International Business Machines Corporation

David W Sheffield

Khalid Filali-Adib

Sungjin Yook

John Mark McConaughy

Nathaniel S Tomsic

Laurent Dufour

Stephen Bailey Peckham

Frederic Barrat

Marc Joel Stephenson

Christophe Lombard

Kevin Lynn Fought

Perinkulam I Ganesh

Mark D Rogers

Philippe Bergheaud

Luke Mathew Browning

Donald Ray Stence

Kumar V Nallapati

Guy Menanteau

Christine M Briand

J Mark McConaughy

Thomas Stanley Mathews

Rodney Carlton Burnett

Chris Alan Schwendiman

Matthew David Fleming

Kavitha Ramalingam

Robert A Reynolds

Balamurugan Ramajeyam

Ravin Luis De Souza

Mechanisms are provided for performing a live update of an operating system. The mechanisms receive an update to an operating system and clone a root volume group associated with an operating system instance executing in a first logical partition of the data processing system to generate a cloned root volume group. The mechanisms apply the update to the cloned root volume group to generate an updated and cloned root volume group and boot a second logical partition of the data processing system using the updated and cloned root volume group. Moreover, the mechanisms migrate application instances and application data to the second logical partition.

Live operating system update mechanisms

Mechanisms are provided for performing a live update of an operating system. The mechanisms receive an update to an operating system and clone a root volume group associated with an operating system instance executing in a first logical partition of the data processing system to generate a cloned root volume group. The mechanisms apply the update to the cloned root volume group to generate an updated and cloned root volume group and boot a second logical partition of the data processing system using the updated and cloned root volume group. Moreover, the mechanisms mirror the original root volume group associated with an operating system instance executing in a first logical partition and import the mirrored root volume group into the second logical partition. The mechanisms migrate application instances to the second logical partition by restarting the application instances in the second logical partition using the mirrored root volume group.

Provided are techniques for comparing a first fileset associated with a first operating system (OS) with a second fileset associated with a second OS; determining, based upon the comparing, that the second OS is a more current version of the first OS; in response to the determining that the second OS is a more current version of the first OS, moving, in conjunction with live application mobility, a virtual machine (VM) workload partition (WPAR) on the first LPAR to a second LPAR, the moving comprising determining a set of overlays associated with the WPAR corresponding to the second OS; removing from the WPAR any overlays associated with the first OS; applying to the WPAR a set of overlays corresponding to the second OS; check pointing processes associated with the WAPR; and copying live data associated with the LPAR from the first LPAR to the second LPAR.

Live application mobility from one operating system level to an updated operating system level and applying overlay files to the updated operating system

Provided are techniques for comparing a first fileset associated with a first operating system (OS) with a second fileset associated with a second OS; determining, based upon the comparing, that the second OS is a more current version of the first OS; in response to the determining that the second OS is a more current version of the first OS, moving, in conjunction with live application mobility, a virtual machine (VM) workload partition (WPAR) on the first LPAR to a second LPAR, the moving comprising determining a set of overlays associated with the WPAR corresponding to the second OS; removing from the WPAR any overlays associated with the first OS; applying to the WPAR a set of overlays corresponding to the second OS; check pointing processes associated with the WPAR; and copying live data associated with the LPAR from the first LPAR to the second LPAR.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method and technique for shared versioned workload partitions is disclosed. The method includes: creating, in a host machine running an instance of a first version of an operating system, a first workload partition associated with a second version of the operating system, the second version of the operating system comprising a different version of the operating system than the first version of the operating system; creating, in the logical partition, a second workload partition associated with the second version of the operating system; and hierarchically linking the second workload partition to the first workload partition to enable sharing of resources of the first workload partition by the second workload partition.

Shared versioned workload partitions

According to one aspect of the present disclosure a system and technique for shared versioned workload partitions is disclosed. The system includes a processor and logic executable by the processor to: create, in a host machine running an instance of a first version of an operating system, a first workload partition associated with a second version of the operating system, the second version of the operating system comprising a different version of the operating system than the first version of the operating system; create, in the logical partition, a second workload partition associated with the second version of the operating system; and hierarchically link the second workload partition to the first workload partition to enable sharing of resources of the first workload partition by the second workload partition.

When moving workload partitions (WPARs) from machine to machine, operating systems may encounter errors that prevent successful WPAR migration. Recording and reporting errors can be challenging. To move WPARs, the operating system may employ a plurality of software components, such as code residing in user space (e.g., application programs, OS libraries, and shell scripts), code residing in the operating system's kernel, and code residing on remote machines. Embodiments of the invention include a framework that enables all the software components to record errors. The framework can also report the errors to users and processes.

