheduler, however, remains transparent to the guest systems.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A computer system comprising:
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a host system including at least one hardware processor and a hardware memory; and one or more virtual machines, each configured to run on said at least one hardware processor using regions of the hardware memory that have been allocated thereto, wherein each of the virtual machines includes (i) a guest operating system that allocates guest physical memory to software modules that are executed therein, and (ii) a memory reservation software module that is executed in response to a memory quantity request from the host system, and wherein a portion of the hardware memory corresponding to the guest physical memory that is allocated to the memory reservation software module by the guest operating system is made available to the host system for reallocation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. In a computer system that comprises a host system including a host operating system and a hardware memory, and at least one virtual machine operatively connected as a guest system running on the host system and having a guest operating system operable to address and allocate guest physical memory, wherein the guest physical memory is mapped to various regions of the hardware memory, a method comprising:
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issuing a memory quantity request to a virtual machine; executing a memory reservation software module in the virtual machine in response to the memory quantity request; allocating guest physical memory to the memory reservation software module; and assigning a portion of the hardware memory corresponding to the guest physical memory allocated to the memory reservation software module to another resource. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer system comprising:
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a host system including at least one hardware processor, a hardware memory, and a resource scheduler for allocating the hardware memory; and a guest system that is operatively connected to the host system and programmed to;
(i) receive a memory quantity request from the resource scheduler, (ii) execute a memory reservation software module in response to the memory quantity request, and (iii) allocate guest physical memory to the memory reservation software module,wherein the resource scheduler makes available a portion of the hardware memory corresponding to the guest physical memory allocated to the memory reservation software module to another guest system. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification