VIRTUAL FUNCTION BOOT IN SINGLE-ROOT AND MULTI-ROOT I/O VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20120102491A1
• Filed: 10/06/2011
• Published: 04/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Maharana, Parag R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,135,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method for virtual function boot in a system including a single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) enabled server includes loading a PF driver of the PF of a storage adapter onto the server utilizing the virtual machine manager of the server; creating a plurality of virtual functions utilizing the PF driver, detecting each of the virtual functions on an interconnection bus, maintaining a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions, querying the storage adapter for the boot list utilizing a VMBIOS associated with the plurality of VMs, presenting the detected boot list to a VM boot manager of the VMM, and booting each of the plurality of virtual machines utilizing each of the virtual functions, wherein each VF of the plurality of VFs is assigned to a VM of the plurality of VMs via an interconnect passthrough between the VMM and the plurality of VMs.

Claims

1. A method for virtual function boot in a system including a single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) enabled server configured to implement a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) and a virtual machine manager (VMM) and a storage adapter including at least one physical function (PF) and configured to implement a plurality of virtual functions, wherein the SR-IOV enabled server and the physical storage adapter are communicatively couplable, comprising:

upon interconnection of the storage adapter with the SR-IOV enabled server and boot of the SR-IOV enabled server and storage adapter, loading a PF driver of the PF of the storage adapter onto the SR-IOV enabled server utilizing the virtual machine manager of the SR-IOV enable server;

creating a plurality of virtual functions utilizing the PF driver;

detecting each of the plurality of virtual functions on an interconnection bus utilizing the VMM;

maintaining a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions;

querying the storage adapter for the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions utilizing a VMBIOS associated with the plurality of VMs, the VMBIOS being configured to detect the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions;

presenting the detected boot list to a VM boot manager of the VMM utilizing the VMBIOS; and

booting each of the plurality of virtual machines utilizing each of the virtual functions, wherein each VF of the plurality of VFs is assigned to a VM of the plurality of VMs via an interconnect passthrough between the VMM and the plurality of VMs, wherein each of a plurality of virtual disks (VDs) is mapped to a VF of the plurality of virtual functions utilizing the VM boot manager.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interconnection of the storage adapter with the SR-IOV enabled server and boot of the SR-IOV enabled server and storage adapter comprises:

interconnecting the physical storage adapter to the SR-IOV enabled server via the interconnection bus;

booting SR-IOV enabled server firmware and physical storage adapter firmware; and

during SR-IOV enabled server firmware and physical storage adapter firmware boot, identifying the physical function of the physical storage adapter as a controller of the SR-IOV enabled server utilizing the virtual machine manager.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintaining a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions comprises:

maintaining a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions, wherein storage adapter firmware is configured to maintain and track boot data for each virtual function.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the querying the storage adapter for the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions utilizing a VMBIOS associated with the plurality of VMs comprises:

querying the storage adapter firmware for the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions utilizing a VMBIOS associated with the plurality of VMs, the VMBIOS being configured to detect the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage adapter comprises:

a MegaRAID card.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the interconnection bus comprises:

a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interconnection bus.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the interconnection passthrough comprises:

a PCIe passthrough.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a diagnostic message indicative of a status of at least one virtual function drivers.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the providing a diagnostic message indicative of a status of at least one virtual function drivers comprises:

transmitting a status signal from the at least one virtual function driver to the storage adapter, the status signal being indicative of the status of the at least one virtual function driver;

storing information associated with the status signal utilizing storage adapter firmware;

relaying the status signal from the storage adapter to the PF driver in the VM manager;

relaying the status signal from the PF driver to at least one of an error handler of the VM manager or management tool of the VM manager; and

transmitting a user signal to a user interface from the management tool, wherein the user signal is configured to trigger a pre-determined message selected based on a characteristic of the status signal.

10. A method for virtual function boot in a system including a plurality of multi-root I/O virtualization (MR-IOV) servers, at least one MR-IOV switch, and at least one storage adapter including at least one physical function (PF) and configured to implement a plurality of virtual functions, each of the MR-IOV servers being communicatively coupled to the at least one MR-IOV switch, the at least one storage adapter being communicatively couplable to the at least one MR-IOV switch, comprising:

upon interconnection of the at least one storage adapter with the at least one MR-IOV switch, loading a physical function (PF) driver of the at least one storage adapter onto the MR-IOV switch;

creating a plurality of virtual functions (VFs) utilizing the PF driver on MR-IOV switch;

assigning each of the VFs to an MR-IOV server of the plurality of MR-IOV servers;

identifying each of the plurality of VFs as a virtual storage adapter by the plurality of MR-IOV servers, wherein each MR-IOV server identifies a VF as a virtual storage adapter;

loading a UEFI driver onto each of the VFs;

obtaining a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions from firmware of the at least one storage adapter utilizing the UEFI driver loaded on each of the VFs, wherein the boot list is configured to associate each virtual function with a corresponding boot disk; and

