Dynamic memory affinity reallocation after partition migration

Abstract

A method of dynamically reallocating memory affinity in a virtual machine after migrating the virtual machine from a source computer system to a destination computer system migrates processor states and resources used by the virtual machine from the source computer system to the destination computer system. The method maps memory of the virtual machine to processor nodes of the destination computer system. The method deletes memory mappings in processor hardware, such as translation lookaside buffers and effective-to-real address tables, for the virtual machine on the destination computer system. The method starts the virtual machine on the destination computer system in virtual real memory mode. A hypervisor running on the destination computer system receives a page fault and virtual address of a page for said virtual machine from a processor of the destination computer system and determines if the page is in local memory of the processor. If the hypervisor determines the page to be in the local memory of the processor, the hypervisor returning a physical address mapping for the page to the processor. If the hypervisor determines the page not to be in the local memory of the processor, the hypervisor moves the page to local memory of the processor and returns a physical address mapping for said page to the processor.