System and method for expediting virtual I/O server (VIOS) boot time in a virtual computing environment

• US 9,158,553 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2013
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Larson, Chad J., Muttur, Manjunath B., Thornton, Daniel G., Umarani, Deepti S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stoynov, Stefan
• Application Number:
  US13/859,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 917 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/501 Performance criteria
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• 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

Abstract

An approach for management of boot time of a virtual machine is provided. In one aspect, a system boot time application identifies assigned resources of a virtual I/O server (VIOS) of a computing system. In addition, the system boot time application allocates additional resources from client logical partitions (LPARs) of the computing system to the assigned resources of VIOS during boot time of VIOS. The system boot time application further identifies cores of the computing system during the boot time of VIOS. The system boot time application also sets the cores in turbo core mode until boot time of VIOS is completed. In one aspect, the system boot time application reallocates the allocated additional resources from VIOS to the client LPARs once boot time of VIOS is completed.

Claims

1. A computer system for management of boot time of a virtual machine, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices and program instructions which are stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to identify assigned resources of a virtual I/O server (VIOS) of the virtual machine;

program instructions to allocate additional resources from a local partition (LPAR) of the machine to the assigned resources of VIOS during boot time of VIOS; and

program instructions to reallocate the allocated additional resources from VIOS to the local partition (LPAR) once boot time of VIOS is completed.

2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein program instructions to identify assigned resources of VIOS further comprises:

program instructions to determine an amount of assigned resources that need to be initialized during boot time of VIOS, and wherein the assigned resources include at least one of physical and virtual adaptors of VIOS of the machine; and

program instructions to identify an appropriate amount of additional resources from the LPAR that needs to be allocated to the assigned resources of VIOS to expedite boot time of VIOS, wherein the additional resources includes components of processors or memory of the machine.

3. The computer system according to claim 2, wherein identification of an appropriate amount of additional resources is based on system configurations of the machine, including system utilization of hardware and software configurations of the machine.

4. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein VIOS is a partition of the machine, wherein the machine is a computing system utilizing clustered computers and components, and wherein the additional resources are allocated to booting partitions of VIOS.

5. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein boot time includes operations that are performed by VIOS when the machine is powered on.

6. The computer system according to claim 1, further comprises:

program instructions to identify cores of the machine during boot time of VIOS;

program instructions to set the cores in turbo core mode until boot time of VIOS is completed;

program instructions to record current power state of the cores of the machine;

program instructions to transmit a request to a power device of the machine to set the current power state of the cores in turbo core mode;

program instructions to set the cores used for partitions of the machine in the turbo core mode during boot time of VIOS, wherein the cores are set in turbo mode by the power device; and

program instructions to reset the cores to the current power state once boot time of VIOS is complete.

7. The computer system according to claim 6, wherein the power device is a power management device which is responsible energy scale functions of resources of the machine.

8. A computer program product for management of boot time of a virtual machine, the computer program product comprising:

one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to identify assigned resources of a virtual I/0 server (VIOS) of the virtual machine;

program instructions to allocate additional resources from local partition (LPAR) of the machine to the assigned resources of VIOS during boot time of VIOS; and

program instructions to reallocate the allocated additional resources from VIOS to the local partition (LPAR) once boot time of VIOS is completed.

9. The computer program product according to claim 8, wherein program instructions to identify assigned resources of VIOS further comprises:

program instructions to determine an amount of assigned resources that need to be initialized during boot time of VIOS, and wherein the assigned resources include at least one of physical and virtual adaptors of VIOS of the machine; and

program instructions to identify an appropriate amount of additional resources from the LPAR that needs to be allocated to the assigned resources of VIOS to expedite boot time of VIOS, wherein the additional resources includes components of processors or memory of the machine.

10. The computer program product according to claim 9, wherein identification of an appropriate amount of additional resources is based on system configurations of the machine, including system utilization of hardware and software configurations of the machine.

11. The computer program product according to claim 8, wherein VIOS is a partition of the machine, wherein the machine is a computer program product utilizing clustered computers and components, and wherein the additional resources are allocated to booting partitions of VIOS.

12. The computer program product according to claim 8, wherein boot time includes operations that are performed by VIOS when the machine is powered on.

13. The computer program product according to claim 8, further comprises:

program instructions to set the cores in turbo core mode until boot time of VIOS is completed;

program instructions to record current power state of the cores of the machine;

program instructions to transmit a request to a power device of the machine to set the current power state of the cores in turbo core mode;

program instructions to set the cores used for partitions of the machine in the turbo core mode during boot time of VIOS, wherein the cores are set in turbo mode by the power device; and

program instructions to reset the cores to the current power state once boot time of VIOS is complete.