booting a plurality of boot disks utilizing each of the VFs assigned to each of the MR-IOV servers utilizing the obtained boot list.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the interconnection of the at least one storage adapter with the at least one MR-IOV switch comprises:

interconnecting the at least one storage adapter to the MR-IOV switch via a PCIe interconnecton bus.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the storage adapter comprises:

a MegaRAID card.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the MR-IOV servers is communicatively coupled to the at least one MR-IOV switch via a PCIe interconnection link.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the loading a UEFI driver onto each of the VFs comprises:

loading a UEFI driver onto each of the VFs utilizing at least one of UEFI or BIOS.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing a diagnostic message indicative of a status of at least one virtual function drivers.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the providing a diagnostic message indicative of a status of at least one virtual function drivers comprises:

transmitting a status signal from the at least one virtual function driver to the at least one storage adapter, the status signal being indicative of the status of the at least one virtual function driver;

storing information associated with the status signal utilizing firmware of the at least one storage adapter;

relaying the status signal from the at least one storage adapter to the PF driver in the MR-IOV switch;

relaying the status signal from the PF driver to at least one of an error handler of the MR-IOV or management tool of the MR-IOV; and

transmitting a user signal to a user interface from the management tool, wherein the user signal is configured to trigger a pre-determined message selected based on a characteristic of the status signal.

17. A system for virtual function boot in a system comprising:

at least one MR-IOV switch;

a plurality of multi-root I/O virtualization (MR-IOV) servers, each of the plurality of MR-IOV servers being communicatively coupled to the MR-IOV switch via a PCIe link; and

at least one storage adapter including at least one physical function (PF), the at least one storage adapter configured to implement a plurality of virtual functions, the at least one storage adapter being communicatively couplable to the at least one MR-IOV switch via a PCIe slot of the MR-IOV switch, wherein, upon interconnection of the at least one storage adapter with the at least one MR-IOV switch, the at least one storage adapter, the MR-IOV switch, and the plurality of MR-IOV servers are configured to;

load a physical function (PF) driver of the at least one storage adapter onto the MR-IOV switch;

create plurality of virtual functions (VFs) utilizing the PF driver on MR-IOV switch;

assign each of the VFs to an MR-IOV server of the plurality of MR-IOV servers;

identify each of the plurality of VFs as a virtual storage adapter by the plurality of MR-IOV servers, wherein each MR-IOV server identifies a VF as a virtual storage adapter;

load a UEFI driver onto each of the VFs;

obtain a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions from firmware of the at least one storage adapter utilizing the UEFI driver loaded on each of the VFs, wherein the boot list is configured to associate each virtual function with a corresponding boot disk; and

boot a plurality of boot disks utilizing each of the VFs assigned to each of the MR-IOV servers utilizing the obtained boot list.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the MR-IOV switch is configured to perform multi-node clustering utilizing a single storage adapter, wherein a first virtual function is assigned to a first MR-IOV server and a second virtual function is assigned to at least a second MR-IOV server utilizing the MR-IOV switch.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one MR-IOV switch includes a first MR-IOV switch and a second MR-IOV switch configured to perform multi-node clustering utilizing two storage adapters, wherein a first virtual function from a first storage adapter is assigned to at least a first MR-IOV server utilizing the first MR-IOV switch and a second virtual function from a second storage adapter is assigned to the first MR-IOV server utilizing the second MR-IOV switch.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the storage adapter comprises:

a MegaRAID card.

20. A system for virtual function boot in a system comprising:

a single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) server configured to implement a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) and a virtual machine manager (VMM); and

a storage adapter including at least one physical function (PF), storage adapter configured to implement a plurality of virtual functions, the storage adapter being communicatively couplable to the SR-IOV enabled server via a PCIe slot of the SR-IOV enabled server, wherein, upon interconnection of the storage adapter with the SR-IOV enabled server, the storage adapter and the SR-IOV enabled server are configured to;

load a PF driver of the PF of the storage adapter onto the SR-IOV enabled server utilizing the virtual machine manager of the SR-IOV enable server;

create a plurality of virtual functions utilizing the PF driver;

detect each of the plurality of virtual functions on an interconnection bus utilizing the VMM;

maintain a boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions;

query the storage adapter for the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions utilizing a VMBIOS associated with the plurality of VMs, the VMBIOS being configured to detect the boot list associated with the plurality of virtual functions;

present the detected boot list to a VM boot manager of the VMM utilizing the VMBIOS; and

boot each of the plurality of virtual machines utilizing each of the virtual functions, wherein each VF of the plurality of VFs is assigned to a VM of the plurality of VMs via an interconnect passthrough between the VMM and the plurality of VMs, wherein each of a plurality of virtual disks (VDs) is mapped to a VF of the plurality of virtual functions utilizing the VM boot manager.