Operating system virtualization for host channel adapters

• US 9,128,740 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2013
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stevens, Jerry W, Isrel, Maurice, Kassimis, Constantinos, Schmidt, Donald William
• Primary Examiner(s): ELMORE, STEPHEN C
• Application Number:
  US13/948,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20150026419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 778 Days
• Field of Search: 711/153, 711/6, 711/154, 711/203, 718/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45545 Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4555 Para-virtualisation, i.e. guest operating system has to be modified
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A host information handling system (IHS) provides virtualization of host channel adapters (HCAs). A hypervisor partitions a system memory of the host IHS into multiple logical partitions (LPARs). A particular LPAR includes a single instance of an operating system. The single instance of the operating system includes a common layer that provides virtualization of physical HCAs and sharing of the physical HCAs by multiple virtual HCAs.

Claims

1. A host information handling system (IHS), comprising:

a processor;

a system memory coupled to the processor, the system memory being partitioned into a plurality of logical partitions (LPARs) including a particular LPAR, the host IHS including a plurality of physical host channel adapters (HCAs), the system memory being configured to;

provide a single instance of an operating system to the particular LPAR, the single instance of the operating system including a common layer that provides virtualization of the physical HCAs and sharing of the physical HCAs by multiple virtual HCAs.

2. The host IHS of claim 1, wherein multiple virtual HCAs share a particular physical HCA.

3. The host IHS of claim 1, wherein the system memory is further configured to:

generate a request, by a user of the particular LPAR, for a physical HCA;

intercept the request by the common layer; and

forward the request, by the common layer, to a virtual HCA that is isolated from other users of the particular LPAR.

4. The host IHS of claim 3, wherein the user of the particular LPAR is a TCP/IP stack.

5. The host IHS of claim 1, wherein the common layer provides host channel adapter services.

6. The host IHS of claim 1, wherein the common layer comprises an RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) layer.

7. The host IHS of claim 1, wherein the system memory is further configured to:

provide a respective virtual MAC address and global identifier (GID) to each user for each physical HCA of the single logical partition.

8. An computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;

first instructions that partition a memory of a host information handling system (IHS) into a plurality of logical partitions (LPARs) including a particular LPAR, the host IHS including a plurality of physical host channel adapters (HCAs); and

second instructions that provide a single instance of an operating system to the particular LPAR, the single instance of the operating system including a common layer that provides virtualization of the physical HCAs and sharing of the physical HCAs by multiple virtual HCAs,

wherein the first and second instructions are stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein multiple virtual HCAs share a particular physical HCA.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

third instructions that generate a request, by a user of the particular LPAR, for a physical HCA;

fourth instructions that instruct the common layer to intercept the request; and

fifth instructions that instruct the common layer to forward the request to a virtual HCA that is isolated from other users of the particular LPAR;

wherein the third, fourth and fifth instructions are stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the user of the particular LPAR is a TCP/IP stack.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the common layer provides host channel adapter services.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the common layer is an RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) layer.