METHOD FOR NETWORK INTERFACE SHARING AMONG MULTIPLE VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20110314469A1
• Filed: 06/21/2010
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Qian, Yi, Zhou, Hua, Huang, Fujin, Rothman, Michael A., Zimmer, Vincent J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,739,177 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/9057 Arrangements for supporting packet reassembly or resequencing

Abstract

In a computing system, sharing a physical NIC device among multiple virtual machines may be implemented by a customer virtual machine by receiving, by a virtual network interface card (NIC) driver of a customer operating system (OS) running in the customer virtual machine on a computing system, a customer OS request packet for transmission by a physical NIC driver over a network coupled to the computing system, and copying at least a portion of the customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to a transmission queue in the shared memory. Next, a service virtual machine may support the implementation by fetching the block from the transmission queue by a virtual NIC driver of a service OS running in a service virtual machine and packaging the portion into a service OS request packet, passing the service OS request packet to a service OS network stack component of the service OS, routing the service OS request packet, by a bridge driver of the service OS network stack component, to the physical NIC driver, and sending the service OS request packet over the network by the physical NIC driver.

Claims

1. A method of sharing a physical NIC device among multiple virtual machines comprising:

receiving, by a virtual network interface card (N IC) driver of a customer operating system (OS) running in a customer virtual machine on a computing system, a customer OS request packet for transmission by a physical NIC driver over a network coupled to the computing system;

copying at least a portion of the customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to a transmission queue in the shared memory;

fetching the block from the transmission queue by a virtual NIC driver of a service OS running in a service virtual machine and packaging the portion into a service OS request packet;

passing the service OS request packet to a service OS network stack component of the service OS;

routing the service OS request packet, by a bridge driver of the service OS network stack component, to the physical NIC driver; and

sending, by the physical NIC driver, the service OS request packet over the network via the physical NIC device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising invoking a VMCALL instruction by the customer OS virtual NIC driver to cause a virtual machine manager (VMM) of the computing system to notify the service OS virtual NIC driver that a Customer OS request packet is available, and the VMM to inject an interrupt to the service OS virtual NIC driver.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the service OS executes within a secure enclave session provided by a processor of the computing system.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by a second virtual network interface card (NIC) driver of a second customer operating system (OS) running in a second customer virtual machine on the computing system, the second customer virtual machine running on the computing system concurrently with the first customer virtual machine, a second customer OS request packet for transmission by the physical NIC driver, and copying at least a portion of the second customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to the transmission queue in the shared memory.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first customer OS and the second customer OS are different OSs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion comprises media access control frame information.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the VMM allocates an area of shared memory for the transmission queue that is accessible by the customer OS and the service OS.

8. An article comprising:

a machine readable medium having a plurality of machine instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor within a computing system, the instructions provide for sharing a physical NIC device among multiple virtual machines by

receiving, by a virtual network interface card (NIC) driver of a customer operating system (OS) running in a customer virtual machine on a computing system, a customer OS request packet for transmission by a physical NIC driver over a network coupled to the computing system;

copying at least a portion of the customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to a transmission queue in the shared memory;

fetching the block from the transmission queue by a virtual NIC driver of a service OS running in a service virtual machine and packaging the portion into a service OS request packet;

passing the service OS request packet to a service OS network stack component of the service OS;

routing the service OS request packet, by a bridge driver of the service OS network stack component, to the physical NIC driver; and

sending, by the physical NIC driver, the service OS request packet over the network via the physical NIC device.

9. The article of claim 8, further comprising instructions invoking a VMCALL instruction by the customer OS virtual NIC driver to cause a virtual machine manager (VMM) of the computing system to notify the service OS virtual NIC driver that a Customer OS request packet is available, and the VMM to inject an interrupt to the service OS virtual NIC driver.

10. The article of claim 8, wherein the instructions for the service OS execute within a secure enclave session provided by a processor of the computing system.

11. The article of claim 8, further comprising instructions for receiving, by a second virtual network interface card (N IC) driver of a second customer operating system (OS) running in a second customer virtual machine on the computing system, the second customer virtual machine running on the computing system concurrently with the first customer virtual machine, a second customer OS request packet for transmission by the physical NIC driver, and copying at least a portion of the second customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to the transmission queue in the shared memory.

12. A computing system for sharing a physical NIC device among multiple virtual machines comprising:

a customer virtual machine running a customer operating system (OS), the customer OS including a customer OS virtual network interface card (NIC) driver to receive a customer OS request packet for transmission by the physical NIC device over a network coupled to the computing system, to copy at least a portion of the customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system, and to append the block to a transmission queue in the shared memory; and

a service virtual machine running a service OS, the service OS including

a service OS virtual NIC driver to fetch the block from the transmission queue and to package the portion into a service OS request packet,

a service OS network stack component to receive the service OS request packet from the service OS virtual NIC driver; and

a physical NIC driver to receive the service OS request packet from the service OS network stack component and to transmit the service OS request packet to the physical NIC device.

13. The computing system of claim 12, further comprising a virtual machine manager (VMM), wherein the customer OS virtual NIC driver invokes a VMCALL instruction to the VMM to notify the service OS virtual NIC driver that a customer OS request packet is available, and the VMM injects an interrupt to the service OS virtual NIC driver.

14. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the service OS executes within a secure enclave session provided by a processor of the computing system.

15. The computing system of claim 12, further comprising a second customer operating system (OS) running in a second customer virtual machine on the computing system, the second customer OS including a second virtual NIC driver, the second customer virtual machine running on the computing system concurrently with the first customer virtual machine, the second virtual NIC driver to receive a second customer OS request packet for transmission by the physical NIC driver;

and copy at least a portion of the second customer OS request packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to the transmission queue in the shared memory.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the first customer OS and the second customer OS are different OSs.

17. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the VMM allocates an area of shared memory for the transmission queue that is accessible by the customer OS and the service OS.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the VMM allocates an area of shared memory for the transmission queue that is accessible by the customer OS and the service OS.

18. A method of sharing a physical NIC device among multiple virtual machines comprising:

receiving, by a physical network interface card (NIC) driver of a service operating system (OS) running in a service virtual machine on a computing system, a network packet received by the physical NIC device over a network coupled to the computing system;

routing the network packet, by a bridge driver component of a service OS network stack component, to a service OS virtual NIC driver;

copying, by the service OS virtual NIC driver, at least a portion of the network packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to a reception queue in the shared memory;

fetching the block from the reception queue by a virtual NIC driver of a customer OS running in a customer virtual machine and packaging the portion into a customer OS request packet; and

passing, by the customer OS virtual NIC driver, the customer OS request packet to a customer OS network stack component.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising invoking a VMCALL instruction by the service OS virtual NIC driver to cause a virtual machine manager (VMM) of the computing system to notify the customer OS virtual NIC driver that a network packet is available, the VMM to inject an interrupt to the customer OS virtual NIC driver.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the service OS executes within a secure enclave session provided by a processor of the computing system.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising fetching the block from the reception queue by a virtual NIC driver of a second customer OS running in a second customer virtual machine and packaging the portion into a second customer OS request packet;

and passing, by the second customer OS virtual NIC driver, the second customer OS request packet to a second customer OS network stack component, the second customer virtual machine running on the computing system concurrently with the first customer virtual machine.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first customer OS and the second customer OS are different OSs.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the portion comprises media access control frame information.

25. An article comprising:

a machine readable medium having a plurality of machine instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor within a computing system, the instructions provide for sharing a physical NIC device among multiple virtual machines by

receiving, by a physical network interface card (NIC) driver of a service operating system (OS) running in a service virtual machine on a computing system, a network packet received by the physical NIC device over a network coupled to the computing system;

routing the network packet, by a bridge driver component of a service OS network stack component, to a service OS virtual NIC driver;

copying, by the service OS virtual NIC driver, at least a portion of the network packet into a free block of shared memory of the computing system and appending the block to a reception queue in the shared memory;

fetching the block from the reception queue by a virtual NIC driver of a customer OS running in a customer virtual machine and packaging the portion into a customer OS request packet; and

passing, by the customer OS virtual NIC driver, the customer OS request packet to a customer OS network stack component.

26. The article of claim 25, further comprising instructions to invoke a VMCALL instruction by the service OS virtual NIC driver to cause a virtual machine manager (VMM) of the computing system to notify the customer OS virtual NIC driver that a network packet is available, and the VMM to inject an interrupt to the customer OS virtual NIC driver.

27. The article of claim 25, wherein the service OS executes within a secure enclave session provided by a processor of the computing system.

28. The article of claim 25, further comprising instructions to fetch the block from the reception queue by a virtual NIC driver of a second customer OS running in a second customer virtual machine and package the portion into a second customer OS request packet;

and passing, by the second customer OS virtual NIC driver, the second customer OS request packet to a second customer OS network stack component, the second customer virtual machine running on the computing system concurrently with the first customer virtual machine.

29. A computing system for sharing a physical network interface card (NIC) device among multiple virtual machines comprising:

a service virtual machine running a service operating system (OS), the service OS including

a physical network interface card (NIC) driver to receive a network packet, the network packet being received by the physical NIC device over a network coupled to the computing system;

a bridge driver component of a service OS network stack component to route the network packet; and

a service OS virtual NIC driver to receive the network packet from the bridge driver component, to copy at least a portion of the network packet into a free block of a shared memory of the computing system, and to append the block to a reception queue in the shared memory; and

a customer virtual machine running a customer OS, the customer OS including a customer OS virtual NIC driver to fetch the block from the reception queue and to package the portion into a customer OS request packet; and

a customer OS network stack component to receive the customer OS request packet from the customer OS virtual NIC driver.

30. The computing system of claim 29, further comprising a virtual machine manager (VMM), wherein the service OS virtual NIC driver invokes a VMCALL instruction to the VMM to notify the customer OS virtual NIC driver that a request packet is available, and the VMM injects an interrupt to the customer OS virtual NIC driver.

31. The computing system of claim 29, wherein the service OS executes within a secure enclave session provided by a processor of the computing system.

32. The computing system of claim 29, further comprising a second customer operating system (OS) running in a second customer virtual machine on the computing system, the second customer OS including a second virtual NIC driver and a second customer OS network stack component, the second customer virtual machine running on the computing system concurrently with the first customer virtual machine, the second virtual NIC driver to fetch a block from the reception queue and to package the portion into a customer OS request packet, and the customer OS network stack component to receive the customer OS request packet.

33. The computing system of claim 32, wherein the first customer OS and the second customer OS are different OSs.