MANAGEABLE EXTERNAL WAKE OF VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20160162324A1
• Filed: 02/12/2016
• Published: 06/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Tsirkin, Michael, Laor, Dor
• Granted Patent: US 10,146,568 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A processor of a computing system receives a message while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep. The processor determines whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the message.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a message by a processor of a computer system while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep; and

determining, by the processor, whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is a destination virtual machine associated with the message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is a password in the message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is a cookie in the message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameter is a sequence number in the message.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the sequence number is a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sequence.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is to host a plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the message is directed to a hardware device of the computer system, and wherein the determination whether to wake the virtual machine is also based on whether the hardware device is mapped to a virtual device of the virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is to host a hypervisor, and wherein the message is associated with an event external to the hypervisor.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is one of a hardware fault or an interrupt.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a networking packet.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein that, when executed by a processor of a computer system, cause the processor to:

receive a message while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep; and

determine, by the processor, whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the message.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the parameter is a destination virtual machine associated with the message.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the parameter is a password in the message.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the parameter is a cookie in the message.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the parameter is a sequence number in the message.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor of a computer system operatively coupled to the memory, the processor to;

receive a message while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep; and

determine whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a parameter of the message.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the parameter is a destination virtual machine associated with the message.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the parameter is a password in the message.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the parameter is a cookie in the message.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the parameter is a sequence number in the message.