System and method for starting virtual machine monitor in common with already installed operating system

• US 7,865,893 B1
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parallels International GmbH (Corel Holdings LP)
• Original Assignee: Parallels Holdings Limited (HNA Technology Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Protassov, Stanislav S., Dobrovolskiy, Nikolay N., Koryakin, Alexey B., Beloussov, Serguei M., Omelyanchuk, Andrey A., Tormasov, Alexander G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang; Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US11/348,382
• Time in Patent Office: 1,792 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3644 by instrumenting at runtime
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• 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

Abstract

A computer system includes a Hypervisor having the highest privilege level; a Primary Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running with the same or fewer privileges than the Hypervisor; and a Primary Virtual Machine (PVM) without system level privileges and having a Primary operating system (POS) running within it. The POS can be the same operating system that ran on the computer system prior to activation of the Hypervisor. The POS can have hardware drivers used by other components for accessing hardware through the POS. The Hypervisor can have hardware drivers used by other components for accessing hardware through the Hypervisor. Alternatively, the POS can have some hardware drivers used by other components for accessing hardware, and the Hypervisor can have other hardware drivers used by the other components for accessing other hardware through the Hypervisor. The POS can have direct access to at least some real hardware devices.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

computer code loaded into the memory to implement the following functionality;

a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running with system level privileges;

a primary Virtual Machine (VM) without system level privileges and having a host operating system (HOS) running inside the primary VM; and

a secondary Virtual Machine running without system level privileges,

wherein the HOS has direct access to at least some I/O devices.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the VMM uses the HOS to access the at least some I/O devices.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the HOS is installed as the computer system'"'"'s operating system prior to installation of the VMM.

4. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of secondary Virtual Machines without system level privileges.

5. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running on the processor with system level privileges;

a primary Virtual Machine (VM) without system level privileges and having a host operating system (HOS) running inside the primary VM; and

a secondary Virtual Machine running without system level privileges,

wherein the VMM uses the HOS to access at least some I/O devices.

6. A method of virtualizing a computer system comprising:

on the computer system having an installed host operating system (HOS) with system privileges, starting a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM);

creating a primary Virtual Machine (VM);

transferring the HOS to inside the primary VM, the HOS, after the transfer, having direct access to at least some hardware devices;

giving the VMM system privileges; and

launching a secondary VM without system privileges.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the VMM uses the HOS to access at least some I/O devices after the HOS has been transferred.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the transfer of the HOS is conducted during run time.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the transfer of the HOS is conducted using a reboot.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the transfer of the HOS is conducted by reinstalling the HOS inside the primary VM.

11. A method of virtualizing a bare computer system comprising:

installing a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) with system privileges on the bare computer system;

prior to installing a host operating system (OS), creating a primary Virtual Machine (VM); and

installing a host operating system (HOS) inside the primary VM.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising launching a secondary VM without system privileges.

13. A computer system comprising:

a hardware processor having a Virtual Machine treatment mode;

a hardware memory accessed by the hardware processor;

a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running on the processor in the Virtual Machine treatment mode;

a primary Virtual Machine (VM) running as a user application and having a host operating system (HOS) running inside the primary VM; and

a secondary Virtual Machine running as a user application.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the HOS has direct access to at least some I/O devices.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the VMM uses the HOS to access at least some I/O devices.

16. A computer program product for virtualizing a bare computer system, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer useable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for controlling at least one processor, the computer program logic comprising:

computer program code means for installing a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) with system privileges on the bare computer system;

computer program code means for creating a primary Virtual Machine (VM); and

computer program code means for installing a host operating system (HOS) inside the primary VM.

17. A virtualization system for a computer, the computer comprising a host processor, physical system devices, and a host operating system (HOS), and wherein the computer is operationally divided into a system level and a user level, the virtualization system comprising:

the host processor;

a memory;

computer code loaded into the memory to implement the following functionality

at least one Virtual Machine monitor (VMM) at the system level and interfacing to the processor and physical system devices;

a primary Virtual Machine (VM) operatively connected with the VMM,

wherein the HOS is at the user level running inside the primary VM,

wherein the primary VM and the HOS have direct access to at least some of the physical system devices, and

wherein the VMM accesses the physical system devices via the primary VM and the HOS.

18. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

computer code loaded into the memory to implement the following functionality;

a Hypervisor having the highest privilege level;

a Primary Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running with the same or fewer privileges than the Hypervisor;

a Primary Virtual Machine (PVM) without system level privileges and having a Primary operating system (POS) running the PVM as a host OS inside,

wherein the POS is the same operating system that ran on the computer system prior to activation of the Hypervisor and having direct access to at least some hardware of the computer system.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the POS includes hardware drivers used by other components for accessing hardware through the POS.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the Hypervisor includes hardware drivers used by other components for accessing hardware through the Hypervisor.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the POS includes some hardware drivers used by other components for accessing hardware, and the Hypervisor includes other hardware drivers used by the other components for accessing other hardware through the Hypervisor.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the POS has direct access to at least some real hardware devices.

23. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

at least one additional VMM controlling at least one additional VM; and

at least one Guest OS running inside the additional VM,

wherein the Guest OS works with virtualized hardware, and

wherein hardware access requests from either the Guest OS or its VMM are translated by the Hypervisor to real hardware using the POS.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein real hardware includes shareable hardware and non-shareable hardware,

wherein shareable hardware is accessed by multiple Guest OS s and the POS, and

wherein non-shareable hardware is accessed only by one Guest OS or the POS.

25. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

at least one additional VMM controlling at least one additional VM; and

at least one Guest OS running inside the additional VM,

wherein the Guest OS works with virtualized hardware, and

wherein the Hypervisor converts hardware access requests from the Guest OS into real hardware access requests.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the Hypervisor restricts an ability of any VMM to write to an Interrupt Descriptor Table.

27. A computer cluster comprising:

a plurality of hardware computing nodes, each node having a Hypervisor with the highest privilege level, and a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running with same or fewer privileges than the Hypervisor, and a Virtual Machine (VM) running on a user level; and

each node also having a Primary operating system (POS) running inside the corresponding VM and as a host operating system,

wherein the POS is the same operating system that ran on the computer system prior to activation of the Hypervisor and having direct access to at least some hardware devices of its node.

28. The cluster of claim 27, wherein the POS can be migrated from one node to another.

29. The cluster of claim 28, wherein the migration comprises upgrading a Guest OS to a Primary OS.

30. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

computer code loaded into the memory to implement the following functionality;

a Hypervisor running on the processor and having the highest privilege level;

a plurality of Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs) running with the same or fewer privileges than the Hypervisor;

a plurality of Virtual Machines (VMs) without system level privileges and each having a Primary operating system (POS) running a corresponding inside VM,

wherein each POS is the same operating system that ran on the computer system prior to activation of the Hypervisor but having direct access to a subset of physical hardware devices of the computer system, and wherein one of the POS'"'"'s is acting as a host operating system.

31. The system of claim 30, further comprising a plurality of additional Virtual Machines each running a Guest Operating System that has access only to virtualized hardware.

32. The system of claim 30, further comprising a plurality of additional Virtual Machines each running a Guest Operating System that has access only to virtualized hardware and to non-shareable hardware.

33. A method of virtualization comprising:

on a computer system having a host operating system, initiating a Hypervisor having the highest privilege level;

initiating a Primary Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) running with the same or fewer privileges than the Hypervisor;

initiating a Virtual Machine (VM) without system level privileges, the VMM controlling the VM; and

migrating the host operating system inside the VM, wherein the host operating system, after the migration, has more privileges than a user application but fewer privileges than the VMM.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising initiating other Virtual Machines having Guest Operating Systems running therein, the Guest Operating Systems working with virtualized hardware, wherein the Hypervisor routes hardware access requests to the operating system inside the VM.

35. A method of computer system crash recovery comprising:

on a computer system having a host operating system, initiating a Hypervisor having the highest privilege level;

initiating a plurality of Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs) running with some system level privileges but with fewer privileges than the Hypervisor;

initiating a Virtual Machine (VM) without system level privileges corresponding to each VMM;

migrating the host operating system inside one of the VMs and activating it as a Primary OS;

maintaining at least one quiescent Primary OS inside one of the other VMs; and

upon failure of the Primary OS, upgrading the quiescent Primary OS to active Primary OS having more privileges than a user application and acting as the host operating system.

36. A method of computer system crash recovery comprising:

on a computer system having a host operating system, initiating a Hypervisor having the highest privilege level;

initiating a plurality of Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs) running with some system level privileges but with fewer or same privileges than the Hypervisor;

initiating a Virtual Machine (VM) on the user level corresponding to each VMM; and

migrating the host operating system inside one of the VMs and activating it as a Primary OS having more privileges than a user application;

initiating Guest OS'"'"'s inside the other VMs; and

upon failure of the Primary OS, upgrading one of the Guest OS'"'"'s to Primary OS having more privileges than a user application and acting as the host operating system the reserved VM.

37. A method of computer system crash recovery comprising:

on a computer system having a host operating system, initiating a Hypervisor having the highest privilege level;

initiating a plurality of Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs) running with the same or fewer privileges as the Hypervisor;

initiating a Virtual Machine (VM) on the user level corresponding to each VMM, and reserving at least one of the VMs and an operating system inside the reserved VM as a reserved Primary VM and a reserved Primary OS; and

upon failure of the Primary OS, activating the reserved Primary OS having the same privileges as the failed Primary OS and running as the host operating system.