ASCERTAINING CONFIGURATION OF A VIRTUAL ADAPTER IN A COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160253205A1
• Filed: 05/12/2016
• Published: 09/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: FRIEDRICH, Ralph, HIGGS, Raymond M., KUCH, George P., MOORE, Elizabeth A., PANDICH, Johnathon R., SCZEPCZENSKI, Richard M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,886,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4068 Electrical coupling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4221 being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• 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 control component of a computing environment activates a virtual adapter hosted on a physical adapter of a host system of the computing environment. The virtual adapter is for use by a guest of the host system in performing data input and output. The activating activates the virtual adapter absent involvement of the guest. Based on activating the virtual adapter, the control component obtains configuration information of the activated virtual adapter from the physical adapter, the configuration information generated based on the activating. The control component ascertains a configuration of the activated virtual adapter based on the obtained configuration information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

activating, by a control component of a computing environment, a virtual adapter hosted on a physical adapter of a host system of the computing environment, the virtual adapter for use by a guest of the host system in performing data input and output, wherein the control component is separate from the host system, and the activating comprises the control component providing a request to the physical adapter that the virtual adapter be activated;

based on activating the virtual adapter, obtaining, by the control component, configuration information of the activated virtual adapter from the physical adapter, the configuration information generated based on the activating; and

ascertaining, by the control component, a configuration of the activated virtual adapter based on the obtained configuration information, wherein the activating activates the virtual adapter absent involvement of the guest.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating, obtaining, and ascertaining are performed by the control component absent communication between the control component and the guest.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the guest remains inactive during the activating of the virtual adapter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the activating of the virtual adapter occurs prior to an initial program load of the guest.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the host system executes on a first set of one or more processors and the control component executes on a second set of one or more processors different from the first set of one or more processors.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the activated virtual adapter is one virtual adapter of a plurality of virtual adapters hosted on the physical adapter, wherein each virtual adapter of the plurality of virtual adapters is provided for a respective guest of a plurality of guests of the host system, and wherein the method further comprises repeating, by the control component, the activating, obtaining, and ascertaining for each virtual adapter of the plurality of virtual adapters, wherein the plurality of guests remain inactive during the activating of the plurality of virtual adapters.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the configuration of the activated virtual adapter is an appropriate virtual adapter configuration for the guest.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining is performed while the guest remains inactive, and wherein the method further comprises, based on determining that the configuration is not an appropriate virtual adapter configuration for the guest, reconfiguring the activated virtual adapter prior to activating the guest.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the activated virtual adapter comprises an activated virtual fibre channel adapter.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the obtained configuration information comprises information obtained from the activated virtual fibre channel adapter based on the control component issuing at least one request to the activated fibre channel adapter.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the request that the virtual adapter be activated is provided to the physical adapter via a system control facility of the physical adapter, the system control facility being a different control facility than a control facility usable by the guest to activate the virtual adapter.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subsequent to activation of the guest, requesting, by the control component, from the physical adapter, additional configuration information of the activated virtual adapter;

receiving, by the control component, based on requesting the additional configuration information, the additional configuration information from the physical adapter; and

ascertaining an additional configuration of the activated virtual adapter based on the obtained additional configuration information, wherein the requesting the additional configuration information and the receiving the additional configuration information by the control component from the physical adapter is non-disruptive of use of the activated virtual adapter by the guest in performing data input and output, and wherein the guest uses the activated virtual adapter in performing data input and output non-disruptive of the requesting and the receiving of the additional configuration information by the control component.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical adapter is a physical network adapter.