Red Hat Israel, Ltd.

Dor Laor

Michael Tsirkin

Avi Kivity

Uri Lublin

Shahar Frank

Orit Luba Wasserman

Itamar Heim

Yaniv Kamay

Gleb Natapov

Izik Eidus

Kevin M Wolf

Implementations of the disclosure describe manageable external wake of virtual machines. In one implementation, a method of the disclosure includes receiving, by a processor of a computer system, a message generated by a hardware device of the computer system while a virtual machine that is hosted by the computer system is asleep. The method further includes determining, by the processor, whether to wake the virtual machine in view of a hardware event of the hardware device that generated the message.

Manageable external wake of virtual machines

Implementations describe hibernating virtual machines (VMs). In one implementation, a method includes receiving, by a first virtual processor of a VM executed by a processing device, an instruction from a sleep-handling module of the VM to invoke a sleep function of a hypervisor executed by the processing device to manage the VM, transmitting, by the first virtual processor of the VM, a request to the hypervisor to put the VM to sleep, wherein the hypervisor, in response to the request, to stop the first virtual processor subsequent to stopping a second virtual processor of the VM, and initiating execution on the first virtual processor and on the second virtual processor responsive to the hypervisor re-starting the first and second virtual processors in response to a wake event.

Hibernation via paravirtualization

A manageable external wake of virtual machines. A processor of a computing system determines whether to wake a virtual machine in view of one or more parameters.

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.

A system and method for withdrawing virtual processors from virtual machines (VMs) are disclosed. A hypervisor executed by a physical processor detects a measure of system load pertaining to a virtual processor of a virtual machine and withdraws the virtual processor from the virtual machine in view of the measure of system load.

Processor unplug in virtualized computer systems

A method and system for managing message-signaled interrupt-based events sent from an event source to a host or a guest is disclosed. A central processing unit instructs an event source to write a message-signaled interrupt to a designated address of a random access memory of the host. The host or a guest of the central processing unit executes a memory monitoring instruction to the designated address. The host or the guest enters a wait state. The host or the guest detects a write of the message-signaled interrupt by the event source to the designated address, the message-signaled interrupt comprising data items pertaining to an event to be performed. The host or the guest exits from the wait state. The host or the guest performs an atomic operation with respect to the event based on the data items in the message-signaled interrupt.

MSI events using dynamic memory monitoring

A system and method for handling requests by virtual machines (VMs) to lock portions of main memory are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, a host operating system (OS) of a computer system receives a request by the guest OS of a VM to lock a portion of main memory of the computer system. The host OS determines whether locking the portion of main memory violates any of a set of constraints pertaining to main memory. The host OS locks the portion of main memory when locking does not violate any of the set of constraints. The locking prevents any page of the portion of main memory from being swapped out to a storage device. The host OS can still swap out pages of main memory that are not allocated to this VM and are not locked by any other VM.

Host memory locking in virtualized systems with memory overcommit

A method and system for permitting a guest to program a message-signaled interrupt-based device is disclosed. A hypervisor of a host detects a request by a guest to map an address range of memory of the guest to a message signaled-interrupt capability table associated with a device. The hypervisor maps the message signaled-interrupt capability table from a message signaled-interrupt capability register of a programmable interrupt controller associated with the host to the address range of memory of the guest. The hypervisor detects an attempt by the guest to program the device with the message-signaled interrupt configuration located in the address range of memory of the guest. The hypervisor programs the device with the message-signaled interrupt configuration specified by the guest in the address range of memory of the guest.

Event signaling in virtualized systems

A system and method for hibernating virtual machines (VMs) are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, a computer system that executes a hypervisor and a virtual machine (VM) determines that the virtual machine is to be put to sleep, wherein the determining is performed without involvement of a guest operating system hosted by the virtual machine. In response, the hypervisor stops a first virtual processor of the VM and persists the state of the first virtual processor.

Hypervisor-driven hibernation

Methods and systems for managing multiple transmit queues of a networking device of a host machine in a virtual machine system. The networking device includes multiple transmit queues that are used by multiple guests of the virtual machine system for the transmission of packets in a data communication. A hypervisor of the virtual machine system manages the switching from one or more transmit queues (i.e., old transmit queues) to one or more other queues (i.e., new transmit queues) by managing a flow of packets in the virtual machine system to maintain a proper sequence of packets and avoid a need to re-order the transmitted packets at a destination.

Switching of a transmit queue associated with a virtual machine

A system and method by which a host computer system can run executables on behalf of a virtual machine (VM) are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment, an executable of a guest application of a virtual machine is received by a hypervisor and is run via the host operating system on behalf of the virtual machine.

Guest-driven host execution

A system and method are disclosed for determining whether to grant requests for additional virtual processors for a virtual machine (referred to as 'processor hotplug requests'). In accordance with one embodiment, a hypervisor receives a request from a guest operating system of a virtual machine, where the request is for an additional virtual processor for the virtual machine. The hypervisor then determines whether or not to grant the request based on a policy.

Hypervisor handling of processor hotplug requests

A method and system for managing a virtual computing system including a hypervisor managing a virtual machine (VM) configured to communicate with a thread executable by multiple host central processing units (CPUs), using memory monitoring instructions. The hypervisor provides the virtual machine with a first notification identifying a first designated memory range writeable by a virtual central processing unit (VCPU) associated with the virtual machine and a first instruction to write to the first designated memory range to communicate with the thread running on a first host CPU. The hypervisor further identifies movement of the thread from the first host CPU to a second host CPU and provides to the virtual machine a second notification identifying a second designated memory range and a second instruction to write to the second designated memory range to communicate with the thread running on the second host CPU.

Delivery of events from a virtual machine to a thread executable by multiple host CPUs using memory monitoring instructions

A method and system for managing a virtual computing system including an event source configured to send an event to a destination virtual machine (VM) executing a memory monitoring instruction on a designated address range of a host memory. A hypervisor instructs a destination virtual central processing unit (VCPU) associated with the destination VM to execute the memory monitoring instruction to the designated address range of a memory. A physical CPU associated with the designated address range is configured not to perform an exit to the hypervisor in response to execution of the memory monitoring instruction by the destination VCPU. The hypervisor instructs an event source to write data to the designated address range to send an event for performance by the destination VM, wherein the destination VM wakes up and performs the identified event in response to the event source writing to the identified address range.

Virtual machine wakeup using a memory monitoring instruction

A mechanism for automatically encrypting and decrypting virtual disk content using a single user sign-on is disclosed. A method of embodiments of the invention includes receiving credentials of a user of a virtual machine (VM) provided as part of a single sign-on process to access the VM, referencing a configuration database with the received credentials of the user, determining encryption and decryption policy settings for the VM from the configuration database, and at least one of encrypting or decrypting, by the VM, files of the VM based on the determined encryption and decryption policy settings.

Growing community of inventors

Tel Aviv, Israel

Dor Laor