Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Georgiy Reynya

Dexter Paul Bradshaw

Chengliang Zhang

Pedro Celis

Stanislav A Oks

Purvi Shah

Sadashivan Krishnamurthy

Alexandre Olegovich Verbitski

Hanumantha Rao Kodavalla

Scott A Konersmann

Argenis Fernandez

Adrian Birka

Adam Prout

Madhan R Arumugam

Rusi Hosang Hilloowala

Slava Oks

Sangeetha Shekar

Rajesh B Iyer

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for managing protection domains (PDs) for files at a file-level or a page-level. PDs may be allocated for multiple purposes, e.g., to protect processes, files, buffers, etc. Files stored in nonvolatile memory (NVM) subject to direct access (DAX) may be protected by file-level or page-level PDs. PDs may comprise protection keys (PKEYs) with user-configurable read and write access control registers (PKRUs). NVM files may be protected from corruption (e.g. by stray writes) by leaving write access disabled except for temporary windows of time for valid writes. File PDs may be managed by a file manager while buffer PDs may be managed by a buffer pool manager. File associations between PDs, files and file address space may be maintained in a file object. Buffer associations between PDs, buffers and buffer address space may be maintained in a buffer descriptor.

Protection domains for files at file-level or page-level

Buffers in a buffer pool refer to memory locations either in local memory or in non-volatile memory used as persistent storage. The local memory and non-volatile memory have access latencies of the same order of magnitude, or a small multiple of each other. A buffer pool management system has operations to manage transitions between these states. Buffer cache copies can be avoided for read-only data, which can improve ramp-up times in database systems, increase cache capacity and improve performance of write operations. Power consumption can be reduced by avoiding memory copies and decreasing overprovisioning. These advantages can be obtained while making minimal, if any, changes to computer programs implementing the database server, particularly subsystems such as write-ahead logging and page replacement algorithms.

Hybrid use of non-volatile memory as storage device and cache

Methods, systems and computer program products provide protection domains for processes in shared address space. Multiple processes may share address space, for example, in a software isolated process running on top of a library operating system (OS). A protection domain (PD), such as a Protection Key (PKEY), may be assigned to a process to protect its allocated address spaces from access by other processes. PDs may be acquired from a host OS. A library OS may manage PDs to protect processes and/or data. A PD may be freed and reassigned to a different process or may be concurrently assigned to multiple processes, for example, when the number of processes exceeds the number of protection domains. Threads spawned by a process may inherit protection provided by a PD assigned to the process. Process PDs may be disassociated with address spaces as they are deallocated for a process or its threads.

Protection domains for processes in shared address space

Methods for differencing and conversion of software application containers are performed by systems and devices. An initiation instruction that identifies an application container image associated with an operating system is received, and a request for the container image is provided to a repository. The container image is received and a converter extracts a portion of the container image and generates another container image of the application associated with a different operating system and that includes the extracted container image portion. Difference operations are performed on layers of different container images to isolate base layers, and application artifacts are identified for conversions in layers above the operating system. Similarly, container images are converted on the basis of processor instruction sets via binary translations, and applications native to different operating systems are generated based on original container images.

System and method for differencing and conversion of software application containers

A buffer manager that manages blocks of memory amongst multiple levels of buffer pools. For instance, there may be a first level buffer pool for blocks in first level memory, and a second level buffer pool for blocks in second level memory. The first level buffer pool evicts blocks to the second level buffer pool if the blocks are not used above a first threshold level. The second level buffer pool evicts blocks to a yet lower level if they have not used above a second threshold level. The first level memory may be dynamic random access memory, whereas the second level memory may be storage class memory, such as a solid state disk. By using such a storage class memory, the working block set of the buffer manager may be increased without resorting to lower efficiency random block access from yet lower level memory such as disk.

Multi-level buffer pool extensions

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to a buffer pool for a database system. In aspects, secondary memory such as solid state storage is used to extend the buffer pool of a database system. Thresholds such as hot, warm, and cold for classifying pages based on access history of the pages may be determined via a sampling algorithm. When a database system needs to free space in a buffer pool in main memory, a page may be evicted to the buffer pool in secondary memory or other storage based on how the page is classified and conditions of the secondary memory or other storage.

Buffer pool extension for database server

Embodiments are directed to efficiently determining which cache entries are to be evicted from memory and to incorporating a probability of reuse estimation in a cache entry eviction determination. A computer system with multiple different caches accesses a cache entry. The computer system determines an entry cost value for the accessed cache entry. The entry cost value indicates an amount of time the computer system is slowed down by to load the cache entry into cache memory. The computer system determines an opportunity cost value for the computing system caches. The opportunity cost value indicates an amount of time by which the computer system is slowed down while performing other operations that could have used the cache entry's cache memory space. Upon determining that the entry cost value is lower than the opportunity cost value, the computer system probabilistically evicts the cache entry from cache memory.

Cache eviction using memory entry value

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to memory management. In aspects, a hierarchical, customized memory allocator may be created that allocates memory to memory consumers. The memory allocator may use a data structure to classify blocks of memory at each level in the hierarchy according to fill factors of the blocks of memory. Allocations may be based on lifetime characteristics, proximity to consumer, fill factor, and other factors. An allocator may use one or more active blocks to allocate memory to consumers. The number of active blocks for an allocator may depend on contention.

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Georgiy Reynya