Paravirtualized access for device assignment by bar extension

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10241817-B2
Application number	US-201414553109-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2014
Priority date	Nov 25, 2014
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

A hypervisor associates a combined register space with a virtual device to be presented to a guest operating system of a virtual machine, the combined register space comprising a default register space and an additional register space. Responsive to detecting an access of the additional register space by the guest operating system of the virtual machine, the hypervisor performs an operation on behalf of the virtual machine, the operation pertaining to the access of the additional register space.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
identifying, by a processing device executing a hypervisor, a size of a default register space of a physical device to be assigned to a guest operating system of a virtual machine;
identifying an additional register space to extend the size of the default register space for a virtual device to be presented to the guest operating system of the virtual machine;
associating a combined register space with the virtual device, the combined register space comprising the default register space and the additional register space, wherein associating the combined register space with the virtual space comprises mapping the additional register space to a shared memory; and
responsive to receiving a fault from the guest operating system indicating an access of the additional register space performing, by the processing device executing the hypervisor, an operation on behalf of the virtual machine, the operation pertaining to the access of the additional register space, wherein performing the operation comprises at least one of executing a hypervisor instruction on behalf of the guest operating system of the virtual machine, or communicating with a second physical device on behalf of the guest operating system of the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access of the additional register space is detected by:
determining a starting address of the additional register space;
identifying a memory page at the starting address of the additional register space; and

designating the memory page of the additional register space as not present.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the default register space comprises:
determining a size of the default register space.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the size of the default register space comprises:
reading a base address register of the assigned physical device; and determining a first number of read only bits in base address register.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein identifying the additional register space comprises:
determining a second number of read only bits in view of the first number of read only bits in the base register;
determining a size of the additional register space in view of the second number of read only bits; and

mapping the additional register space to the virtual device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the assigned physical device is a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) device.

7. A computing apparatus comprising:
a memory; and
a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to execute a hypervisor to:
associate a combined register space with a virtual device to be presented to a guest operating system of a virtual machine, the combined register space comprising a default register space and an additional register space, wherein to associate the combined register space with the virtual space the hypervisor is to map the additional register space to a shared memory; and
responsive to receiving a fault from the guest operating system indicating an access of the additional register space, perform an operation on behalf of the virtual machine, the operation pertaining to the access of the additional register space, wherein to perform the operation, the processing device is to at least one of execute a hypervisor instruction on behalf of the guest operating system of the virtual machine, or communicate with a second physical device on behalf of the guest operating system of the virtual machine.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the access of the additional register space is detected by the processing device to:
determine a starting address of the additional register space;
identify a memory page at the starting address of the additional register space; and

designate the memory page of the additional register space as not present.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the processing device is further to:
determine a size of the default register space.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein to determine the size of the default register space, the processing device is to:
read a base address register of a physical device to be assigned to the guest operating system of the virtual machine; and

determine a first number of read only bits in base address register.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the processing device is further to:
determine a second number of read only bits in view of the first number of read only bits in the base register;
determine a size of the additional register space in view of the second number of read only bits; and
map the additional register space to the virtual device.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the physical device is a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) device.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having instructions stored therein, which cause a processing device to:
identify, by the processing device executing a hypervisor, a size of a default register space of a physical device to be assigned to a guest operating system of a virtual machine;
identify an additional register space to extend the size of the default register space for a virtual device to be presented to the guest operation system of the virtual machine;
associate a combined register space with the virtual device, the combined register space comprising the default register space and the additional register space, wherein to associate the combined register space with the virtual space the processing device is to map the additional register space to a shared memory; and
responsive to receiving a fault from the guest operating system indicating an access of the additional register space, perform, by the processing device executing the hypervisor, an operation on behalf of the virtual machine, the operation pertaining to the access of the additional register space, wherein to perform the operation, the processing device is to at least one of execute a hypervisor instruction on behalf of the guest operating system of the virtual machine, or communicate with a second physical device on behalf of the guest operating system of the virtual machine.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the access of the additional register space is detected by the processing device to:
determine a starting address of the additional register space;
identify a memory page at the starting address of the additional register space; and

designate the memory page of the additional register space as not present.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein to identify the default register space, the processing device is to: determine a size of the default register space.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein to determine the size of the default register space, the processing device is to: read a base address register of the assigned physical device; and
determine a first number of read only bits in base address register.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein to identify the additional register space, the processing device is to:
determine a second number of read only bits in view of the first number of read only bits in the base register;
determine a size of the additional register space in view of the second number of read only bits; and

map the additional register space to the virtual device.

Assignees

• Red Hat Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Tsirkin Michael S
• Bonzini Paolo

Classifications

• G06F9/45545

  Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox · CPC title

• G06F9/4555

  Para-virtualisation, i.e. guest operating system has to be modified · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

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

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title