Partition adjunct with non-native device driver for facilitating access to a physical input/output device

• US 8,219,989 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2008
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Armstrong, William J., Krieger, Orran Y., Ostrowski, Michal, Swanberg, Randal C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): SWIFT, CHARLES M
• Application Number:
  US12/110,982
• Publication Number:
  US 20090037908A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,534 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1475 in a virtual system, e.g. with translation means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1491 in a hierarchical protection system, e.g. privilege levels, memory rings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1056 Simplification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Dedicated access is provided to a physical input/output (I/O) device which is non-configurable by an initiating logical partition. Access is established by: initiating, by the logical partition, creation of a partition adjunct; invoking a hypervisor of the data processing system to instantiate the partition adjunct with resources donated from the initiating logical partition, the donated resources including a donated virtual address space of the logical partition and the physical I/O device; creating, by the hypervisor, the partition adjunct and assigning the donated virtual address space and donated physical I/O device to the created partition adjunct; and interfacing, by the hypervisor, the logical partition and the created partition adjunct, the interfacing including providing the logical partition with a virtual I/O device which replaces the donated physical I/O device, and which is configurable by the logical partition.

Claims

1. A method of establishing access to a physical input/output (I/O) device of a data processing system, the method comprising:

initiating, by an initiating logical partition of the data processing system, creation of a partition adjunct, the initiating logical partition having assigned thereto a distinct virtual address space;

invoking a hypervisor of the data processing system to instantiate the partition adjunct with resources donated from the initiating logical partition, the donated resources comprising a portion of the distinct virtual address space assign to the initiating logical partition and the physical I/O device;

creating, by the hypervisor, the partition adjunct and associating therewith the donated physical I/O device, and the donated portion of the distinct virtual address space assigned to the initiating logical partition;

interfacing, by the hypervisor, the initiating logical partition and the created partition adjunct, the interfacing including providing the initiating logical partition with a virtual I/O device which replaces the donated physical I/O device, wherein the donated physical I/O device is non-configurable by the initiating logical partition and the virtual I/O device is configurable by the initiating logical partition; and

wherein the initiating logical partition and the instantiated partition adjunct both run in the distinct virtual address space assigned to the initiating logical partition, and from perspective of a processor of the data processing system, the partition adjunct is part of the initiating logical partition.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the initiating, initially determining by the initiating logical partition that a partition adjunct device driver image exists within the data processing system for the physical I/O device, wherein the physical I/O device is accessible via the partition adjunct device driver image, and if so, then initiating, by the initiating logical partition, creation of the partition adjunct employing the partition adjunct device driver image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the initiating logical partition comprises a native operating system, and wherein the partition adjunct device driver image is a non-native device driver image to the initiating logical partition, and wherein creating, by the hypervisor, the partition adjunct, comprises providing non-native kernel services within the partition adjunct sufficient to run the non-native device driver image within the partition adjunct, the non-native kernel services being less than a corresponding, full non-native operating system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating logical partition initially owns the physical I/O device within the data processing system, and wherein the method further comprises transferring ownership of the physical I/O device from the initiating logical partition to the partition adjunct, and wherein the virtual I/O device received by the initiating logical partition is accessible by the initiating logical partition via a native device driver of the initiating logical partition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating includes mapping the partition adjunct into a virtual address to real address page table of the initiating logical partition, and wherein the method further comprises dispatching the partition adjunct by context switching a current state machine of a processor of the data processing system from the logical partition to the partition adjunct without invalidating or modifying state data associated with the logical partition within selected memory management and address translation hardware of the data processing system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the partition adjunct is dedicated to the initiating logical partition and provides only the initiating logical partition with access to the donated, physical I/O device through the provided virtual I/O device.

7. A method of establishing access by a logical partition to a physical input/output (I/O) device owned by the logical partition, the method comprising:

creating a partition adjunct within the data processing system, the partition adjunct being created employing the physical I/O device and a portion of a distinct virtual address space assigned to the logical partition, donated from the logical partition to the partition adjunct, the logical partition comprising a native operating system, and the partition adjunct comprising a non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver for the physical I/O device, the physical I/O device being non-configurable by the logical partition, and wherein the logical partition and the partition adjunct both run in the distinct virtual address space assigned to the initiating logical partition, and from perspective of a processor of the data processing system, the partition adjunct is part of the logical partition; and

providing the logical partition with a virtual I/O device interfaced through the partition adjunct'"'"'s non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver to the donated physical I/O device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the virtual I/O device provided to the logical partition is configurable by the logical partition, and wherein creating the partition adjunct further comprises transferring ownership of the physical I/O device from the logical partition to the partition adjunct.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein creating the partition adjunct further comprises providing non-native kernel services within the partition adjunct to run the non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver for the physical I/O device, the non-native kernel services being less than a corresponding, full non-native operating system.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the partition adjunct is dedicated to the initiating logical partition and provides only the initiating logical partition with access to the donated, physical I/O device through the provided virtual I/O device.

11. A data processing system comprising:

a processor comprising a logical partition and a partition adjunct to process an input/output request of the logical partition; and

wherein the partition adjunct and the logical partition share a distinct virtual address space range assigned to the logical partition, the partition adjunct processing the input/output request utilizing virtual address space donated to the partition adjunct from the logical partition, and wherein the partition adjunct further comprises a physical input/output (I/O) device donated by the logical partition to the partition adjunct, the logical partition comprising a native operating system, and the partition adjunct comprising a non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver for the physical I/O device, the physical I/O device being non-configurable by the logical partition, and wherein the logical partition and the partition adjunct both run in the distinct virtual address space range assigned to the initiating logical partition, and from perspective of a processor of the data processing system, the partition adjunct is part of the logical partition, and wherein the logical partition comprises a virtual I/O device interfaced through the partition adjunct'"'"'s non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver to the donated physical I/O device.

12. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the partition adjunct is mapped into a virtual address to real address page table of the logical partition, and wherein the data processing system further comprises memory management and address translation hardware to facilitate processing of the input/output request, wherein processing of the input/output request comprises context switching a current state machine of the data processing system from the logical partition to the partition adjunct without invalidating or modifying state data within selected memory management and address translation hardware of the data processing system.

13. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the virtual I/O device is configurable by the logical partition and the non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver is non-configurable by the logical partition.

14. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the partition adjunct further comprises non-native kernel services within the partition adjunct to run the non-native operating system'"'"'s device driver for the physical I/O device, the non-native kernel services being less than a corresponding, full non-native operating system.

15. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the partition adjunct is dedicated to the logical partition and provides only the logical partition with access to the physical I/O device through the virtual I/O device.

16. An article of manufacture comprising:

at least one computer-usable storage medium having computer-readable program code logic to define a method of establishing access to a physical input/output (I/O) device of a data processing system, the computer-readable program code logic when executing on a processor performing;

initiating, by an initiating logical partition of the data processing system, creation of a partition adjunct, the initiating logical partition having assigned thereto a distinct virtual address space;

invoking a hypervisor of the data processing system to instantiate the partition adjunct with resources donated from the initiating logical partition, the donated resources comprising a portion of the distinct virtual address space assign to the initiating logical partition and the physical I/O device;

creating, by the hypervisor, the partition adjunct and associating therewith the donated physical I/O device, and the donated portion of the distinct virtual address space;

assigned to the initiating logical partition;

interfacing, by the hypervisor, the initiating logical partition and the created partition adjunct, the interfacing including providing the initiating logical partition with a virtual I/O device which replaces the donated physical I/O device, wherein the donated physical I/O device is non-configurable by the initiating logical partition and the virtual I/O device is configurable by the initiating logical partition; and

wherein the initiating logical partition and the instantiated partition adjunct both run in the distinct virtual address space assigned to the initiating logical partition, and from perspective of a processor of the data processing system, the partition adjunct is part of the initiating logical partition.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the computer-readable program code logic when executing on the processor further performs, prior to the initiating, initially determining by the initiating logical partition that a partition adjunct device driver image exists within the data processing system for the physical I/O device, wherein the physical I/O device is accessible via the partition adjunct device driver image, and if so, then initiating, by the initiating logical partition, creation of the partition adjunct employing the partition adjunct device driver image.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the initiating logical partition comprises a native operating system, and wherein the partition adjunct device driver image is a non-native device driver image to the initiating logical partition, and wherein the creating, by the hypervisor, the partition adjunct, comprises providing non-native kernel services within the partition adjunct sufficient to run the non-native device driver image within the partition adjunct, the non-native kernel services being less than a corresponding, full non-native operating system.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the initiating logical partition initially owns the physical I/O device within the data processing system, and wherein the performing further comprises transferring ownership of the physical I/O device from the initiating logical partition to the partition adjunct, and wherein the virtual I/O device received by the initiating logical partition is accessible by the initiating logical partition via a native device driver of the initiating logical partition.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the partition adjunct is dedicated to the initiating logical partition and provides only the initiating logical partition with access to the donated, physical I/O device through the provided virtual I/O device.