Abstract: Co-locating a virtual machine with nested virtualization, in one aspect, may comprise receiving a list of one or more virtual machine instances to co-locate with associated configuration information. A parent virtual machine instance may be identified to host the one or more virtual machine instances. Virtual machine images associated with the one or more virtual machine instances may be consolidated. A composite parent virtual machine image may be created based on the consolidated virtual machine images and the parent virtual machine instance. The parent virtual machine instance may be configured to accommodate for capacity requirement of the one or more child virtual machine instances. The parent virtual machine instance may be started on a processor via the composite parent virtual machine image. The one or more virtual machine instances may be started within the parent virtual machine instance as one or more child virtual machine instances.

Abstract: A system and method for reconfiguring a computing environment comprising a consumption analysis server, a placement server and a data warehouse in communication with a set of data collection agents and a database. The consumption analysis server operates on measured resource utilization data to yield a set of resource consumptions in regularized time blocks, collects host and virtual machine configurations from the computing environment and determines available capacity for a set of target hosts. The placement server assigns a set of target virtual machines to the target set of hosts in a new placement that is right-sized according to a set of right-sizing constraints and rules. In one mode of operation the new placement is nearly optimal. In another mode of operation, the new placement is “good enough” to achieve a threshold score based on an objective function of capacity headroom. The new placement is implemented in the computing environment.

Abstract: A system and method are disclosed for preventing concurrent access by a virtual machine and a clone of the virtual machine to a resource in a non-shareable state. In accordance with one embodiment, a hypervisor receives a command to clone a virtual machine, and determines whether any resource used by the virtual machine is in a non-shareable state (e.g., the virtual machine holds a lock on a resource, a resource comprises memory that stores secure data, etc.). When any resource used by the virtual machine is in a non-shareable state, the hypervisor delays cloning of the virtual machine until all resources used by the virtual machine are in a shareable state.

Abstract: Co-locating a virtual machine with nested virtualization, in one aspect, may comprise receiving a list of one or more virtual machine instances to co-locate with associated configuration information. A parent virtual machine instance may be identified to host the one or more virtual machine instances. Virtual machine images associated with the one or more virtual machine instances may be consolidated. A composite parent virtual machine image may be created based on the consolidated virtual machine images and the parent virtual machine instance. The parent virtual machine instance may be configured to accommodate for capacity requirement of the one or more child virtual machine instances. The parent virtual machine instance may be started on a processor via the composite parent virtual machine image. The one or more virtual machine instances may be started within the parent virtual machine instance as one or more child virtual machine instances.

Abstract: System and methods are provided for dynamic performance adjustment of a media playing pipeline. For example, the media playing pipeline includes one or more components synchronized for media playing. A reference component in the media playing pipeline is selected, the reference component having a component performance level. A pipeline performance level of the media playing pipeline is determined. When the pipeline performance level is higher than a threshold, the component performance level of the reference component is adjusted to decrease the pipeline performance level. When the pipeline performance level is lower than the threshold, the component performance level of the reference component is adjusted to increase the pipeline performance level.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to synchronize multiple devices. In regards to a method, an indication is received that a view of a task is presented by a first device. The method causes state information to be provided to a second device to permit the second device to be synchronized with the first device and to present a different view of the task than that presented by the first device. The method also receives information relating to a change in state of the task that is provided by one of the devices while a first view of the task is presented thereupon. Further, the method causes updated state information to be provided to another one of the devices to cause the other device to remain synchronized and to update a second view of the task, different than the first view of the task, that is presented.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed towards coordinating parallel execution of tasks. An ordered priority for each of a plurality of tracks may be established. Furthermore, each of a plurality of tasks may be assigned a native priority. A track for executing a task may be identified based on a match of the task native priority and a track priority. The task can execute at the identified track if the track is available. If the identified track is not available, then another track with a next higher priority than the previously identified track maybe iteratively identified. Next higher priority tracks may be iteratively identified until an available track is identified. If an available track is identified then the task can execute at the available track; otherwise, the task may be put into a wait mode before re-attempt to execute at the track with a priority that matches the task native priority.

Abstract: Techniques for simulating exclusive use of a processor core amongst multiple logical partitions (LPARs) include providing hardware thread-dependent status information in response to access requests by the LPARs that is reflective of exclusive use of the processor by the LPAR accessing the hardware thread-dependent information. The information returned in response to the access requests is transformed if the requestor is a program executing at a privilege level lower than the hypervisor privilege level, so that each logical partition views the processor as though it has exclusive use of the processor. The techniques may be implemented by a logical circuit block within the processor core that transforms the hardware thread-specific information to a logical representation of the hardware thread-specific information or the transformation may be performed by program instructions of an interrupt handler that traps access to the physical register containing the information.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are a virtual server and a virtual machine management method for supporting a zero client. The virtual server includes a virtual machine management agent unit and a virtualization unit. The virtual machine management agent unit generates a virtual host interface resource pool and a directly allocatable host interface resource pool by classifying attributes of host interface resources of the virtual server. The virtualization unit provides a host interface of a virtual machine by selectively using any one of emulation mode in which a virtual host interface set corresponding to the virtual host interface resource pool is generated and direct connection mode in which a directly allocatable host interface set corresponding to the directly allocatable host interface resource pool is connected to the zero client.