Error handling in a virtualized operating system

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to receiving a request from a first instance of an operating system (e.g., a virtual operating system) to load a kernel extension that extends functionality of a kernel, where the kernel and the first instance of the operating system are managed by a second instance of the operating system (e.g., a global operating system), and where the first and second instances of the operating system share the kernel. Some embodiments are further directed to recording an indicator that indicates that the first of the plurality of the instances of the operating system requested to load the kernel extension, where the indicator is accessible only to the second instance of the operating system. In some embodiments, the method is further directed to loading the kernel extension, where loading the kernel extension extends functionality of the kernel. In some embodiments, the method is further directed to receiving a request by the first instance of the operating system to remove the functionality from the kernel and determining, based on the indicator, that the first instance of the operating system had previously requested to load the kernel extension. In some embodiments, the method is further directed to removing the functionality from the kernel in response to the determining, based on the indicator, that the first instance of the operating system had previously requested to load the kernel extension.

Tracking loading and unloading of kernel extensions in isolated virtual space

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to detecting a file that a first instance of an operating system is configured to load where the file is configured to extend functionality of a kernel when loaded. In some embodiments, the first instance of the operating system is managed by a second instance of the operating system (e.g., the first instance of the operating system is a virtual operating system and the second instance is a global operating system). The first and second instances of the operating system share the kernel. Some embodiments are further directed to generating a unique electronic identifier based on properties of the file. The unique electronic identifier uniquely identifies the file. Some embodiments are further directed to providing a copy of the file to the first instance of the operating system, and some time later, receiving a request from the first instances of the operating system to load the copy of the file. Some embodiments are further directed to determining, using the unique electronic identifier, that the copy of the file from the first instance of the operating system is equivalent to the file. Some embodiments are further directed to loading the copy of the file in response to determining, using the unique electronic identifier, that the copy of the file is equivalent to the file. The loading extends the functionality of the kernel.

Managing unique electronic identification for kernel extensions in isolated virtual space

Some embodiments of the inventive subject matter are directed to receiving a request from a first instance of an operating system (e.g., a virtual operating system) to load a kernel extension that extends functionality of a kernel, where the kernel and the first instance of the operating system are managed by a second instance of the operating system (e.g., a global operating system), and where the first and second instances of the operating system share the kernel. Some embodiments are further directed to loading the kernel extension as a shared kernel extension. Some embodiments are further directed to receiving a request by the first instances of the operating system to unload the kernel extension and determining that a third instance of the operating system (e.g., another virtual operating system also managed by the global operating system) requires the kernel extension to remain loaded. Some embodiments are further directed to notifying the first instance of the operating system that the kernel extension was unloaded while leaving the kernel extension loaded in the kernel.

Managing loading and unloading of shared kernel extensions in isolated virtual space

An OS instance can maintain management responsibility for SAN adapters to ensure separation and isolation of WPARs, while WPARs are given the capability of configuring an adapter (e.g., adding endpoint storage devices to the adapter). An operating system instance allocates an adapter to a first of a plurality of virtual operating system instances. The first virtual operating system instance updates a device data structure with an entry that indicates the adapter. The first virtual operating system instance maintains the device data structure. The first virtual operating system instance modifies the entry in the device data structure to associate a set of one or more endpoint storage devices with the adapter. The set of endpoint storage devices are provisioned to the first virtual operating system instance from a storage area network. The first virtual operating system instance configures the set of endpoint storage devices.

Direct provisioning of storage devices to virtual OS partitions

A method, apparatus, and computer usable code to manage data requests in a file system. A file access request is received from a client data processing system for a file access operation on a file in the file system. A determination is made as to whether the entry is present for the client in response to receiving the file access request. An open request is sent to the file system to open the file in response to the entry being absent. A cookie is received from the file system in response to sending the open request. An entry is created for the client and file with the cookie, and the file access request is sent to the file system using the cookie. Subsequent file access requests are sent to the file system using the same cookie in response to the entry being present.

Method and apparatus for managing multi-stream input/output requests in a network file server

A method, system, and product are described for estimating the number of consumers that place a load on an individual resource belonging to a pool of resources that are physically distributed through a data processing system. The resources and consumers are physically distributed throughout a semiconductor substrate of the data processing system. A definition of the load on a particular resource in the pool of resources is described in terms of the number of consumers that could be said to have all of their resource requests satisfied only by that particular resource. A method is described by which this number can be estimated. In this method, a relative size of a portion of the resources is determined with respect to a total size of all of the resources. A load placed on the portion of the resources by the consumers is estimated utilizing the determined relative size and a value of a total quantity of the consumers.

Method, system, and computer program product for estimating the number of consumers that place a load on an individual resource in a pool of physically distributed resources

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Austin, TX, United States of America

David W Sheffield