Abstract: Techniques for implementing RDMA-based recovery of dirty data in remote memory are provided. In one set of embodiments, upon occurrence of a failure at a first (i.e., source) host system, a second (i.e., failover) host system can allocate a new memory region corresponding to a memory region of the source host system and retrieve a baseline copy of the memory region from a storage backend shared by the source and failover host systems. The failover host system can further populate the new memory region with the baseline copy and retrieve one or more dirty page lists for the memory region from the source host system via RDMA, where the one or more dirty page lists identify memory pages in the memory region that include data updates not present in the baseline copy. For each memory page identified in the one or more dirty page lists, the failover host system can then copy the content of that memory page from the memory region of the source host system to the new memory region via RDMA.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing RDMA-based recovery of dirty data in remote memory are provided. In one set of embodiments, upon occurrence of a failure at a first (i.e., source) host system, a second (i.e., failover) host system can allocate a new memory region corresponding to a memory region of the source host system and retrieve a baseline copy of the memory region from a storage backend shared by the source and failover host systems. The failover host system can further populate the new memory region with the baseline copy and retrieve one or more dirty page lists for the memory region from the source host system via RDMA, where the one or more dirty page lists identify memory pages in the memory region that include data updates not present in the baseline copy. For each memory page identified in the one or more dirty page lists, the failover host system can then copy the content of that memory page from the memory region of the source host system to the new memory region via RDMA.

Abstract: A method of restarting execution of a virtual machine (VM) on a host, after an upgrade of a virtualization software for the VM, wherein prior to the upgrade, page mapping data for mapping memory pages of the VM to first page frames located in a first region of a physical memory of the host was copied into second page frames located in a second region of the physical memory of the host includes the steps of: restarting execution of the VM on the host after the upgrade while the page mapping data for mapping the memory pages of the VM to the first page frames, are stored in the second page frames; and during said execution of the VM after the upgrade, copying a portion of the page mapping data stored in the second page frames into a third page frame located in the first region of the physical memory.

Abstract: Techniques that enable a hypervisor to (1) maintain shared memory pages and (2) handle memory accounting for VMs that are suspended to and resumed from the volatile memory of a host system are provided. Regarding (1), the hypervisor can maintain shared memory pages in volatile memory across the suspend-to-memory and resume-from-memory operations, without having to save their reference counts. Regarding (2), the hypervisor can keep track of the volatile memory reserved and consumed by VMs as they are suspended and resumed, without erroneously double counting that memory.

Abstract: Techniques that enable a hypervisor to (1) maintain shared memory pages and (2) handle memory accounting for VMs that are suspended to and resumed from the volatile memory of a host system are provided. Regarding (1), the hypervisor can maintain shared memory pages in volatile memory across the suspend-to-memory and resume-from-memory operations, without having to save their reference counts. Regarding (2), the hypervisor can keep track of the volatile memory reserved and consumed by VMs as they are suspended and resumed, without erroneously double counting that memory.

Abstract: A virtual compute instance is migrated between hosts using remote direct memory access (RDMA). The hosts are equipped with RDMA-enabled network interface controllers for carrying out RDMA operations between them. Upon failure of a first host and copying of page tables of the virtual compute instance to the first host's memory, a first RDMA operation is performed to transfer the page tables from the first host's memory to the second host's memory. Then, second RDMA operations are performed to transfer data pages of the virtual compute instance from the first host's memory to the second host's memory, with references to memory locations of the data pages specified in the page tables. The page tables of the virtual compute instance are reconstructed to reference memory locations of the data pages in the second host's memory and stored therein.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing RDMA-based recovery of dirty data in remote memory are provided. In one set of embodiments, upon occurrence of a failure at a first (i.e., source) host system, a second (i.e., failover) host system can allocate a new memory region corresponding to a memory region of the source host system and retrieve a baseline copy of the memory region from a storage backend shared by the source and failover host systems. The failover host system can further populate the new memory region with the baseline copy and retrieve one or more dirty page lists for the memory region from the source host system via RDMA, where the one or more dirty page lists identify memory pages in the memory region that include data updates not present in the baseline copy. For each memory page identified in the one or more dirty page lists, the failover host system can then copy the content of that memory page from the memory region of the source host system to the new memory region via RDMA.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing RDMA-based recovery of dirty data in remote memory are provided. In one set of embodiments, upon occurrence of a failure at a first (i.e., source) host system, a second (i.e., failover) host system can allocate a new memory region corresponding to a memory region of the source host system and retrieve a baseline copy of the memory region from a storage backend shared by the source and failover host systems. The failover host system can further populate the new memory region with the baseline copy and retrieve one or more dirty page lists for the memory region from the source host system via RDMA, where the one or more dirty page lists identify memory pages in the memory region that include data updates not present in the baseline copy. For each memory page identified in the one or more dirty page lists, the failover host system can then copy the content of that memory page from the memory region of the source host system to the new memory region via RDMA.

Abstract: An example method of provisioning a virtual machine in a cloud system includes: receiving a request to provision the virtual machine in the cloud system; provisioning a first virtual machine managed by a hypervisor executing on a host computer in the cloud system, the hypervisor allocating resources to the first virtual machine; provisioning a nested hypervisor in the first virtual machine; and provisioning the virtual machine to execute on the nested hypervisor without re-virtualizing the resources allocated by the hypervisor to the nested hypervisor.

Abstract: An example method of provisioning a virtual machine in a cloud system includes: receiving a request to provision the virtual machine in the cloud system; provisioning a first virtual machine managed by a hypervisor executing on a host computer in the cloud system, the hypervisor allocating resources to the first virtual machine; provisioning a nested hypervisor in the first virtual machine; and provisioning the virtual machine to execute on the nested hypervisor without re-virtualizing the resources allocated by the hypervisor to the nested hypervisor.