Abstract: Embodiments described herein identify hot pages associated with a virtual machine that is selected for hibernation or for migration from one computing system to another. For example, before migrating a virtual machine, a hypervisor monitors the entries in a page table (e.g., a virtual translation table) to see what data pages have corresponding entries in the page table. If a data page has a corresponding entry in the page table, the hypervisor may designate that page as hot. A source computing system may transmit the hot data pages to a target computing system which loads the pages into memory. After loading the hot pages into memory, the source computing system may cease executing the virtual machine while the target computing system begins to execute the virtual machine. The rest of the data pages associated with the virtual machine may be transmitted to the target computing system subsequently.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein identify hot pages associated with a virtual machine that is selected for hibernation or for migration from one computing system to another. For example, before hibernating a virtual machine, a hypervisor monitors the entries in a page table (i.e., a virtual translation table) to see what data pages have corresponding entries in the page table. If a data page has a corresponding entry in the page table, the hypervisor may designate that page as hot. In one embodiment, the hypervisor may update a page map that lists the data pages associated with the virtual machine and whether those data pages are designated as hot. The page map may then be stored during the hibernation process. Before the hibernated virtual machine is resumed, the hypervisor may use the page map to load the hot pages into memory and begin executing the virtual machine.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein identify hot pages associated with a virtual machine that is selected for hibernation or for migration from one computing system to another. For example, before migrating a virtual machine, a hypervisor monitors the entries in a page table (e.g., a virtual translation table) to see what data pages have corresponding entries in the page table. If a data page has a corresponding entry in the page table, the hypervisor may designate that page as hot. A source computing system may transmit the hot data pages to a target computing system which loads the pages into memory. After loading the hot pages into memory, the source computing system may cease executing the virtual machine while the target computing system begins to execute the virtual machine. The rest of the data pages associated with the virtual machine may be transmitted to the target computing system subsequently.

Abstract: Various systems and methods for sharing data in a virtual environment are disclosed. For example, one method involves receiving a request to access data. The request can be received from a first virtual machine of a plurality of virtual machines. The method then involves retrieving a signature for the data where the signature is stored in a deduplicated data store. Next, the method involves detecting whether the signature is included in a map. In order to do so, the method compares the signature with entries in the map. The entries in the map identify data stored in RAM. The data is also stored in the deduplicated data store. If the signature is found in the map, the method involves granting the request to access the data. Otherwise, the method involves creating a new entry in the map and adding the signature to the new entry.

Abstract: In a system having non-uniform memory access architecture, with a plurality of nodes, memory access by entities such as virtual CPUs is estimated by invalidating a selected sub-set of memory units, and then detecting and compiling access statistics, for example by counting the page faults that arise when any virtual CPU accesses an invalidated memory unit. The entities, or pairs of entities, may then be migrated or otherwise co-located on the node for which they have greatest memory locality.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates precise exception semantics for a virtual machine. During operation, the system executes a program in the virtual machine using a processor that includes a gated store buffer that stores values to be written to a memory. This gated store buffer is configured to delay a store to the memory until after a speculatively-optimized region of the program commits. The processor signals an exception when it detects that a load following the store is attempting to access the same memory region being written by the store prior to the commitment of the speculatively-optimized region.

Abstract: Examples are disclosed for assigning a switch identification to data received at an input/output device coupled to a host device. In some examples, the data may be associated with a virtual station interface (VSI) for a virtual machine implemented at the host device. For these examples, a switch identification may be assigned to the data based on an assigned port identifier, identification information for the data, or an originator of at least a portion of the identification information. The assigned switch identification may then be used as part of a lookup table to determine one or more actions for processing the data at the input/output device. Other examples are described and claimed.

Abstract: Performing storage writes in a mirrored virtual machine system by receiving a state of a primary virtual machine during execution of an application, wherein the primary virtual machine runs on a first physical machine and a secondary virtual machine runs on a second physical machine, wherein the state is captured by checkpointing, and the primary virtual machine is configured to write data to a first block and concurrently write the data to a write buffer on the secondary virtual machine. The method also includes storing a copy of data within a second block to a rollback buffer for the secondary virtual machine, in response to identifying a checkpoint in the application, merging the rollback buffer with the write buffer, in response to detecting a failover, writing a copy of the rollback buffer to the disk storage, and continuing execution on the secondary virtual machine from the last checkpoint.

Abstract: Techniques for dynamic disk personalization are provided. A virtual image that is used to create an instance of a virtual machine (VM) is altered so that disk access operations are intercepted within the VM and redirected to a service that is external to the VM. The external service manages a personalized storage for a principal, the personalized storage used to personalize the virtual image without altering the virtual image.

Abstract: Methods and devices provide a secure virtual environment within a mobile device for processing documents and conducting secure activities. The methods and devices create a secure application environment in which secure data and documents may be segregated from unsecured data using document encryption, allowing the application of security policies to only the secure application environment. The creation of a secure application environment allows users to access and manipulate secure data on any mobile device, not just specifically designated secure devices, without having to secure all data on the mobile device, while providing the corporate entity with necessary document security. The methods and devices provide for securing data on a mobile device at the data level using encryption.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention includes a method for maintaining a shadow page table in at least partial correspondence with guest page mappings of a guest computation. The method marking with a traced write indication at least those entries of the shadow page table that map physical memory locations which themselves encode the guest page mappings, the marking identifying, for a hardware facility, a subset of memory access targets for which updates are to be recorded in a guest write buffer accessible to the virtualization system. Responsive to a coherency-inducing operation of the guest computation, the method reads from the guest write buffer and introduces corresponding updates into the shadow page table.

Abstract: A memory management method in a virtualized computing environment is provided, in which a hypervisor implements at least a virtual machine (VM) over a host machine, wherein a guest operating system (OS) is executed over the VM and an application supporting memory management capabilities is executed over the guest OS. The method comprises invoking a first memory manager (java balloon) implemented by the application to deallocate memory allocated to the application for use by the hypervisor, in response to a request submitted by the hypervisor; and invoking a second memory manager (guest balloon) implemented over the guest operating system to deallocate memory allocated to the guest OS, in response to a request submitted by the hypervisor.

Abstract: One or more unused bits of a virtual address range are allocated for aliasing so that multiple virtually addressed sub-pages can be mapped to a common memory page. When one bit is allocated for aliasing, dirty bit information can be provided at a granularity that is one-half of a memory page. When M bits are allocated for aliasing, dirty bit information can be provided at a granularity that is 1/(2M)-th of a memory page.

Abstract: Memory of a database management system (DBMS) that is running in a virtual machine is managed using techniques that integrate DBMS memory management with virtual machine memory management. Because of the integration, the effectiveness of DBMS memory management is preserved even though the physical memory allocated to the virtual machine may change during runtime as a result of varying memory demands of other applications, e.g., instances of other virtual machines, running on the same host computer as the virtual machine.

Abstract: Described systems and methods allow protecting a host system from malware using virtualization technology. In some embodiments, a memory introspection engine operates below a virtual machine (VM) executing on the host system. The engine is configured to analyze the content of a virtual memory page used by software executing within the VM, and/or to protect the respective content from unauthorized modification, for instance by malware. When the respective content is swapped out of memory, the memory introspection engine injects a page fault into the respective VM, to force a swap-in of the respective content.

Abstract: A set of techniques is described for performing input/output (I/O) between a guest domain and a host domain in a virtualized environment. A pool of memory buffers is reserved for performing virtualized I/O operations. The reserved pool of memory buffers has static mappings that grant access to both the guest domain and the host domain. When a request to perform an I/O operation is received, the system can determine whether the memory buffers allocated to the I/O operation belong to the reserved pool. If the buffers are in the reserved pool, the host domain executes the I/O operation using the buffers without the need to map/unmap the buffers and perform TLB flushes. If the buffers are not in the reserved pool, the system can either copy the data into the reserved pool or perform the mapping and unmapping of the memory buffers to the address space of the host domain.

