SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES FOR AN I/O VIRTUALIZED (IOV) ADAPTER AND MANAGEMENT OF THE ADAPTER THROUGH AN IOV MANAGEMENT PARTITION

• US 20090144731A1
• Filed: 12/03/2007
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Freimuth, Douglas M., Brown, Aaron C., Recio, Renato J., Thurber, Steven M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,141,094 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage

Abstract

The system and method address the situation where an input/output (I/O) fabric is shared by more than one logical partition (LPAR) and where each LPAR can share with the other LPARs an I/O adapter (IOA). In particular, each LPAR is assigned its own separate address space to access a virtual function (VF) assigned to it such that each LPAR'"'"'s perception is that it has its own independent IOA. Each VF may be shared across multiple LPARs. Facilities are provided for management of the shared resources of the IOA via a Physical Function (PF) of the IOA by assignment of that PF to an I/O Virtualization Management Partition (IMP). The code running in the IMP acts as a virtual intermediary to the VFs for fully managing the VF error handling, VF reset, and configuration operations. The IMP also acts as an interface to the PF for accessing common VF functionality. Furthermore, the functions of resource assignment and management relative to the VFs and the client partitions that use those VFs, which might normally be done by an entity like a hypervisor, are implemented by this IMP.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for managing input/output (I/O) virtualization, comprising:

creating one or more client partitions in the data processing system, each client partition having an associated portion of resources of the data processing system;

creating, in the data processing system, an I/O virtualization management partition (IMP);

identifying, by the IMP, one or more I/O virtualization (IOV) enabled I/O endpoints associated with the data processing system;

assigning, by the IMP, virtual functions of the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints to the one or more client partitions;

creating, by a hypervisor of the data processing system, at least one communication structure for communicating between the IMP and the one or more client partitions based on the assignment of virtual functions to the one or more client partitions; and

performing, by at least one client partition of the one or more client partitions, virtual function configuration operations with one or more virtual functions of the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints using the at least one communication structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning, by the hypervisor of the data processing system, a portion of resources of the data processing system to the IMP for management by the IMP;

determining, by the IMP, a number of resources necessary for the virtual functions assigned to the one or more client partitions;

determining a number of virtual functions to be implemented in the data processing system and to which client partitions of the one or more client partitions to assign each virtual function; and

performing one or more calls from the one or more client partitions, to which virtual functions are assigned, to the hypervisor to assign resources from the portion of resources to the one or more client partitions.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a number of virtual functions to be implemented in the data processing system and to which client partitions of the one or more client partitions to assign each virtual function comprises:

determining a number of virtual functions supported by each identified IOV enabled I/O endpoint;

presenting information describing the identified IOV enabled I/O endpoints and the number of virtual functions supported by each identified IOV enabled I/O endpoint to a user; and

receiving user input indicating a number of virtual functions to be implemented in the data processing system and to which client partitions of the one or more client partitions to assign each virtual function.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

requesting, by the IMP, that the hypervisor initiate a transfer of resources to the one or more client partitions to which virtual functions are assigned;

receiving, in the IMP, from the hypervisor, in response to the request, one or more tokens; and

sending, from the IMP, the tokens to the one or more client partitions via the communication structure, wherein the one or more client partitions use the one or more tokens to obtain resources from the hypervisor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the IMP is provided with access to only configuration spaces for physical functions assigned to the IMP and configuration spaces for virtual functions belonging to physical functions assigned to the IMP, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more client partitions do not have direct access to configuration spaces of virtual functions assigned to the one or more client partitions, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints, and only access the configuration spaces of virtual functions assigned to the one or more client partitions via the IMP using the at least one communication structure.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the IMP permits access by a client partition to configuration spaces of virtual functions, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints, assigned to the client partition and blocks access by the client partition to configuration spaces of virtual functions, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints, that are not assigned to the client partition.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an input from a hardware management console (HMC) directing assignment of the virtual functions to the one or more client partitions and directing performance of the I/O virtualization management operations.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the input from the HMC is a command to initiate a hot-plug operation for adding a new IOV enabled I/O endpoint to the data processing system, and wherein performing the I/O virtualization management operations comprises:

assigning the new IOV enabled I/O endpoint to the IMP;

configuring the IMP based on the addition of the new IOV enabled I/O endpoint;

dynamically adding at least one virtual function of the new IOV enabled I/O endpoint to at least one client partition in the one or more client partitions;

allocating resources to the at least one client partition in the one or more client partitions based on the dynamic adding of the at least one virtual function of the new IOV enabled I/O endpoint; and

configuring the at least one virtual function of the new IOV enabled I/O endpoint via the IMP using the at least one communication structure.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the input from the HMC is a command to initiate a hot-plug operation for removing an existing IOV enabled I/O endpoint from the data processing system, and wherein performing the I/O virtualization management operations comprises:

identifying at least one client partition in the one or more client partitions having resources associated with a virtual function of the IOV enabled I/O endpoint to be removed;

removing the virtual function and resources associated with the virtual function from use by the at least one client partition;

removing, from use by the IMP, a physical function and resources associated with the physical function; and

powering down the IOV enabled I/O endpoint to be removed.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the input from the HMC is a command to dynamically reconfigure the data processing system, and wherein performing the I/O virtualization management operations comprises:

receiving a selection of a virtual function of an IOV enabled I/O endpoint to add to a selected client partition in the one or more client partitions;

creating at least one communication structure for the selected virtual function in the IMP and the selected client partition;

sending a request, from the IMP to the hypervisor, requesting a transfer of resources to the selected client partition;

receiving, in the IMP, at least one token from the hypervisor in response to the request;

providing the at least one token to the selected client partition;

setting up resources for selected virtual function in the selected client partition;

using the at least one token, by the selected client partition, to obtain resources from the hypervisor; and

loading a device driver for the selected virtual function in the selected client partition.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the input from the HMC is a command to dynamically reconfigure the data processing system, and wherein performing the I/O virtualization management operations comprises:

receiving a selection of a virtual function of an I/O endpoint to remove from a selected client partition in the one or more client partitions;

removing the selected virtual function from further use by the selected client partition; and

removing resources for selected virtual function in the selected client partition.

13. A computer program product comprising a computer recordable medium having a computer readable program recorded thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed in a data processing system, causes the data processing system to:

create one or more client partitions in the data processing system, each client partition having an associated portion of resources of the data processing system;

create, in the data processing system, an I/O virtualization management partition (IMP);

identify, by the IMP, one or more I/O virtualization (IOV) enabled I/O endpoints associated with the data processing system;

assign, by the IMP, virtual functions of the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints to the one or more client partitions;

create, by a hypervisor of the data processing system, at least one communication structure for communicating between the IMP and the one or more client partitions based on the assignment of virtual functions to the one or more client partitions; and

perform, by at least one client partition of the one or more client partitions, virtual function configuration operations with one or more virtual functions of the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints using the at least one communication structure.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to:

assign, by the hypervisor of the data processing system, a portion of resources of the data processing system to the IMP for management by the IMP;

determine, by the IMP, a number of resources necessary for the virtual functions assigned to the one or more client partitions;

determine a number of virtual functions to be implemented in the data processing system and to which client partitions of the one or more client partitions to assign each virtual function; and

perform one or more calls from the one or more client partitions, to which virtual functions are assigned, to the hypervisor to assign resources from the portion of resources to the one or more client partitions.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program causes the data processing system to determine a number of virtual functions to be implemented in the data processing system and to which client partitions of the one or more client partitions to assign each virtual function by:

determining a number of virtual functions supported by each identified IOV enabled I/O endpoint;

presenting information describing the identified IOV enabled I/O endpoints and the number of virtual functions supported by each identified IOV enabled I/O endpoint to a user; and

receiving user input indicating a number of virtual functions to be implemented in the data processing system and to which client partitions of the one or more client partitions to assign each virtual function.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to:

request, by the IMP, that the hypervisor initiate a transfer of resources to the one or more client partitions to which virtual functions are assigned;

receive, in the IMP, from the hypervisor, in response to the request, one or more tokens; and

send, from the IMP, the tokens to the one or more client partitions via the communication structure, wherein the one or more client partitions use the one or more tokens to obtain resources from the hypervisor.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the IMP is provided with access to only configuration spaces for physical functions assigned to the IMP and configuration spaces for virtual functions belonging to physical functions assigned to the IMP, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the one or more client partitions do not have direct access to configuration spaces of virtual functions assigned to the one or more client partitions, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints, and only access the configuration spaces of virtual functions assigned to the one or more client partitions via the IMP using the at least one communication structure.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the IMP permits access by a client partition to configuration spaces of virtual functions, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints, assigned to the client partition and blocks access by the client partition to configuration spaces of virtual functions, in the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints, that are not assigned to the client partition.

20. A data processing system, comprising:

one or more client partitions, each client partition having an associated portion of resources of the data processing system;

an I/O virtualization management partition (IMP) in communication with the one or more client partitions;

one or more I/O endpoints in communication with the IMP; and

at least one communication structure provided in association with the IMP and the one or more client partitions, wherein;

the IMP identifies one or more I/O virtualization (IOV) enabled I/O endpoints associated with the data processing system,

the IMP assigns virtual functions of the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints to the one or more client partitions, and

at least one client partition of the one or more client partitions performs virtual function configuration operations with one or more virtual functions of the one or more IOV enabled I/O endpoints using the at least one communication structure.