DATA PATH FAILOVER METHOD FOR SR-IOV CAPABLE ETHERNET CONTROLLER
First Claim
1. An information handling system comprising:
- an input/output (I/O) virtualization network interface controller (IOV NIC);
a processor;
a memory system communicatively coupled to the processor and having a host operating system (OS) having an IOVM module having a physical function (PF) driver for managing a physical function of the IOV NIC;
at least one virtual machine (VM) having a respective virtual function (VF) device driver and direct access to a corresponding VF device of the IOV NIC;
a virtual machine manager (VMM) having an extended support capability for input/output virtual machine (IOVM) functionality; and
an IOVM module having a physical function (PF) driver for managing a physical function of the IOV NIC; and
an IOV failover module executed by said processor to;
establish one or more network paths between at least one VM and a VF, respectively;
determine a health status of network paths between the at least one VM and respective VF devices to identify whether any network path is a compromised network path having a failed health status; and
in response to determining that at least one network path coupled between a VM and a VF device has a failed health status, migrate each one of the VF devices coupled to a compromised network path to a respective alternate VF device identified using a pre-configured mapping, wherein said migrating a VF device to an alternate VF device is performed using the IOV NIC without performing VMM switching.
14 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and an information handling system (IHS) provide data path failover for a single root input/output virtualization network interface controller (SR-IOV NIC) card. According to one aspect, an IOV failover module (FM) enables a physical function (PF) driver in a service virtual machine (VM) to access physical resources and configure virtual functions (VFs) within the SR-IOV NIC card. The IOVFM monitors data paths established between VMs and VFs. If a data path fails, the IOVFM initiates a failover by migrating a VF coupled to a failed data path to an alternate VF. However, if a threshold number of consecutive failed migration attempts occurs and the SR-IOV NIC card has an additional and available port(s), the IOVFM migrates the VF to an alternate VF of the available port. The IOVFM enables the VM to access and configure the alternate VF of the available port via a failover data path.
18 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. An information handling system comprising:
-
an input/output (I/O) virtualization network interface controller (IOV NIC); a processor; a memory system communicatively coupled to the processor and having a host operating system (OS) having an IOVM module having a physical function (PF) driver for managing a physical function of the IOV NIC; at least one virtual machine (VM) having a respective virtual function (VF) device driver and direct access to a corresponding VF device of the IOV NIC; a virtual machine manager (VMM) having an extended support capability for input/output virtual machine (IOVM) functionality; and an IOVM module having a physical function (PF) driver for managing a physical function of the IOV NIC; and an IOV failover module executed by said processor to; establish one or more network paths between at least one VM and a VF, respectively; determine a health status of network paths between the at least one VM and respective VF devices to identify whether any network path is a compromised network path having a failed health status; and in response to determining that at least one network path coupled between a VM and a VF device has a failed health status, migrate each one of the VF devices coupled to a compromised network path to a respective alternate VF device identified using a pre-configured mapping, wherein said migrating a VF device to an alternate VF device is performed using the IOV NIC without performing VMM switching. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. In an information handling system (IHS), a method comprising:
-
establishing one or more network paths between at least one VM and a VF, respectively; determining a health status of network paths between the at least one VM and respective VF devices to identify whether any network path is a compromised network path having a failed health status; and in response to determining that at least one network path coupled between a VM and a VF device has a failed health status, migrating each one of the VF devices coupled to a compromised network path to a respective alternate VF device identified using a pre-configured mapping, wherein said migrating a VF device to an alternate VF device is performed using the IOV NIC without performing VMM switching. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification