Methods and systems for implementing transcendent page caching

• US 8,769,205 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2009
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Magenheimer, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): DUDEK JR, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US12/356,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20100185817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,988 Days
• Field of Search: 711/130, 711/165, 711/153, 711/E12.024, 718/104, 718/105
• US Class Current: 711/130
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/084 with a shared cache

Abstract

This disclosure describes, generally, methods and systems for implementing transcendent page caching. The method includes establishing a plurality of virtual machines on a physical machine. Each of the plurality of virtual machines includes a private cache, and a portion of each of the private caches is used to create a shared cache maintained by a hypervisor. The method further includes delaying the removal of the at least one of stored memory pages, storing the at least one of stored memory pages in the shared cache, and requesting, by one of the plurality of virtual machines, the at least one of the stored memory pages from the shared cache. Further, the method includes determining that the at least one of the stored memory pages is stored in the shared cache, and transferring the at least one of the stored shared memory pages to the one of the plurality of virtual machines.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of implementing transcendent page caching, the method comprising:

establishing a plurality of virtual machines on a physical machine, wherein each of the plurality of virtual machines includes a private cache, and wherein a portion of each of the private caches is used to create a shared cache maintained by a hypervisor;

storing memory pages in the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches;

determining that at least one of the stored memory pages has been designated to be removed from one of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches;

delaying the removal of the at least one of the stored memory pages;

making a request to the hypervisor to allow the stored memory pages designated for removal from the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches and stored in the shared cache, wherein the hypervisor is configured to have access to the shared cache and each of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches, and wherein the hypervisor is further configured to manage memory and resource allocations for each of the plurality of virtual machines;

analyzing a plurality of factors to determine if the at least one of the stored memory pages in the shared cache should be removed or stored, wherein the plurality of factors includes a usage of the at least one of the stored memory pages, total memory space available in the shared cache, and load balancing between the plurality of virtual machine'"'"'s use of the shared cache;

based on the analysis of the plurality of factors by the hypervisor, storing the at least one of the stored memory pages in the shared cache;

removing the at least one of the stored memory pages from one of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches;

requesting, by one of the plurality of virtual machines, the at least one of the stored memory pages from the shared cache;

determining that the at least one of the stored memory pages is stored in the shared cache; and

transferring the at least one of the stored shared memory pages to the one of the plurality of virtual machines.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared cache is created using idle portions of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the request to store the at least one memory page in the shared cache is denied.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising dropping the at least one memory page from the one of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the requested at least one of the stored memory pages is not stored in the shared cache.

6. The method of claim 5, accessing a disk storage to retrieve the requested at least one of the stored memory pages in response to the requested at least one of the stored memory pages not being stored in the shared cache.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the hypervisor is configured to control access by the plurality of virtual machines to the shared cache and determine the shared cache'"'"'s size allocation.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising reallocating, by the hypervisor, the shared cache'"'"'s size, based at least in part on the plurality of the virtual machines'"'"' private caches'"'"' level of idleness.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining if a private copy of the requested at least one of the stored memory pages in the shared cache has changed so that it differs from the stored memory pages in the shared cache.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising purging the requested at least one of the stored memory pages from the shared cache, in response to a private copy of the requested at least one of the stored memory pages being changed.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising retrieving the requested at least one of the stored memory pages from the shared cache, in response to the requested at least one of the stored memory pages from the shared cache not having a private changed copy.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the hypervisor performs one or more of the following operations:

a shared cache put, a shared cache get, and a shared cache flush.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

deleting, by one of the plurality of virtual machines, at least one memory page from the at least one of the virtual machine'"'"'s storage which is also stored in the shared cache; and

calling the hypervisor to flush the at least one memory page from the shared cache, in response to the one of the plurality of virtual machines deleting the at least one memory page.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising limiting, by the hypervisor, each of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' usage of the shared cache.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the limiting is based at least in part on one or more of the following:

a total amount of idle memory, each of the virtual machines'"'"' shared cache usage history, a number of virtual machines, and a total number of available physical memory.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of factors include one or more of:

usage history of the shared cache from each of the plurality of virtual machines, relative usefulness of the at least one of the stored memory pages to be removed in comparison to other pages already stored in the shared cache, parameters specified by an administrator, or available space in the shared cache.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of factors are configured to enable the hypervisor to ensure load balancing of the shared cache among the plurality of virtual machines.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable medium for implementing transcendent page caching, the machine-readable medium including sets of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

establish a plurality of virtual machines on a physical machine, wherein each of the plurality of virtual machines include a private cache, and wherein a portion of each of the private caches is used to create a shared cache maintained by a hypervisor;

store memory pages in the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches;

determine that at least one of the stored memory pages has been designated to be removed from one of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches;

delay the removal of the at least one of stored memory pages;

make a request to the hypervisor to allow the stored memory pages designated for removal from the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches and stored in the shared cache, wherein the hypervisor is configured to have access to the shared cache and each of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches, and wherein the hypervisor is further configured to manage memory and resource allocations for each of the plurality of virtual machines;

analyze a plurality of factors to determine if the at least one of the stored memory pages in the shared cache should be removed or stored, wherein the plurality of factors includes a usage of the at least one of the stored memory pages, total memory space available in the shared cache, and load balancing between the plurality of virtual machine'"'"'s use of the shared cache;

based on the analysis of the plurality of factors by the hypervisor, store the at least one of stored memory pages in the shared cache;

remove the at least one of the stored memory pages from one of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches;

request, by one of the plurality of virtual machines, the at least one of the stored memory pages from the shared cache;

determine that the at least one of the stored memory pages is stored in the shared cache; and

transfer the at least one of the stored shared memory pages to the one of the plurality of virtual machines.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the shared cache is created using idle portions of the plurality of virtual machines'"'"' private caches.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising determining that the request to store the at least one memory page in the shared cache is denied.