Abstract: Various embodiments disclosed herein including systems and methods for improving allocation of computing resources in a virtual machine (VM) environment. Embodiments maintain data relating to how VM image data is stored in storage devices and loaded into volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM). The data is then used to identify common content in the volatile memory that can be shared across VM instances. In some embodiments, multiple VM instances can share at least a portion of a single common VM image loaded into a shared volatile memory.

Abstract: A communication system is applicable to communications between client terminals and a server via the Internet, and includes a communication service unit creating a communication interface and a memory region in response to a communication request from a client terminal via the Internet, starting an application program in the created memory region in response to the communication request, sending contents of the started application program to the client terminal, and updating data in the memory region and sending the updated data to the client terminal when the communication request includes data updating.

Abstract: Memory of a database management system (DBMS) that is running in a virtual machine is managed using techniques that integrate DBMS memory management with virtual machine memory management. Because of the integration, the effectiveness of DBMS memory management is preserved even though the physical memory allocated to the virtual machine may change during runtime as a result of varying memory demands of other applications, e.g., instances of other virtual machines, running on the same host computer as the virtual machine.

Abstract: Optimizations are provided for frame management operations, including a clear operation and/or a set storage key operation, requested by pageable guests. The operations are performed, absent host intervention, on frames not resident in host memory. The operations may be specified in an instruction issued by the pageable guests.

Abstract: A physical host executes a hypervisor or virtual machine monitor (VMM) that instantiates at least one virtual machine (VM) and a virtual input/output server (VIOS). The VIOS determines by reference to a policy data structure a disposition of a packet of network communication with the VM, where the disposition includes one of dropping the packet and forwarding the packet. Thereafter, the determined disposition is applied to a subsequent packet in a same packet flow as the packet.

Abstract: A method and system for providing a descriptive name of a device in a virtual machine system. A computer system hosts a hypervisor, a management component and a guest. The hypervisor receives from the management component a descriptive name of a device available to the guest. The descriptive name defines at least one of the functionality of the device, the content of the device, or a user of the device. The hypervisor then passes the descriptive name to the guest via a host-to-guest channel, which is a shared storage location writable by the hypervisor and readable by the guest.

Abstract: A method may comprise storing first storage information in a storage device of a computer storage system on a first network. The computer storage system may transform the first storage information into a first virtual storage instance, provide access to the first virtual storage instance on a second network not in communication with the first network and the storage device, and enable over the second network the modification of the first virtual storage instance to create a first modified virtual storage instance. The computer storage system may also transform the first modified storage instance into first modified storage information based on the first modified storage instance, and store on the storage device the first modified storage information.

Abstract: A data processing method and driver capable of reducing transactions between operating systems (OS) in a virtualization environment that supports a plurality of operating systems are provided. The data processing driver reads, when reading data, an Inode of next data. Then, the data processing driver determines whether or not to request an Inode to a host OS by comparing the read Inode with a requested Inode.

Abstract: A processor with coherency-leveraged support for low latency message signaled interrupt handling includes multiple execution cores and their associated cache memories. A first cache memory associated a first of the execution cores includes a plurality of cache lines. The first cache memory has a cache controller including hardware logic, microcode, or both to identify a first cache line as an interrupt reserved cache line and map the first cache line to a host physical memory address translated from a guest physical memory address in the address space of a virtual machine to which an I/O device has been assigned. The controller may set a coherency state of the first cache line to shared and, in response to detecting an I/O transaction including I/O data from the I/O device and containing a reference to the host physical memory address, emulate a first message signaled interrupt identifying the host physical memory address.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention are directed multi-core memory modules. In one embodiment, a memory module (500) includes memory chips, and a demultiplexer register (502) electronically connected to each of the memory chips and a memory controller. The memory controller groups one or more of the memory chips into at least one virtual memory device in accordance with changing performance and/or energy efficiency needs. The demultiplexer register (502) is configured to receive a command indentifying one of the virtual memory devices and send the command to the memory chips of the identified virtual memory device. In certain embodiments, the memory chips can be dynamic random access memory chips.

Abstract: Various systems and methods for cooperative tiering between an application and a storage device. One method can include receiving information from the application where the information identifies a storage object and identifies a location in a storage device. The location identifies one or more tiers of a plurality of tiers included in the storage device, and the storage object is assigned to the one or more tiers. The method also involves detecting whether the storage object is stored in the one or more tiers. If not, the storage device copies the storage object to the identified location. The information can also include an instruction by the application to move the storage object from a first tier to a second tier.

Abstract: An information processing device includes: a data transferring unit configured to directly transfer data to a first memory area allocated to a virtual machine from an input/output device for controlling a data input/output to/from an external device by mutually translating between an address of the first memory area allocated to the virtual machine and an address of a second memory area that is a real memory of the first memory area; a detecting unit configured to detect the data directly transferred from the input/output device to the first memory area allocated to the virtual machine; a registering unit configured to generate update information about the first memory area changed using the detected data and to store the update information in a first storing unit when the detected data satisfies a predetermined condition; and an outputting unit configured to output the update information.

Abstract: A virtualization based system comprises a host and a plurality of virtual machines that may each comprises a guest memory. A virtual machine monitor has access to underlying platform hardware in the system and may control physical resources in the platform. The platform hardware comprises a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Further, the VMM may manage guest software including guest operating systems running on the virtual machines. A binary translation logic may replace guest memory writing instructions corresponding to a hot spot in guest application with translated codes to generate a mirrored content for the guest memory. The binary translation logic may combine one or more of the guest memory writing instructions in a region and keep the region atomic. The processor may execute the translated codes in an atomic region together to write a content in the guest memory and a mirrored content in a mirroring memory. The VMM may allocate a memory region in the host memory for the mirroring memory.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for managing a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) at hardware in a virtualization enabled system. According to embodiments of the present invention, a series of operations caused by TLB miss would not need intervening from the hypervisor. On the contrary, when a TLB miss occurs, the hardware directly issues an interrupt to a virtual machine. In this way, the TLB can be efficiently managed by means of a hardware-level auxiliary translation table. Therefore, system overheads can be greatly reduced and system performance can be improved. Methods and apparatuses associated with hardware, hypervisor, and virtual machine in a virtualization enabled system are disclosed, respectively.

Abstract: A computer implemented method, data processing system, and apparatus for hardware resource arbitration in a data processing environment having a plurality of logical partitions. A hypervisor receives a request for a hardware resource from a first logical partition, wherein the request corresponds to an operation. The hypervisor determines the hardware resource is free from contention by a second logical partition. The hypervisor writes the hardware resource to a hardware resource pool data structure, as associated with the first logical partition, in response to a determination the hardware resource is free. The hypervisor presents the hardware resource to the first logical partition. The hypervisor determines that the operation is complete. The hypervisor release the hardware resource from a hardware resource pool, responsive to the determination that the operation is complete.

Abstract: Distributed storage resources are managed based on data collected from online monitoring of workloads on the storage resources and performance characteristics of the storage resources. Load metrics are calculated from the collected data and used to identify workloads that are migration candidates and storage units that are migration destinations, so that load balancing across the distributed storage resources can be achieved.

Abstract: A computer system (a method) for providing storage management solution that enables server virtualization in data centers is disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of storage devices for storing data and a plurality of storage management drivers configured to provide an abstraction of the plurality of the storage devices to one or more virtual machines of the data center. A storage management driver is configured to represent a live disk or a snapshot of a live disk in a virtual disk image to the virtual machine associated with the driver. The driver is further configured to translate a logical address for a data block to one or more physical addresses of the data block through the virtual disk image. The system further comprises a master server configured to manage the abstraction of the plurality of the storage devices and to allocate storage space to one or more virtual disk images.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method to identify candidate duplicate memory pages in a virtual environment is described. At least one memory page in memory is analyzed. The at least one memory page is associated with an application executing in a virtual machine. Information for the at least one memory page in memory is collected when the at least one memory page is identified as being a candidate duplicate memory page. The information identifies the application associated with the at least one memory page. A report is generated that includes the collected information for the at least one memory page.

