Sharing Legacy Devices In A Multi-Host Environment

• US 20090070775A1
• Filed: 09/06/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Riley, Dwight D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,316,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/35 Switches specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/65 Re-configuration of fast packet switches

Abstract

Systems and methods of sharing legacy devices in a multi-host environment are disclosed. An exemplary method for sharing legacy devices in a multi-host environment includes receiving device information from a legacy device, the device information identifying a target within a virtual machine. The method also includes encapsulating the device information into a corresponding bus transaction for a network switch fabric. The method also includes routing the bus transaction over the network switch fabric in the virtual machine to a host within the virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method for sharing legacy devices as virtual legacy devices in a multi-host environment, comprising:

receiving device information from a legacy device, the device information identifying a target host within a virtual machine;

encapsulating the device information into a corresponding bus transaction for a network switch fabric; and

routing the bus transaction over the network switch fabric in the virtual machine to the target host within the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising unencapsulating the device information after being received at the target host memory space.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising virtualizing the legacy device in the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the legacy device is a keyboard, video, or mouse device controller.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the legacy device is system ROM mapped into the RAM space of a management node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the legacy device is an extensible firmware interface (EFI).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the legacy device is not configured for sharing among a plurality of hosts.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the legacy device is represented completely in software.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding host partitions to the multi-host environment without having to add legacy devices to support the additional host partitions.

10. A multi-host environment with shared legacy devices, comprising:

a management node communicatively coupled to a legacy device, the management node receiving device information from the legacy device;

a gateway in the management node configured to virtualize a legacy device header space into a virtual machine and encapsulate the virtual device information into a corresponding bus transaction;

a gateway in the compute note configured to virtualize the legacy device header for a host OS; and

a network switch fabric for routing the bus transaction to a target host within the virtual machine.

11. The multi-host environment of claim 10, wherein the device information identifies the target host within the virtual machine.

12. The multi-host environment of claim 10, further comprising a gateway at the target host for receiving the bus transaction.

13. The multi-host environment of claim 12, wherein the gateway at the target host unencapsulates and remaps the target address into a unique memory space pre-allocated for the legacy device information for processing at the target host.

14. The multi-host environment of claim 13, wherein information at the gateway travels in both directions from a virtual machine OS to the legacy device and from the legacy device to the virtual machine OS in response to a request from the virtual machine OS.

15. The multi-host environment of claim 12, wherein the target host comprises a CPU node.

16. The multi-host environment of claim 10, wherein the legacy device is virtualized in the virtual machine.

17. The multi-host environment of claim 10, wherein the legacy device is a keyboard, video, or mouse device.

18. The multi-host environment of claim 10, wherein the legacy device is ROM.

19. The multi-host environment of claim 10, wherein the legacy device is configured at least in part in the management node as a single-host device but operates as a virtual legacy device in the virtual machine.

20. The multi-host environment of claim 10, wherein host partitions can be added without having to add legacy devices on a one-to-one basis to support the additional host partitions.

22. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for unencapsulating the device information at the target host.

23. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for virtualizing the legacy device.

21. A system for sharing legacy devices in a multi-host environment, comprising:

means for receiving device information from a legacy device;

means for encapsulating the device information into a corresponding bus transaction; and

means for routing the bus transaction to one of a plurality of hosts within the multi-host environment.