Dynamic altering of SRIOV virtual function (VF) resources including DMA windows without bringing down the VF

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10007545-B2
Application number	US-201615070410-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2016
Priority date	Mar 15, 2016
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing dynamic altering of a Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) virtual function (VF) resources including direct memory access (DMA) windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system. A request to alter VF resources is received, such as a dynamic request based on usage statistics or change in need of the user. Pending DMA requests are completed for the VF resources to be altered. Responsive to completing the DMA requests, new buffers are allocated for the resized DMA windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for implementing dynamic altering of Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) virtual function (VF) resources including direct memory access (DMA) windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system, said method comprising:
receiving a request to alter VF resources;
completing pending DMA requests for the VF resources to be altered including resizing DMA windows;
responsive to the completed pending DMA requests, allocating new buffers in resized DMA windows without bringing down the VF in the virtualized system; and
migrating Translation Control Entry (TCE) tables using a Dual Write mode in a TCE table header, without affecting any live traffic of affected VFs.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , includes providing a Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) adapter with a plurality of virtual functions (VFs) and providing a physical function (PF) with the Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) adapter, said physical function containing said plurality of virtual functions (VFs), and wherein dynamic altering of the SRIOV virtual function (VF) resources including direct memory access (DMA) windows includes sending the DMA window change to a virtual function (VF) driver for the SRIOV virtual function (VF) to be altered.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , includes providing a hypervisor receiving a request to increase a virtual function (VF) DMA window size.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , includes said hypervisor determining position of a free DMA window to increase the virtual function (VF) DMA window size.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 , includes said hypervisor based on the determined position of the free DMA window, using one or more Translation Control Entry (TCE) table migrations to make the free DMA window contiguous to the virtual function (VF) DMA window.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , includes migrating Translation Control Entry (TCE) tables for enabling the alteration of the VF resources without bringing down the VFs.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , includes providing a novel TCE Table header including said Dual Write Mode and a Destination TCE Table Address.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , includes setting a Destination TCE Table address in a TCE Table Header, setting a dual write mode in the TCE Table Header, and copying table contents from a source TCE table to a destination TCE Table.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , includes performing writes to the TCE table during any stage of the copying, to both the source TCE table and the destination TCE Table.

10. A system for implementing dynamic altering of Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) virtual function (VF) resources including direct memory access (DMA) windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system comprising:
a Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) adapter comprising a plurality of virtual functions (VFs), and a physical function (PF) containing said plurality of virtual functions (VFs);
a processor;
a management function and a hypervisor managing functions associated with the SRIOV adapter including the SRIOV PF and VFs;
said processor using said management function and said hypervisor to perform the steps of:
receiving a request to alter VF resources;
completing pending DMA requests for the VF resources to be altered including resizing DMA windows;
responsive to completing the pending DMA requests, allocating new buffers for resized DMA windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system; and
migrating Translation Control Entry (TCE) tables using a Dual Write mode in a TCE table header, without affecting any live traffic of affected VFs.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 , wherein said management function and said hypervisor include control code tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine readable medium used for implementing dynamic resizing of the SRIOV VF.

12. The system as recited in claim 10 , said hypervisor further includes a respective virtual function (VF) device driver coupled to SRIOV VFs; and wherein said hypervisor communicates the request to alter VF resources to an associated SRIOV VF device driver.

13. The system as recited in claim 10 , further includes said processor using said management function and said hypervisor to perform the steps of migrating Translation Control Entry (TCE) tables for enabling the alteration of the VF resources without bringing down the VFs.

14. The system as recited in claim 10 , includes providing a novel TCE Table header including said Dual Write Mode and a Destination TCE Table Address.

15. The system as recited in claim 10 , includes said hypervisor receiving a request to increase a virtual function (VF) DMA window size.

16. The system as recited in claim 10 , includes said hypervisor determining position of a free DMA window to increase the virtual function (VF) DMA window size.

17. The system as recited in claim 16 , includes said hypervisor based on the determined position of the free DMA window, using one or more Translation Control Entry (TCE) table migrations to make the free DMA window contiguous to the virtual function (VF) DMA window.

18. A system for implementing dynamic altering of Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) virtual function (VF) resources including direct memory access (DMA) windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system comprising:
a Single Root Input/Output Virtualization (SRIOV) adapter comprising a plurality of virtual functions (VFs), and a physical function (PF) containing said plurality of virtual functions (VFs);
a processor;
a management function and a hypervisor managing functions associated with the SRIOV adapter including the SRIOV PF and VFs;
said processor using said management function and said hypervisor to perform the steps of:
receiving a request to alter VF resources;
completing pending DMA requests for the VF resources to be altered including resizing DMA windows;
responsive to completing the pending DMA requests, allocating new buffers for resized DMA windows without bringing down the VF in a virtualized system; and
setting a Destination Translation Control Entry (TCE) Table address in a TCE Table Header, setting a dual write mode in the TCE Table Header, and copying table contents from a source TCE table to a destination TCE Table.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Graham Charles S
• Hazari Rama K
• Kotta Sakethan R
• Sripathy Kumaraswamy
• Venkatesh Nuthula

Classifications

• G06F13/1673

  using buffers · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45583

  Memory management, e.g. access or allocation · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• G06F13/28

  using burst mode transfer, e.g. direct memory access {DMA}, cycle steal (G06F13/32 takes precedence) · CPC title