Enabling throttling of resources on a virtualization enabled information handling system

• US 7,805,516 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2008
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Dandekar, Shree, Lo, Yuan-Chang, Quinn, Liam, Kettler, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Quang N.
• Application Number:
  US12/251,001
• Publication Number:
  US 20100095000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/226, 709/229, 709/218, 718/101, 718/104
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system for enabling throttling of resources, including central processing units (CPUs) and peripherals, on a virtualization-enabled information handling system such as a CE type information handling system is set forth. With the system for enabling throttling of resources, each virtual appliance within an information handling system is configured with its resource needs.

Claims

1. A method for throttling resources of a virtual appliance enabled information handling system comprising:

providing a virtual machine (VM) host comprising a plurality of VM resources operable to execute virtual machines;

providing a virtual appliance, the virtual appliance comprising a digital certificate of authenticity, an application and a virtual appliance configuration file, the virtual appliance configuration file including an indication of resource needs of the application;

throttling the plurality of VM resources based upon the indication of resource needs of the application, wherein the indication of resource needs of the application comprising an appliance priority indication and at least one of a processor reservation portion, a graphics processor reservation portion, and a network reservation portion;

analyzing a resource capacity of the virtual machine host;

installing the virtual appliance only when the virtual machine host has enough capacity to host the application; and

checking the validity of the digital certificate of authenticity when the virtual appliance is installed onto the virtual machine host.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

dynamically changing a resource reservation based on needs of the virtual appliance.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a notification to notify a user of resource allocation related throttling.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein:

the notification comprises information relating to throttling based upon knowledge of network traffic.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the throttling is further based upon heuristics of virtual machine resource usage.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of virtual appliances, each of the plurality of virtual appliances comprising an application and a virtual appliance configuration file, the virtual appliance configuration file including an indication of resource needs of the application; and

,

throttling the plurality of VM resources based upon the indication of resource needs of the application of each of the plurality of virtual appliances.

7. An apparatus for throttling resources of a virtual appliance enabled information handling system comprising:

at least one or more central processing units (CPUs);

a virtual machine (VM) host comprising a plurality of VM resources operable to execute virtual machines;

a virtual appliance, the virtual appliance comprising a digital certificate of authenticity, an application and a virtual appliance configuration file, the virtual appliance configuration file including an indication of resource needs of the application;

means for throttling the plurality of VM resources based upon the indication of resource needs of the application, wherein the indication of resource needs of the application comprising an appliance priority indication and at least one of a processor reservation portion, a graphics processor reservation portion, and a network reservation portion;

means for analyzing a resource capacity of the virtual machine host;

means for installing the virtual appliance only when the virtual machine host has enough capacity to host the application; and

means for checking the validity of the digital certificate of authenticity when the virtual appliance is installed onto the virtual machine host.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

means for generating a notification to notify a user of resource allocation related throttling.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein:

the notification comprises information relating to throttling based upon knowledge of network traffic.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:

the throttling is further based upon heuristics of virtual machine resource usage.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

a plurality of virtual appliances, each of the plurality of virtual appliances comprising an application and a virtual appliance configuration file, the virtual appliance configuration file including an indication of resource needs of the application; and

,

means for throttling the plurality of VM resources based upon the indication of resource needs of the application of each of the plurality of virtual appliances.