Abstract: Provided is conduit configured such that a hypervisor does not need to include logic for communicating directly with an I/O storage device. A virtual Asynchronous Service Interface (VASI) is the interface between a Command/Response Queue (CRQ), which receives CRQ commands from the hypervisor, and a Common Data-Link Interface (CDLI) of a Forwarder. The Forwarder receives I/O commands in a format associated with the CDLI and converts the commands into a generic I/O format understood by a Virtual Block Storage Device (VBSD). The reformatted command is transmitted to the VBSD, which issues commands to the native I/O stack. The hypervisor sends a read or write (R/W) request Lo the VASI, which passes the request to the Forwarder. The Forwarder converts the request and transmits the converted request to the VBSD. The VBSD transmits the request to the block storage device and returns the response to the Forwarder. The Forwarder replies to the request from the VASI with the response from the ABSD.

Abstract: Controlled partition shut-down is provided within a shared memory partition data processing system including a shared memory partition, a paging service partition, a hypervisor and a shared memory pool within physical memory. The hypervisor manages access to logical pages within the pool and page-out of pages from the pool to external paging storage via the paging service partition. A respective paging service stream exists between the paging service partition and hypervisor for each shared memory partition, with each stream including a stream state. The control method includes: responsive to a shut-down initiating event, notifying the paging service partition to shut down, and determining whether a shared memory partition is currently active, and if so, signaling the hypervisor to complete paging activity for the active memory partition and waiting for its stream state to enter a suspended or a completed state before automatically shutting down the paging service partition.

Abstract: A method, system and network protocol that enables each host within a virtual local area network (VLAN) environment to automatically discover to which VLANs the host belongs. When a host initially sets up a communication interface, the host generates a series of probing packets, each including a different one of the range of possible VLAN IDs within the packet header. The probing packet requests a response from the switch indicating whether the corresponding VLAN (identified by the VLAN ID) is supported by the switch. The switch automatically drops any packets with a VLAN ID not recognized/supported/configured in the switch. The destination device only receives supported packets, and thus the interface only receives a response for those request packets having a VLAN ID associated with a supported VLAN. The host's interface then knows which VLAN ID(s) are supported, and the host assigns/utilizes only those VLAN IDs for outgoing traffic.