METHOD AND APPARATUS TO CONVEY PHYSICAL RESOURCE RELATIONSHIPS

• US 20090089780A1
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Chew, Jonathan J., Johnson, Darrin P., Saxe, Eric C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,762,999 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• 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

In general, embodiments of the invention relates to a method for conveying hardware resources from a host (OS) executing on a computer system. The method includes obtaining host hardware information by the host OS, wherein the host hardware information specifies a plurality of physical hardware components of the computer system, sending the host hardware information to a guest OS executing within the host OS, generating, by the guest OS, a resource request using the host hardware information, sending, by the guest OS, the resource request to the host OS, and in response to receiving the resource request, allocating, by the host OS, guest hardware resources, where the guest hardware resources include at least one of the physical hardware components in the resource request.

Claims

1. A method for conveying hardware resources from a host (OS) executing on a computer system, comprising:

obtaining host hardware information by the host OS, wherein the host hardware information specifies a plurality of physical hardware components of the computer system;

sending the host hardware information to a guest OS executing within the host OS;

generating, by the guest OS, a resource request using the host hardware information, wherein the resource request comprises a request for at least one of the plurality of physical hardware components;

sending, by the guest OS, the resource request to the host OS; and

in response to receiving the resource request, allocating, by the host OS, guest hardware resources, wherein the guest hardware resources comprise the at least one of the plurality of physical hardware components in the resource request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the host OS, the guest hardware information to the guest OS, wherein the guest hardware information specifies the guest hardware resources.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

configuring the guest OS to use the guest hardware resources.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the guest OS usage of the guest hardware resources by the host OS;

in response to the monitoring re-allocating, by the host OS, the guest hardware resources.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware information comprises Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) tables associated with the computer system and wherein the ACPI tables comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a Static Resource Affinity Table (SRAT), and/or a System Locality Information Table (SLIT).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the host hardware information defines an initial allocation of at least one of plurality of physical hardware components of the computer system to the guest OS.

7. A computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code embodied therein for causing a computer system to:

obtain host hardware information by a host operating system (OS), wherein the host hardware information specifies a plurality of physical hardware components of the computer system;

send the host hardware information to a guest OS, wherein the guest OS is executing within the host OS;

generate, by the guest OS, a resource request using the host hardware information, wherein the resource request comprises a request for at least one of the plurality of physical hardware components;

send, by the guest OS, the resource request to the host OS; and

allocate in response to receiving the resource request, by the host OS, guest hardware resources, wherein the guest hardware resources comprise the at least one of the plurality of physical hardware components in the resource request.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, further comprising computer readable program code embodied therein for causing the computer system to:

send, by the host OS, the guest hardware information to the guest OS, wherein the guest hardware information specifies the guest hardware resources.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising computer readable program code embodied therein for causing the computer system to:

configuring the guest OS to use the guest hardware resources.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the hardware information comprises Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) tables associated with the computer system.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the ACPI tables comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a Static Resource Affinity Table (SRAT), and/or a System Locality Information Table (SLIT).

12. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the host hardware information defines an initial allocation of at least one of plurality of physical hardware components of the computer system to the guest OS.

13. A system, comprising:

a plurality of physical hardware components;

a host operating system (OS);

a first guest OS and a second guest OS executing in the host OS;

wherein the host OS is configured to;

obtain host hardware information, wherein the host hardware information specifies the plurality of physical hardware components;

send the host hardware information to a first guest OS and the second guest OS; and

receive a first resource request from the first guest OS;

receive a second resource request from the second guest OS;

determine an allocation of the plurality of physical hardware components based on the first resource request and the second resource request;

allocate the plurality of physical hardware components based on the allocation.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the host OS is further configured to:

send a first resource message to the first guest OS, wherein the first resource message specifies which of the plurality of physical hardware components are allocated to the first guest OS.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first guest OS is re-configured in response to receiving the first resource message.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the host OS is further configured to:

receive a third resource request from the first guest OS, wherein the third resource request is generated in response to first resource message and specifies at least one additional physical hardware components of the plurality of physical hardware components not currently allocated to the first guest OS.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the host OS is further configured to:

determine a re-allocation of the plurality of physical hardware components based on the third resource request; and

re-allocate the plurality of physical hardware components based on the re-allocation.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the host OS is further configured to:

send a third resource message to the first guest OS, wherein the third resource message specifies which of the plurality of physical hardware components are re-allocated to the first guest OS, wherein the first guest OS is re-configured in response to receiving the third resource message.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the hardware information comprises Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) tables associated with the computer system.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the ACPI tables comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of a Static Resource Affinity Table (SRAT), and/or a System Locality Information Table (SLIT).