Vmware, Inc.

Andrew W Lambeth

Shudong Zhou

Boon Seong Ang

Ronghua Zhang

Mallik Mahalingam

Jyothir Ramanan

Mark Pariente

A runtime state of a virtual port associated with a virtual machine ('VM') is persisted as the VM is migrated from a source host to a destination host. In certain embodiments, a virtual switch forwards network frames between the VM and the physical network interface via the virtual port. During migration of the VM, the runtime state of the virtual port is transferred to the destination host and applied at the second host to a virtual port associated with a second virtual switch at the destination host. The runtime state of the virtual port at the source host is then cleared, and the second virtual switch at the destination host forwards network frames between the migrated VM and the physical network interface of the destination host using the virtual port at the second host.

Distributed virtual switch for virtualized computer systems

A method creates a distributed virtual switch (DVswitch) and distributed virtual ports (DVports) for the DVswitch. The DVswitch binds virtual switches in a collection of hosts together in a software abstraction. Also, the DVports are available for connection by virtual network interface cards (VNICs) of virtual machines in the collection of hosts. A request is received for a connection of a virtual network interface card (VNIC) of a virtual machine for a host in the collection of hosts to a DVport. If the requested DVport is available, the method provides connection information for the requested DVport to the host to allow the host to connect the requested DVport to the VNIC. The DVport stores a runtime state for a virtual port associated with a virtual switch for the host and the virtual switch forwards network frames between the VNIC and a physical network interface card (NIC).

Management of distributed virtual switch and distributed virtual ports

A system and method for maintaining processing order while permitting parallelism. Processing of a piece of work is divided into a plurality of stages. At each stage, a task advancing the work towards completion is performed. By performing processing as a sequence of tasks, processing can be done in parallel, with progress being made simultaneously on different pieces of work in different stages by a plurality of threads of execution.

Systems and methods for enabling threads to lock a stage prior to processing data

Methods, systems and computer programs for migrating a virtual machine (VM) executing on a first host to a second host are presented, where the first host and the second are on different networks. One embodiment of a method includes assigning to the VM a VM address (VMA) belonging to a VM network and publishing a first route to an associated network (AN) via a first virtual router executing on the first host. The method further includes migrating the VM from the first host to the second host, the VM maintaining the assigned VMA after migrating, and publishing a second route to the AN via a second virtual router executing on the second host. The first and second virtual routers have addresses belonging to the VM network, and network packets to and from the VM flow through the virtual router where the VM is executing. A temporary tunnel between the virtual routers allows traffic to flow to the VM while the new route to AN is propagated throughout the network. The use of the associated network, which is associated with the VM, and the publishing of a new route to the VM allow the VM to keep the original VMA network address after the migration.

Virtual machine migration across network by publishing routes to the associated virtual networks via virtual router after the start of migration of the virtual machine

A method for persisting a state of a virtual port in a virtualized computer system is described. A distributed virtual port (DVport) is stored in a persistent storage location, the DVport comprising a state of a corresponding virtual port and configuration settings of the virtual port. In addition, an association between the virtual port and the virtual network interface card (VNIC) connected to the virtual port is stored. When a virtual machine corresponding to the VNIC is restarted, the state from the DVport is restored to a new virtual port from the persistent storage location.

A virtual device emulated in software and included in a virtual machine is provided in a virtualized computer system. The virtual device includes an emulation mode and a pass through mode. The emulation mode is used for a first plurality of device operations. The pass through mode is used for a second plurality of device operations. The virtual device is configured to communicate with a physical device and each of the second plurality of device operations are configured to be handled by the physical device. The virtual device also includes a switching logic to switch between the emulation mode and the pass through mode based on a device operation to be performed by the virtual machine of the virtual device.

Growing community of inventors

San Mateo, CA, United States of America

Andrew W Lambeth