Abstract: A virtual server system and a method of provisioning a plurality of virtual servers is described. The system may comprise a plurality of physical servers, at least one switch connected to the plurality of physical servers, and a virtual frame director to direct provisioning of a plurality of virtual servers on the physical servers. The virtual frame director may be configured to monitor an event related to a link between each physical server and the switch and, in response to the event, update a virtual server database. The system may comprise a Storage Area Network (SAN) and the virtual frame director may be arranged to configure the network fabric to allow the plurality of physical servers to access to the SAN. For example, the network fabric may be configured to access storage on the SAN from which each physical server is to boot.

Abstract: Embodiments of copy equivalent protection using secure page flipping for software components within an execution environment are generally described herein. An embodiment includes the ability for a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), Operating System Monitor, or other underlying platform capability to restrict memory regions for access only by specifically authenticated, authorized and verified software components, even when part of an otherwise compromised operating system environment. In an embodiment, an embedded VM is allowed to directly manipulate page table mappings so that, even without running the VMM or obtaining VMXRoot privilege, the embedded VM can directly flip pages of memory into its direct/exclusive control and back. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Abstract: According to a system and method for composing a virtual disk for a virtual desktop, the virtual desktop is booted from a virtual disk comprised of a base disk image and a user delta disk image that receives all disk writes to the virtual disk. Disk space is allocated on the virtual disk for a file associated with a selected application to be provided to a user of the virtual desktop. Then the virtual desktop is recomposed offline by linking the base disk image, an application delta disk image including the file associated with the selected application, and the user delta disk image. The recomposing includes modifying meta data of the application delta disk and the user delta disk so that the file associated with the selected application is mapped to the disk space previously allocated.

Abstract: A system to address resource management and security in a computer system may include an operating system kernel executing on a computer processor. The system may also include a data processing application and a mediator configured to execute on the computer processor. The mediator may operate between the operating system kernel and the data processing application. The mediator may control access of user generated state data of the data processing application and may restrict access of the operating system kernel to the user generated state data.

Abstract: Techniques for limiting access to virtualization information which is stored in a memory region allocated to a virtual machine instance. In an embodiment, virtualization information is written over in response to an indication of a close event which is to change an allocation of the memory region to the virtual machine instance. In another embodiment, the virtualization information is written over before the memory region is made available for a subsequent allocation.

Abstract: Methods and systems for implementing virtual processors are disclosed. For example, in an embodiment a processing apparatus configured to act as a plurality of virtual processors includes a first virtual program space that includes a first program execution memory, the first program execution memory including code to run a non-real-time operating system capable of supporting a one or more non-real-time applications, a second virtual program space that includes a second program execution memory, the second program execution memory including code to run one or more real-time processes, and a central processing unit (CPU) configured to operate in a first operating mode and a second operating mode, the CPU being configured to perform operating system and application activities using the first virtual program space for the first operating mode without using the second virtual program space and without appreciably interfering with the one or more real-time processes that are running in the second operating mode.

