Native and Non-Native I/O Virtualization in a Single Adapter

• US 20090276551A1
• Filed: 05/05/2008
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2008
• 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 8,103,810 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/72
• 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

Abstract

Mechanisms for enabling both native and non-native input/output virtualization (IOV) in a single I/O adapter are provided. The mechanisms allow a system with a large number of logical partitions (LPARs) and system images to use IOV to share a native IOV enabled I/O adapter or endpoint that does not implement the necessary number of virtual functions (VFs) for each LPAR and system image. A number of VFs supported by the I/O adapter, less one, are assigned to LPARs and system images so that they may make use of native IOV using these VFs. The remaining VF is associated with a virtual intermediary (VI) which handles non-native IOV of the I/O adapter. Any remaining LPARs and system images share the I/O adapter using the non-native IOV via the VI. Thus, any number of LPARs and system images may share the same I/O adapter or endpoint.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for performing input/output (I/O) operations between a host system and an I/O adapter, comprising:

creating a plurality of virtual functions (VFs) in an I/O adapter of the data processing system;

configuring at least one first VF to support non-native I/O virtualization (IOV) in the I/O adapter;

configuring at least one second VF to support native IOV in the I/O adapter;

performing I/O operations between a host system of the data processing system and the I/O adapter utilizing native IOV and the at least one second VF; and

performing I/O operations between the host system and the I/O adapter utilizing non-native IOV and the at least one first VF.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring at least one VF and configuring at least one second VF are performed in response to an event, wherein the event is one of an addition of the I/O adapter to a communication fabric or initialization of a logical partition (LPAR) or system image on the host system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, in response to the event, the method further comprises:

determining a number of VFs that are supported by the I/O adapter;

determining a total number of logical partitions are to be implemented in the host system; and

configuring the at least one first VF and configuring the at least one second VF based on the determined number of supported VFs and total number of logical partitions to be implemented.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining a number of VFs to be used for native IOV based on the total number of logical partitions and the number of supported VFs; and

configuring a remaining number of VFs to be used for non-native IOV.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the number of VFs to be used for native IOV equals or is less than the total number of logical partitions to be implemented in the host system, and wherein the number of VFs to be used for non-native IOV is a difference between a number of VFs supported by the I/O adapter and a number of VFs to be used for native IOV.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the number of VFs to be used for non-native IOV is at least one.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the number of VFs to be used for native IOV is one of specified by a user, automatically set to a maximum number of VFs, or specified in a configuration file.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the maximum number of VFs that may be used for native IOV is the number of VFs supported by the I/O adapter less one.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the host system runs a plurality of logical partitions, each having their own system image, and wherein the system images use the VFs to perform I/O operations with the I/O adapter using a memory mapped I/O (MMIO) memory space in the I/O adapter.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a configuration memory space is provided in the I/O adapter for storing configuration information of the VFs of the I/O adapter, and wherein the MMIO memory space and configuration memory space are accessed and modified by a configuration management unit to configure the at least one first VF and configure the at least one second VF.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning logical partitions of the host system to one of a first VF or a second VF, wherein logical partitions are first assigned to a first VF until each first VF is associated with a logical partition, and wherein remaining logical partitions are assigned to the at least one second VF.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the remaining logical partitions share a single second VF.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the logical partitions of the host system have associated priority values, and wherein logical partitions are assigned to the at least one first VF and the at least one second VF according to their associated priority values.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program stored thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

create a plurality of virtual functions (VFs) in an I/O adapter of the data processing system;

configure at least one first VF to support non-native I/O virtualization (IOV) in the I/O adapter;

configure at least one second VF to support native IOV in the I/O adapter;

perform I/O operations between a host system of the data processing system and the I/O adapter utilizing native IOV and the at least one second VF; and

perform I/O operations between the host system and the I/O adapter utilizing non-native IOV and the at least one first VF.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to configure at least one VF and configure at least one second VF in response to an event, wherein the event is one of an addition of the I/O adapter to a communication fabric or initialization of a logical partition (LPAR) or system image on the host system.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein, in response to the event, the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

determine a number of VFs that are supported by the I/O adapter;

determine a total number of logical partitions are to be implemented in the host system; and

configure the at least one first VF and configuring the at least one second VF based on the determined number of supported VFs and total number of logical partitions to be implemented.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

determine a number of VFs to be used for native IOV based on the total number of logical partitions and the number of supported VFs; and

configure a remaining number of VFs to be used for non-native IOV.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the number of VFs to be used for native IOV equals or is less than the total number of logical partitions to be implemented in the host system, and wherein the number of VFs to be used for non-native IOV is a difference between a number of VFs supported by the I/O adapter and a number of VFs to be used for native IOV.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the number of VFs to be used for non-native IOV is at least one.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the host system runs a plurality of logical partitions, each having their own system image, and wherein the system images use the VFs to perform I/O operations with the I/O adapter using a memory mapped I/O (MMIO) memory space in the I/O adapter.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein a configuration memory space is provided in the I/O adapter for storing configuration information of the VFs of the I/O adapter, and wherein the MMIO memory space and configuration memory space are accessed and modified by a configuration management unit to configure the at least one first VF and configure the at least one second VF.

22. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

assign logical partitions of the host system to one of a first VF or a second VF, wherein logical partitions are first assigned to a first VF until each first VF is associated with a logical partition, and wherein remaining logical partitions are assigned to the at least one second VF.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the logical partitions of the host system have associated priority values, and wherein logical partitions are assigned to the at least one first VF and the at least one second VF according to their associated priority values.

23. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the remaining logical partitions share a single second VF.

25. A data processing system, comprising:

a host system; and

an input/output (I/O) adapter coupled to the host system, wherein the host system;

creates a plurality of virtual functions (VFs) in an I/O adapter of the data processing system;

configures at least one first VF to support non-native I/O virtualization (IOV) in the I/O adapter;

configures at least one second VF to support native IOV in the I/O adapter;

performs I/O operations between the host system and the I/O adapter utilizing native IOV and the at least one second VF; and

performs I/O operations between the host system and the I/O adapter utilizing non-native IOV and the at least one first VF.