Ballooning for multi-tiered pooled memory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11681439-B2
Application number	US-202016914124-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2020
Priority date	Jun 26, 2020
Publication date	Jun 20, 2023
Grant date	Jun 20, 2023

Abstract

An embodiment of an electronic apparatus may include one or more substrates, and logic coupled to the one or more substrates, the logic to allocate a first memory portion to a first application as a combination of a local memory and remote memory, wherein the remote memory is shared between multiple compute nodes, and manage a first memory balloon associated with the first memory portion based on two or more memory tiers associated with the local memory and the remote memory. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic apparatus, comprising:
one or more substrates; and
logic coupled to the one or more substrates, the logic to:
allocate a first memory portion to a first application as a combination of a main memory of a compute node and multi-node pooled memory, wherein the multi-node pooled memory is shared between multiple compute nodes, and
manage a first memory balloon associated with the first memory portion based on two or more memory tiers associated with the main memory and the multi-node pooled memory.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the logic is further to:
at least partially inflate the first memory balloon when the first application is first initialized.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first application corresponds to a virtual machine, and wherein the logic is further to:
virtually map a first amount of memory for the entire first memory portion for the virtual machine when the virtual machine is instantiated;
physically map a second amount of memory from the main memory for the virtual machine when the virtual machine is instantiated, wherein the second amount of memory is less than the first amount of memory; and
inflate the first memory balloon based on a third amount of memory that remains to be physically mapped for the first portion of memory.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the logic is further to:
allocate the first memory balloon to a particular memory tier of the two or more memory tiers associated with the main memory and the multi-node pooled memory based on a performance characteristic associated with the first application.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the logic is further to:
maintain information that associates respective performance values with one or more tiers of the two or more memory tiers; and
in response to a deflation of the first memory balloon, map one or more pages of the first memory balloon to a particular tier of the two or more memory tiers based on an evaluation of a performance characteristic associated with the first application relative to the respective performance values.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the logic is further to:
determine that the first application needs additional memory outside the first memory balloon;
determine a preferred memory tier for the additional memory; and
identify a second memory balloon associated with a second memory portion to provide the additional memory based on available memory from the second memory balloon in the preferred memory tier.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the logic is further to:
inflate the second memory balloon to free the available memory from the second memory portion; and
allocate the freed available memory to the first memory portion for the additional memory.

8. An electronic system, comprising:
a processor;
a local memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and
logic communicatively coupled to the processor and the local memory, the logic to:
allocate a first memory portion to a first application as a combination of the local memory and remote memory, wherein the remote memory is remote with respect to the local memory and shared between multiple compute nodes, and
manage a first memory balloon associated with the first memory portion based on two or more memory tiers associated with the local memory and the remote memory.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first application corresponds to a virtual machine, and wherein the logic is further to:
at least partially inflate the first memory balloon when the virtual machine is instantiated.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the first application corresponds to a virtual machine, and wherein the logic is further to:
virtually map a first amount of memory for the entire first memory portion for the virtual machine when the virtual machine is instantiated;
physically map a second amount of memory from the local memory for the virtual machine when the virtual machine is instantiated, wherein the second amount of memory is less than the first amount of memory; and
inflate the first memory balloon based on a third amount of memory that remains to be physically mapped for the first portion of memory.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the logic is further to:
maintain a table that maps respective performance values with each tier of the two or more memory tiers; and
in response to a deflation of the first memory balloon, determine a particular tier of the two or more memory tiers based on an evaluation of a performance characteristic associated with the first application relative to the respective performance values in the table, and physically map one or more pages of the first memory balloon to the particular tier.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the local memory comprises main memory and wherein the remote memory comprises remote pooled memory.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the logic is further to:
determine that the first application needs additional memory outside the first memory balloon;
determine a preferred memory tier for the additional memory; and
identify a second memory balloon associated with a second memory portion to provide the additional memory based on available memory from the second memory balloon in the preferred memory tier.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the logic is further to:
inflate the second memory balloon to free the available memory from the second memory portion; and
allocate the freed available memory to the first memory portion for the additional memory.

15. A method of managing memory, comprising:
allocating a first memory portion to a first application as a combination of a local memory of a compute node and pooled memory, wherein the pooled memory is shared between multiple compute nodes; and
managing a first memory balloon associated with the first memory portion based on two or more memory tiers associated with the local memory and the pooled memory.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
at least partially inflating the first memory balloon when the first application is first initialized.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first application corresponds to a virtual machine, further comprising:
virtually mapping a first amount of memory for the entire first memory portion for the virtual machine when the virtual machine is instantiated;
physically mapping a second amount of memory from the local memory for the virtual machine when the virtual machine is instantiated, wherein the second amount of memory is less than the first amount of memory; and
inflating the first memory balloon based on a third amount of memory that remains to be physically mapped for the first portion of memory.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
allocating the first memory balloon to a particular memory tier of the two or more memory tiers associated with the local memory and the pooled memory based on a performance characteristic associated with the first application.

19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising, in response to a request to initialize the first application with a first amount of memory for the first memory portion:
allocating a second amount of memory from the local memory, where the second amount is less than the first amount;
allocating a third amount of memory from the remote memory, where the third amount is less than or equal to a difference between the first amount and the second amount;
managing the third amount of memory with the first memory balloon; and
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Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Subramanian Rasika
• Warnes Lidia
• Guim Bernat Francesc
• Schmisseur Mark A
• Srivastava Durgesh

Classifications

• G06F3/0608 Primary

  Saving storage space on storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0631

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0673

  Single storage device · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title