NETWORKING STACK OF VIRTUALIZATION SOFTWARE CONFIGURED TO SUPPORT LATENCY SENSITIVE VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20150055499A1
• Filed: 08/25/2014
• Published: 02/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: ZHENG, Haoqiang, SINGARAVELU, Lenin, AGARWAL, Shilpi, HECHT, Daniel Michael, SMITH, Garrett
• Granted Patent: US 9,703,589 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/24 using interrupt G06F13/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5017 Task decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4812 by interrupt, e.g. masked
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4887 involving deadlines, e.g. rate based, periodic
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5033 considering data affinity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/56 implementing delay-aware scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/801 Real time traffic

Abstract

A host computer has a plurality of containers including a first container executing therein, where the host also includes a physical network interface controller (NIC). A packet handling interrupt is detected upon receipt of a first data packet associated with the first container. If the first virtual machine is latency sensitive, then the packet handling interrupt is processed. If the first virtual machine is not latency sensitive, then the first data packet is queued and processing of the packet handling interrupt is delayed.

Claims

1. In a host computer having a plurality of containers including a first container executing therein, the host including a physical network interface controller (NIC), a method of transmitting and receiving data packets to and from the first container, the method performed by the host computer and comprising:

detecting a packet handling interrupt upon receiving a first data packet that is associated with the first container;

determining whether the first container is latency sensitive;

if the first container is latency sensitive, then processing the packet handling interrupt;

if the first container is not latency sensitive, then;

queueing the first data packet; and

delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first container is a first virtual machine, and wherein the first data packet is received at a virtual NIC.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first data packet is received from an application executing in the first virtual machine and the processing of the packet handling interrupt comprises transmitting the first data packet to a virtual switch to which a virtual NIC associated with the first virtual machine is connected.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first data packet is received from a hypervisor executing on the host computer and the processing of the packet handling interrupt comprises transmitting the first data packet to an application executing in the first virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether the first virtual machine is latency sensitive comprises:

reading a latency sensitivity indicator for the first virtual machine; and

determining whether the latency sensitivity indicator is a predetermined value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein queuing the first data packet comprises storing the first data packet in a data structure associated with the virtual NIC that is configured to store a plurality of data packets.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether a packet rate for the virtual NIC is less than a predetermined threshold rate;

if the packet rate for the virtual NIC is less than the predetermined threshold rate, then queueing the first data packet and delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt; and

if the packet rate for the virtual NIC is not less than the predetermined threshold rate, then processing the packet handling interrupt.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether a utilization value for one or more virtual processors of the first virtual machine is greater than a predetermined utilization value;

if the utilization value for the one or more virtual processors of the first virtual machine is greater than the predetermined utilization value, then queuing the first data packet and delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt; and

if the utilization value for the one or more virtual processors of the first virtual machine is not greater than the predetermined utilization value, then processing the packet handling interrupt.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the processing of the interrupt is delayed until the first data packet has been stored in the data structure greater than a predetermined amount of time.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

wherein the processing of the packet handling interrupt is delayed until the data structure stores greater than a predetermined number of data packets.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the first data packet is a first transmission control protocol (TCP) data packet, and queuing the first data packet comprises combining said first TCP data packet with one or more TCP packets previously received at the virtual NIC into a second TCP data packet.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the physical NIC has a plurality of queues, each of which is associated with one or more of the plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the method further comprises:

responsive to determining that the first virtual machine is latency sensitive, increasing an interrupt rate for the one or more queues of the physical NIC that are associated with the first virtual machine.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by a host computer, the host computer having a plurality of containers including a first container executing therein, and the host including a physical network interface controller (NIC), where the instructions, when executed, cause the host computer to perform a method of transmitting and receiving data packets to and from the first container, the method comprising:

detecting a packet handling interrupt upon receiving a first data packet that is associated with the first container;

determining whether the first container is latency sensitive;

if the first container is latency sensitive, then processing the packet handling interrupt;

if the first container not latency sensitive, then;

queueing the first data packet; and

delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first container is a first virtual machine, and wherein the first data packet is received at a virtual NIC.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the first data packet is received from an application executing in the first virtual machine and the processing of the packet handling interrupt comprises transmitting the first data packet to a virtual switch to which a virtual NIC that is associated with the first virtual machine is connected.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the first data packet is received from a hypervisor executing on the host computer and the processing of the packet handling interrupt comprises transmitting the first data packet to an application executing in the first virtual machine.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein determining whether the first virtual machine is latency sensitive comprises:

reading a latency sensitivity indicator for the first virtual machine; and

determining whether the latency sensitivity indicator is a predetermined value.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein queuing the first data packet comprises storing the first data packet in a data structure associated with the virtual NIC that is configured to store a plurality of data packets.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether a utilization value for one or more virtual processors of the first virtual machine is greater than a predetermined utilization value;

if the utilization value for the one or more virtual processors of the first virtual machine is greater than the predetermined utilization value, then queuing the first data packet and delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt; and

if the utilization value for the one or more virtual processors of the first virtual machine is not greater than the predetermined utilization value, then processing the packet handling interrupt.

20. A computing system, comprising:

a host computer, the host computer having a plurality of containers including a first container executing therein; and

a physical network interface controller (NIC), wherein the system is configured to perform a method of transmitting and receiving data packets to and from the first container, the method comprising;

detecting a packet handling interrupt upon receiving a first data packet associated with the first container;

determining whether the first container is latency sensitive;

if the first container is latency sensitive, then processing the packet handling interrupt;

if the first container is not latency sensitive, then;

queueing the first data packet; and

delaying processing of the packet handling interrupt.