NEGOTIATED ASSIGNMENT OF RESOURCES TO A VIRTUAL MACHINE IN A MULTI-VIRTUAL MACHINE ENVIRONMENT

• US 20090172660A1
• Filed: 12/26/2007
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Klotz, Carl G. JR., Shanbhogue, Vedvyas, Grobman, Steve L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,615,757 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• 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

A system and method are disclosed. In one embodiment the system includes a physical resource that is capable of generating I/O data. The system also includes multiple virtual machines to utilize the physical resource. Among the virtual machines are a resource source virtual machine that is capable of owning the physical resource. The resource source virtual machine is also capable of sending a stream of one or more I/O packets generated from the I/O data that targets a resource sink virtual machine. The resource sink virtual machine is designated as a termination endpoint of the I/O data from the physical device. Also among the virtual machines are one or more resource filter virtual machines. Each of the resource filter virtual machines is capable of filtering I/O packets of a particular type from the stream prior to the stream reaching the resource sink virtual machine.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a physical resource to generate I/O data; and

a plurality of virtual machines to utilize the physical resource, wherein the plurality of virtual machines further comprise;

a resource source virtual machine to

own the physical resource; and

send a stream of one or more I/O packets generated from the I/O

data that targets a resource sink virtual machine;

the resource sink virtual machine to be designated a termination endpoint of the stream of I/O packets; and

one or more resource filter virtual machines, each resource filter virtual machine to filter I/O packets of a particular type from the stream prior to the stream reaching the resource sink virtual machine.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a configuration manager to

determine a set of resource requirements for each of the plurality of virtual machines regarding the physical resource; and

create a resource chain originating from the physical device to meet the set of resource requirements for each of the plurality of virtual machines.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the configuration manager is further operable to:

determine a resource priority level of each of the plurality of virtual machines;

sort the plurality of virtual machines in an order according to the resource priority level of each of the plurality of virtual machines; and

logically couple each of plurality of virtual machines in series in the sorted order to form the resource chain.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the configuration manager is further operable to:

designate a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machines with the highest resource priority level as the resource sink virtual machine;

determine whether another virtual machine within the plurality of virtual machines, apart from the resource sink virtual machine, agrees to provide a virtual interface of the physical resource to all of the one or more other virtual machines in the plurality of virtual machines; and

when another virtual machine has agreed to provide the physical interface of the physical resource, designate the determined virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines as the resource source virtual machine,

wherein the configuration manager designates itself to provide the virtual interface of the physical source when no virtual machine within the plurality has agreed to provide the physical interface of the physical resource.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the configuration manager is further operable to:

remove the resource source designation from the determined virtual machine when the determined virtual machine fails to provide the virtual interface to the physical resource for one or more of the plurality of virtual machines.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines includes a virtual driver, the virtual driver to

provide a virtual device back end to a serially adjacent virtual machine in the resource chain that is further from the physical resource;

and

provide a virtual device front end to a serially adjacent virtual machine in the resource chain that is closer to the physical resource,

wherein a virtual device back end of a first virtual machine and a serially adjacent virtual device front end of a second virtual machine form a logically coupled link between the first and second virtual machines in the resource chain, the logically coupled link providing a path for one or more of the I/O packets to pass from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the configuration manager is further operable to:

designate any additional virtual machines of the plurality of virtual machines that have not been designated as the resource sink virtual machine or the resource source virtual machine as a resource filter virtual machine.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the set of resource requirements of each of the plurality of virtual machines is described in a resource descriptor, wherein each virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines provides the configuration manager with a resource descriptor.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additional resource sink virtual machines, each of the one or more additional resource sink virtual machines being the target of one or more additional streams of I/O packets originating from the resource source virtual machine.

10. A method, comprising:

generating one or more I/O packets from a physical resource; and

sending the one or more generated I/O packets in a stream to a resource sink virtual machine;

filtering the stream of one or more I/O packets serially through each of one or more resource filter virtual machines, wherein each of the one or more resource filter virtual machines is designated to remove any I/O packets in the stream of a specific type.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a set of resource requirements for each of the plurality of virtual machines regarding the physical resource; and

creating a resource chain originating from the physical device to meet the set of resource requirements for each of the plurality of virtual machines.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining a resource priority level of each of the plurality of virtual machines;

sorting the plurality of virtual machines in an order according to the resource priority level of each of the plurality of virtual machines; and

logically coupling each of plurality of virtual machines in series in the sorted order to form the resource chain.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

designating a virtual machine with the highest resource priority level as the resource sink virtual machine;

designating another virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, apart from the resource sink virtual machine, as the resource source virtual machine;

designating any additional virtual machines of the plurality of virtual machines that have not been designated as the resource sink virtual machine or the resource source virtual machine as a resource filter virtual machine.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing a virtual device back end to a serially adjacent virtual machine in the resource chain that is further from the physical resource; and

providing a virtual device front end to a serially adjacent virtual machine in the resource chain that is closer to the physical resource,

wherein a virtual device back end of a first virtual machine and a serially adjacent virtual device front end of a second virtual machine form a logically coupled link between the first and second virtual machines in the resource chain, the logically coupled link providing a path for one or more of the I/O packets to pass from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving each of the one or more I/O packets at a first resource filter virtual machine of a first priority level;

performing one or more filtering operations on each of the one or more received I/O packets at the first resource filter virtual machine, wherein when an I/O packet is filtered by one of the one or more filtering operations, it is not sent to a next resource filter virtual machine or the resource sink virtual machine; and

passing each of the one or more I/O packets that are not filtered by the one or more filtering operations to a next resource filter virtual machine, or to the resource sink virtual machine when there are no additional resource filter virtual machines that have not yet received each of the one or more I/O packets.