Methods and systems to control virtual machines
First Claim
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1. A virtual machine (VM) control system, comprising:
- a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) that controls at least one virtual machine (VM) by accessing at least one Virtual Machine Control Structure (VMCS), where each of the at least one VMs is controlled by one of the at least one VMCSs;
a processor having access to a storage where the storage include storage locations associated with the VMCS; and
wherein the VMM uses VMCS access instructions to access each of the VMCSs.
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided to control the execution of a virtual machine (VM). A VM Monitor (VMM) accesses VM Control Structures (VMCS) indirectly through access instructions passed to a processor. In one embodiment, the access instructions include VMCS component identifiers used by the processor to determine the appropriate storage location for the VMCS components. The processor identifies the appropriate storage location for the VMCS component within the processor storage or within memory.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A virtual machine (VM) control system, comprising:
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a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) that controls at least one virtual machine (VM) by accessing at least one Virtual Machine Control Structure (VMCS), where each of the at least one VMs is controlled by one of the at least one VMCSs; a processor having access to a storage where the storage include storage locations associated with the VMCS; and wherein the VMM uses VMCS access instructions to access each of the VMCSs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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4. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having associated instructions. wherein the instructions, when accessed, result in a machine comprising at least one component performing:
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identifying a storage location associated with an access instruction received from a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM); determining a type of access instruction received from the VMM; determining a data format associated with data that satisfies the access instruction; and reformatting the data to an architecturally-defined data format, if the data is not in the architecturally-defined data format, before processing the access instruction. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7)
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8. A method to activate a Virtual Machine Control Structure (VMCS):
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conveying, from a processor to a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), a required storage size for a VMCS; providing the processor with a pointer to a memory region that is at least as large as the required storage size for the VMCS; and storing, by the processor, a portion of the VMCS in the memory region.
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13. A method to access a Virtual Machine Control Structure (VMCS), comprising:
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executing, by a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), a VMCS access instruction; and storing, by a processor, a VMCS component by using a VMCS component identifier associated with the VMCS access instruction. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification