The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 26, 2011
Filed:
Sep. 19, 2003
Hao Xu, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Daniel J. Scales, Mountain View, CA (US);
Hao Xu, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Daniel J. Scales, Mountain View, CA (US);
VMware, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A virtual computer system, including one or more virtual machines (VMs), is connected to a computer network by multiple network interface cards (NICs). The VMs are supported by a kernel, which includes a resource manager for allocating system resources among the VMs, including network data bandwidth. A NIC manager is loaded into the kernel as a driver or is integrated into the kernel, for selecting NICs over which outgoing network data is transferred, including providing functions such as failovers and failbacks, as well as load distribution. Implementing the NIC manager in the kernel provides NIC teaming functions to each of the VMs without having to implement a NIC teaming solution in each of the VMs, adding to the simplicity, flexibility and portability of the VMs. In addition, integrating the NIC manager into the kernel improves the kernel's ability to manage the VMs and to implement network resource allocations for the VMs.