Abstract: A system and method for reconfiguring a computing environment comprising a consumption analysis server, a placement server, an infrastructure management client and a data warehouse in communication with a set of data collection agents and a database. The consumption analysis server operates on measured resource utilization data to yield a set of resource consumptions in regularized time blocks, collects host and virtual machine configurations from the computing environment and determines available capacity for a set of target hosts. The placement server assigns a set of target virtual machines to the target set of hosts in a new placement. In one mode of operation the new placement is nearly optimal. In another mode of operation, the new placement is “good enough” to achieve a threshold score based on an objective function of resource capacity headroom. The new placement is implemented in the computing environment.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed of monitoring a number of virtual machines operating in an enterprise network. One example method of operation may include identifying a number of virtual machines currently operating in an enterprise network and determining performance metrics for each of the virtual machines. The method may also include identifying at least one candidate virtual machine from the virtual machines to optimize its active application load and modifying the candidate virtual machine to change its active application load.

Abstract: Techniques for simulating exclusive use of a processor core amongst multiple logical partitions (LPARs) include providing hardware thread-dependent status information in response to access requests by the LPARs that is reflective of exclusive use of the processor by the LPAR accessing the hardware thread-dependent information. The information returned in response to the access requests is transformed if the requestor is a program executing at a privilege level lower than the hypervisor privilege level, so that each logical partition views the processor as though it has exclusive use of the processor. The techniques may be implemented by a logical circuit block within the processor core that transforms the hardware thread-specific information to a logical representation of the hardware thread-specific information or the transformation may be performed by program instructions of an interrupt handler that traps access to the physical register containing the information.

Abstract: The present disclosure is directed towards methods and systems for virtualizing audio hardware for one or more virtual machines. A control virtual machine (VM) may translate a first stream of audio functions calls from a first VM hosted by a hypervisor. The translated first stream of audio function calls may be destined for a sound card of the computing device executing the hypervisor. The control VM may detect a second stream of audio functions calls from a second VM hosted by the hypervisor. The control VM may translate the second stream of audio functions calls from the second VM. The control VM may further merge the translated first stream of audio function calls and the translated second stream of the audio function calls in response to the detected second stream. The control VM may transmit the merged stream of audio function calls to the sound card.

Abstract: NUMA-aware reader-writer locks may leverage lock cohorting techniques to band together writer requests from a single NUMA node. The locks may relax the order in which the lock schedules the execution of critical sections of code by reader threads and writer threads, allowing lock ownership to remain resident on a single NUMA node for long periods, while also taking advantage of parallelism between reader threads. Threads may contend on node-level structures to get permission to acquire a globally shared reader-writer lock. Writer threads may follow a lock cohorting strategy of passing ownership of the lock in write mode from one thread to a cohort writer thread without releasing the shared lock, while reader threads from multiple NUMA nodes may simultaneously acquire the shared lock in read mode. The reader-writer lock may follow a writer-preference policy, a reader-preference policy or a hybrid policy.

Abstract: A task is marked as dependent upon a preceding task. The task that is attempted to be taken for execution from a head of a pending task queue that is marked is deferred. The deferred task is removed from the pending task queue and placed in a deferred task queue. The deferred task is reinserted back into the pending task queue for execution upon determining that the preceding tasks are completed.

Abstract: A method and associated systems for the environmentally aware load-balancing of components of a multi-component power-consuming system. The environmentally aware load-balancer receives continually updated values from at least two environmental sensors that monitor and report the values of environmental metrics that characterize components of the power-consuming system and the environments within which those components are located. When the load-balancer receives a task request directed to the power-consuming system, the load-balancer selects a balanced workload allocation as a function of the values of the received environmental metrics and communicates that balanced workload allocation to a routing mechanism. The routing mechanism then uses the communicated balanced workload allocation to determine which component or components of the power-consuming system should receive the task request.

Abstract: A task is marked as dependent upon a preceding task. The task that is attempted to be taken for execution from a head of a pending task queue that is marked is deferred. The deferred task is removed from the pending task queue and placed in a deferred task queue. The deferred task is reinserted back into the pending task queue for execution upon determining that the preceding tasks are completed.

Abstract: Described embodiments provide a packet classifier for a network processor that generates tasks corresponding to each received packet. The packet classifier includes a scheduler to generate contexts corresponding to tasks received by the packet classifier from a plurality of processing modules of the network processor. A multi-thread instruction engine processes threads of instructions, each thread of instructions corresponding to a context received from the scheduler. A thread status manager maintains a thread status table having N entries to track up to N active threads. Each status entry includes a valid status indicator, a sequence value, and a thread indicator. A sequence counter generates a sequence value for each thread and is incremented when processing of a thread is started, and is decremented when a thread is completed, by the multi-thread instruction engine. Instructions are processed by the multi-thread instruction engine in the order in which the threads were started.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to methods and systems for queuing events. In one aspect, a method is disclosed that receives or creates an event and inserts the event into a queue. The method determines at least one property of the event and associates a priority with the event based on the property. The method then processes the event in accordance with its priority.