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

• US 9,158,554 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2014
• 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:
  US14/150,185
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304703A1
• Time in Patent Office: 643 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 method for management of boot time of a virtual machine, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying assigned resources of a virtual I/O server (VIOS) of a machine;

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

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

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of identifying assigned resources of VIOS further comprises the steps of:

determining 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

identifying 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 method 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 method 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 method according to claim 1, wherein boot time includes operations that are performed by VIOS when the machine is powered on.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

identifying cores of the machine during boot time of VIOS;

setting the cores in turbo core mode until boot time of VIOS is completed;

recording current power state of the cores of the machine;

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

setting 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

resetting the cores to the current power state once boot time of VIOS is complete.

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