Abstract: The system and method described herein may provide a virtualized replication and high availability environment. In particular, a virtualized production server may run one or more virtual machines in one or more child partitions and have a replication and high availability engine installed in a parent partition. The replication and high availability engine may automatically discover the virtual machines running in the child partitions and automatically synchronize all files associated with the virtual machines to a virtualized replica server.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for optimizing memory usage of an application running on a virtual machine. A virtual machine memory block is pre-allocated and the average memory usage of the virtual machine is periodically computed using statistics collected from the virtual machine through an API. If the memory usage average becomes higher than a maximum threshold, then a recovery mode is entered by releasing the virtual machine memory block and forcing the running application to reduce its processing activity; optionally, a garbage collector cycle can be forced. If the computed memory usage average becomes lower than a minimum threshold value, which is lower than the maximum threshold value, then a normal mode is entered by re-allocating the virtual machine memory block and forcing the running application to resumes its normal processing activity. Optionally, when the virtual machine is idle, a deep garbage collection is forced.

Abstract: A method and system to translate virtual storage device addresses to physical storage device addresses without the cooperation of the proprietary virtualization hypervisor is disclosed herein. The method of the present invention allows additional functionality to be added to the I/O processing of a closed/proprietary virtualization hypervisor by third party software or physical storage devices on the basis of individual virtual storage devices.

Abstract: Redo logs are used to facilitate efficient cloning of virtual machines. When a virtual machine with a virtual hard disk is to be cloned, two redo logs are created, both of which are linked to the virtual hard disk. The virtual machine being cloned is then linked to one redo log, and a newly created virtual machine is linked to the other. Each time an additional virtual machine is created, two new redo logs are created and linked to the end of the disk chain. The parent and newly created virtual machine are each linked to one of the new redo logs.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention is a system including: (a) plural virtualization systems configured in a cluster; (b) storage accessible to each virtualization system of the cluster, wherein for each virtual machine operative in a virtualization system of the cluster, the storage maintains a representation of virtual machine state that includes at least a description of a hardware system virtualized and an image of virtualized memory state for the virtual machine; and (c) a failover system that, responsive to an interruption of, or on, a particular one of the virtualization systems, transitions at least one affected virtual machine to another virtualization system of the cluster and resumes computations of the transitioned virtual machine based on state encoded by a corresponding one of the virtual machine states represented in the storage.

Abstract: A mechanism for guaranteeing deterministic bounded tunable downtime for live migration of virtual machines (VMs) over reliable channels is disclosed. A method of the invention includes receiving a maximum downtime of a VM during a live migration of the VM from a source host machine to a destination host machine, determining a capacity of a network channel on which the VM is live migrated to the destination host machine, calculating a number of memory pages of the VM left to be transferred as part of the live migration before the VM is stopped, wherein the calculating of the number of memory pages is based on the received maximum downtime and the determined capacity of the network channel, and stopping the VM when the calculated number of memory pages remain to be transferred in order to transfer those memory pages to the destination host machine.

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing data input/output operations are described. In one aspect, a device driver identifies a data read operation generated by a virtual machine in a virtual environment. The device driver is located in the virtual machine and the data read operation identifies a physical cache address associated with the data requested in the data read operation. A determination is made regarding whether data associated with the data read operation is available in a cache associated with the virtual machine.

Abstract: Available buffers in the memory space of a guest operating system of a virtual machine are provided to a network interface controller (NIC) for use during direct memory access (DMA) and the guest operating system is notified accordingly when data is written into such available buffers. These capabilities obviate the requirement of using hypervisor memory as a staging area to determine which virtual machine to forward incoming data.

Abstract: A computing system includes virtualization software including a guest operating system (OS). A method maintains, by the virtualization software layer, a first shadow page table for use in a kernel mode and a second shadow page table for use in a user mode. The virtualization software switches between using the first shadow page table and the second shadow page table when the guest OS switches between operating in the kernel mode and the user mode.

Abstract: A management system is coupled to a storage system group including a scale-out storage system (a virtual storage system). The management system has storage management information, which includes information denoting, for each storage system, whether or not a storage system is a component of a virtual storage system. The management system, based on the storage management information, determines whether or not a first storage system is a component of a virtual storage system, and in a case where the result of this determination is affirmative, identifies, based on the storage management information, a second storage system, which is a storage system other than the virtual storage system that includes the first storage system, and allows a user to perform a specific operation only with respect to this second storage system.