International Business Machines Corporation

Harvey Gene Kiel

Jaya Srikrishnan

Renato John Recio

Richard Louis Arndt

Giora Biran

Vadim Makhervaks

Leah Shalev

Stephen T Eagen

Patrick Allen Buckland

Charles Scott Graham

Chetan Mehta

Raymond F Romon

Lee Anton Sendelbach

Leah J Busboom

Jerry A Blades

Ronald Leroy Billau

Steven Joseph Amell

Vinit Jain

William Craig Rapp

Jeffrey Paul Messing

David Charles Boutcher

Schuman M Shao

Kenneth Dale Aaker

Nelson A Martel, Jr

Bruce Richard Culbertson

Cary Lee Bates

Jeffrey Michael Ryan

Jeffery J Van Heuklon

Eric John Nelson

Jeffrey Earl Remfert

Robert John Manulik

David G Wenz

James Albert Pieterick

Gregory Albert Dancker

Louis Edward Behrens

John Elliott Walker

William Van Durrett

Shohji Okimoto

Mark Arnold Boegel

Claude Basso

Paul Reuben Day

Fabrice Jean Verplanken

Jean Louis Calvignac

Colin Beaton Verrilli

Natarajan Vaidhyanathan

Timothy J Schimke

Richard Loise Arndt

Chih-Jen Chang

Kyle Alan Lucke

Philippe Damon

Ronald Edward Fuhs

Thomas Edwin Murphy, Jr

Paul Francis Rieth

Ellen Marie Bauman

Scott Michael Willenborg

Devon D Snyder

Richard Alan Diedrich

Stephen A Knight

Pernell James Dykes

William Wyche Plyler

Pamela A Wright

Robert Russell Nelson

Lawrence Dean Whitley

Anthony P Vinski

Toshio Shimizu

Scott D Hammersley

James H Maher

Ricky Merle Peterson

Joel David Eikenhorst

Thomas Dean Christopherson

Shoji Okimoto

Jeffrey L Brodd

Adel F Fahmy

Lee Anton Sendelback

Douglas O Bolstad

Trent L Clausen

Michael E Plute

John Howard Botterill

Kevin Malachi Galloway

Charles McLees Comp

Leah Shaley

Christopher John Lankow

Ayako Nomura

Timothy James Slavin

Alan Kyle Lucke

Virtualizing a host USB adapter in a virtualized environment maintained by a hypervisor, the hypervisor administering one or more logical partitions, where virtualizing includes receiving, by the hypervisor from a logical partition via a logical USB adapter, a USB Input/Output ('I/O') request, the logical USB adapter associated with a USB device coupled to the host USB adapter; placing, by the hypervisor, a work queue element ('WQE') in a queue of a queue pair associated with the logical USB adapter; and administering, by an interface device in dependence upon the WQE, USB data communications among the logical partition and the USB device including retrieving, with direct memory access (&#x2018;DMA&#x2019;), USB data originating at the USB device from the host USB adapter into a dedicated memory region for the logical USB adapter.

Virtualizing a host USB adapter

An I/O adapter sharing mechanism in a logically partitioned computer system allows sharing a network I/O adapter between logical partitions in an efficient manner. A first logical partition owns (or controls) the I/O adapter, and a second logical partition desires to use (or share) the I/O adapter. An I/O adapter device driver that includes a hardware interface is provided in the first logical partition. A virtual device driver is provided in the second logical partition that provides a set of functions that is at least partially defined by querying the I/O adapter device driver in the first logical partition. The I/O adapter sharing mechanism includes a transfer mechanism that allows data to be transferred directly from the virtual device driver in the second logical partition to the I/O adapter without passing through the I/O adapter device driver in the first logical partition.

Sharing a network I/O adapter between logical partitions

A hosting partition update mechanism allows updating I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system in a way that minimally affects the performance and availability of I/O in the computer system. When an update is needed, a new hosting partition is created with the desired update(s). I/O adapters in the current hosting partition are then migrated to the new hosting partition. The migration of an I/O adapter from the current hosting partition to the new hosting partition is relatively fast, thereby minimally impacting system performance and availability of I/O. Once all of the I/O adapters have been migrated to the new hosting partition, the current hosting partition may be kept as a backup, or may be eliminated. Providing a new or backup hosting partition allows updates to be performed in the new or backup hosting partition in a non-disruptive manner while the current hosting partition continues to service I/O requests.

Updating I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system

A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed in a shared processor data processing system for coordinating error reporting for and resetting of a physical I/O adapter that supports virtualization. The physical I/O adapter is virtualized by generating virtual I/O adapters that each represent a portion of the physical I/O adapter. Each one of the virtual I/O adapters is assigned to a different one of client logical partitions. A determination is made regarding whether the physical I/O adapter may have experienced an error. If the physical I/O adapter has experienced an error, all of the client logical partitions are notified about the error and a recovery of the physical I/O adapter is coordinated among all of the client logical partitions by waiting for each client logical partition to acknowledge the error notification before the physical I/O adapter is reset.

Method, apparatus, and computer program product for coordinating error reporting and reset utilizing an I/O adapter that supports virtualization

A method, computer program product, and distributed data processing system that enables host software or firmware to allocate virtual resources to one or more system images from a single physical I/O adapter, such as a PCI, PCI-X, or PCI-E adapter, is provided. Adapter resource groups are assigned to respective system images. An adapter resource group is exclusively available to the system image to which the adapter resource group assignment was made. Assignment of adapter resource groups may be made per a relative resource assignment or an absolute resource assignment. In another embodiment, adapter resource groups are assigned to system images on a first come, first served basis.

System and method for virtual adapter resource allocation matrix that defines the amount of resources of a physical I/O adapter

A method, system, and computer program product for sharing adapter resources among multiple operating system instances. The present invention provides a mechanism for dynamically allocating virtualized I/O adapter resources. The present invention separates the operation of adapter resource allocation from adapter resource management. Protection attributes within the adapter resource context are used to allow the adapter to enforce access control over the adapter resources. The hypervisor allocates an available adapter resource to a given partition. The adapter is notified of the allocation, and the adapter updates its internal structure to reflect the allocation. The hypervisor may revoke ownership of and reassign adapter resources to another OS instance. In this manner, the allocation described above allows for the simple reassignment of resources from one partition to another.

Association of memory access through protection attributes that are associated to an access control level on a PCI adapter that supports virtualization

A method, computer program product, and distributed data processing system that allows a system image within a multiple system image virtual server to directly expose a portion, or all, of its associated system memory to a shared PCI adapter without having to go through a trusted component, such as a Hypervisor. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a mechanism for sharing conventional PCI I/O adapters, PCI-X I/O Adapters, PCI-Express I/O Adapters, and, in general, any I/O adapter that uses a memory mapped I/O interface for communications.

Association of host translations that are associated to an access control level on a PCI bridge that supports virtualization

A mechanism for modifying resources in a logically partitioned data processing system is provided. A request to modify resources associated with a virtual adapter allocated on a physical adapter is invoked. The resources associated with the virtual adapter comprise a subset of the physical adapter resources. The request to modify the physical adapter is conveyed to the physical adapter. Responsive to receipt of the request by the physical adapter, the physical adapter modifies the resources allocated to the virtual adapter.

System and method for modification of virtual adapter resources in a logically partitioned data processing system

In a first aspect, a first method is provided for creating a media access control (MAC) address for a device. The first method includes the steps of (1) obtaining one or more identifiers; (2) obtaining a first MAC address; and (3) creating at least a second MAC address based on the one or more identifiers and the first MAC address. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Methods and apparatus for creating addresses

At least one input/output (I/O) firmware partition is provided in a partitioned environment to facilitate access to I/O resources owned by the at least one I/O firmware partition. The I/O resources of an I/O firmware partition are shared by one or more other partitions of the environment, referred to as consumer partitions. The consumer partitions use the I/O firmware partition to access the I/O resources. Since the I/O firmware partitions are responsible for providing access to the I/O resources owned by those partitions, the consumer partitions are relieved of this task, reducing complexity and costs in the consumer partitions.

Facilitating access to input/output resources via an I/O partition shared by multiple consumer partitions

A computer program product and distributed data processing system that allows a single physical I/O adapter, such as a PCI, PCI-X, or PCI-E adapter, to validate that a direct memory access address referenced by an incoming I/O transaction that was initiated through a memory mapped I/O operation are associated with a virtual adapter or virtual resource that is referenced by the incoming memory mapped I/O operation is provided. Specifically, the present invention is directed to a mechanism for sharing conventional PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) I/O adapters, PCI-X I/O Adapters, PCI-Express I/O Adapters, and, in general, any I/O adapter that uses a memory mapped I/O interface for communications. A single physical I/O adapter validates that one or more direct memory access addresses referenced by an incoming I/O transaction initiated through a memory mapped I/O operation are associated with a virtual adapter or virtual resource that is referenced by the incoming memory mapped I/O operation.

System for fully trusted adapter validation of addresses referenced in a virtual host transfer request

Apparatus and storage media for auto-configuration of an internal network interface are disclosed. Embodiments may install an internal VLAN manager in a logically partitioned computer system along with network agents in each of the partitions in the logically partitioned system to facilitate configuring an internal communications network and the corresponding internal network interfaces in each participating partition. In particular, an administrator accesses internal VLAN manager, selects an internal VLAN ID, selects each of the participating partitions, and configures the communications network with global parameters and ranges. The internal VLAN manager then generates partition parameters and incorporates them into messages for each of the partitions selected to participate in the internal network. Each of the participating partitions receives one of the messages and, in response, invokes the corresponding network agent that extracts partition parameters from the message and creates or re-configures an internal network interface based upon the parameters.

Auto-configuration of an internal VLAN network interface

Providing communications between operating system partitions and a computer network. In one aspect, an apparatus for distributing network communications among multiple operating system partitions includes a physical port allowing communications between the network and the computer system, and logical ports associated with the physical port, where each logical port is associated with one of the operating system partitions. Each of the logical ports enables communication between a physical port and the associated operating system partition and allows configurability of network resources of the system. Other aspects include a logical switch for logical and physical ports, and packet queues for each connection and for each logical port.

Network communications for operating system partitions

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Harvey Gene Kiel