VIRTUALIZATION OF VENDOR SPECIFIC NETWORK INTERFACES OF SELF-VIRTUALIZING INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICE VIRTUAL FUNCTIONS

• US 20120124572A1
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cunningham, James B., De Leon, Baltazar III, Graham, Charles S., Koch, Andrew T., Lucke, Kyle A., Whitney, Kristopher C., King, Brian J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,561,065 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space

Abstract

A vendor independent partition interface between a logical partition and an adjunct partition associated with a self-virtualizing IO resource is used to effectively abstract away vender-specific interface details for the self-virtualizing IO resource. By doing so, vender-specific implementation details may be isolated from the operating systems resident in logical partitions, thus requiring only changes in vendor specific firmware in order to support new or revised self-virtualizing IO resources.

Claims

1. A method of accessing a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource with multiple logical partitions in a data processing system, the method comprising:

interfacing a logical partition of the multiple logical partitions to an associated adjunct partition through a vendor-independent virtual network partition interface, the adjunct partition including a vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver configured to interface with the logical partition and a resource-specific device driver configured to interface with the self-virtualizing IO resource; and

in the logical partition, accessing the self-virtualizing IO resource by communicating with the vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver over the vendor-independent virtual network partition interface using a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple logical partitions is interfaced to the self-virtualizing IO resource through an associated adjunct partition, wherein each adjunct partition couples the associated logical partition to one of a virtual function or a queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition includes a separate dispatchable state and employs virtual address space donated from the logical partition or a hypervisor of the data processing system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein interfacing the logical partition to the associated adjunct partition comprises interfacing the adjunct partition to an associated virtual function of the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource further comprises a physical function, the method further comprising interfacing a physical function adjunct partition with the physical function of the self-virtualizing IO resource, the physical function adjunct partition facilitating creation of the adjunct partition interfacing the logical partition to the virtual function.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises a function with multiple queue pairs associated therewith, wherein interfacing the logical partition to the associated adjunct partition comprises interfacing the adjunct partition to an associated queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource, the method further comprising interfacing a function adjunct partition with the function of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising interfacing the vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver and the resource-specific device driver through a device driver application programming interface (API).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises an SRIOV Ethernet adapter.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

program code configured upon execution by the at least one processor to interface a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource with multiple logical partitions in a data processing system by interfacing a logical partition of the multiple logical partitions to an associated adjunct partition through a vendor-independent virtual network partition interface, wherein the adjunct partition includes a vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver configured to interface with the logical partition and a resource-specific device driver configured to interface with the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the vendor-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver is configured to communicate over the vendor-independent virtual network partition interface with a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein each of the multiple logical partitions is interfaced to the self-virtualizing IO resource through an associated adjunct partition, wherein each adjunct partition couples the associated logical partition to one of a virtual function or a queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the adjunct partition includes a separate dispatchable state and employs virtual address space donated from the logical partition or a hypervisor of the data processing system.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program code is configured to interface the logical partition to the associated adjunct partition by interfacing the adjunct partition to an associated virtual function of the self-virtualizing IO resource, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource further comprises a physical function, and wherein the program code is further configured to interface a physical function adjunct partition with the physical function of the self-virtualizing IO resource, the physical function adjunct partition facilitating creation of the adjunct partition interfacing the logical partition to the virtual function.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises a function with multiple queue pairs associated therewith, wherein the program code is configured to interface the logical partition to the associated adjunct partition by interfacing the adjunct partition to an associated queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the program code is further configured to interface a function adjunct partition with the function of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the program code is further configured to interface the vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver and the resource-specific device driver through a device driver application programming interface (API).

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises an SRIOV Ethernet adapter.

15. A program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

program code stored on the computer readable medium and configured upon execution to interface a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource with multiple logical partitions in a data processing system by interfacing a logical partition of the multiple logical partitions to an associated adjunct partition through a vendor-independent virtual network partition interface, wherein the adjunct partition includes a vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver configured to interface with the logical partition and a resource-specific device driver configured to interface with the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the vendor-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver is configured to communicate over the vendor-independent virtual network partition interface with a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition.

16. The program product of claim 15, wherein each of the multiple logical partitions is interfaced to the self-virtualizing IO resource through an associated adjunct partition, wherein each adjunct partition couples the associated logical partition to one of a virtual function or a queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

17. The program product of claim 15, wherein the adjunct partition includes a separate dispatchable state and employs virtual address space donated from the logical partition or a hypervisor of the data processing system.

18. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program code is configured to interface the logical partition to the associated adjunct partition by interfacing the adjunct partition to an associated virtual function of the self-virtualizing IO resource, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource further comprises a physical function, and wherein the program code is further configured to interface a physical function adjunct partition with the physical function of the self-virtualizing IO resource, the physical function adjunct partition facilitating creation of the adjunct partition interfacing the logical partition to the virtual function.

19. The program product of claim 15, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises a function with multiple queue pairs associated therewith, wherein the program code is configured to interface the logical partition to the associated adjunct partition by interfacing the adjunct partition to an associated queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the program code is further configured to interface a function adjunct partition with the function of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

20. The program product of claim 15, wherein the program code is further configured to interface the vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver and the resource-specific device driver through a device driver application programming interface (API).

21. The program product of claim 15, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises an SRIOV Ethernet adapter.

22. A method of developing an adjunct partition for use in providing access to a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource by at least one logical partition in a data processing system, the method comprising:

developing a resource-specific device driver configured to interface with the self-virtualizing IO resource;

packaging the resource-specific device driver in an adjunct partition firmware component along with a vendor-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver, the vendor-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver configured to communicate with a vender-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in a logical partition over a vendor-independent virtual network partition interface; and

testing the adjunct partition firmware component with the resource-specific device driver and vendor-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver packaged therein.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the adjunct partition firmware component is associated with one of a virtual function or a queue pair of the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the adjunct partition firmware component includes a separate dispatchable state and employs virtual address space donated from an associated logical partition or a hypervisor of the data processing system.