Dynamic virtual machine function enabling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016253193-A1
Application number	US-201514632644-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 26, 2015
Priority date	Feb 26, 2015
Publication date	Sep 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method performed by a physical computing system includes, with a guest, requesting execution of a virtual machine function instruction, determining that virtual machine function ability for the guest is in a disabled state, in response to the requesting execution of a virtual machine function instruction and determining that the virtual machine function ability for the guest is in a disabled state, exiting a context of the guest, after a page table that maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses is validated, determining that the virtual machine function ability is enabled, and in response to determining that the virtual machine function ability for the guest is in an enabled state, executing the virtual machine function instruction.

First claim

1 . A method performed by a physical computing system, the method comprising:
with a guest, requesting execution of a virtual machine function instruction, the virtual machine function instruction allowing the guest to access a protected portion of memory without exiting a context of the guest; determining that virtual machine function ability for the guest is in a disabled state; in response to the requesting execution of a virtual machine function instruction and determining that the virtual machine function ability for the guest is in a disabled state, exiting the context of the guest; after a page table that maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses is validated, determining that the virtual machine function ability is enabled; and in response to determining that the virtual machine function ability for the guest is in an enabled state, executing the virtual machine function instruction.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, with a hypervisor, in response to the exiting the context of the guest, validating the page table; and
after validating the page table, switching the virtual machine function ability for the guest to the enabled state.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the switching the virtual machine function ability to the enabled state is in response to detecting a threshold number of virtual machine function instructions within a predefined period of time.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein validating the page table comprises determining that the page table correctly maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to determining that a page table related modification has occurred while the virtual machine function ability is in the enabled state, switching the virtual machine function ability to the disabled state.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the page table related modification comprises changing a value stored in a page table base register.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the page table related modification comprises changing an entry within the page table.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine function instruction provides access to privileged pages without a virtual machine exit.

9 . A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:
while in a context of a guest managed by a hypervisor of the computing system, requesting execution of a first VMFUNC instruction; determining that VMFUNC ability is in a disabled state; exiting the context of the guest in response to detecting the requesting execution of the first VMFUNC instruction while the VMFUNC ability is in the disabled state; while out of the context of the guest, validating a page table that maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses; and after validating the page table, switching the VMFUNC ability to an enabled state.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising, with VMFUNC ability in the enabled state, disabling VMFUNC ability in response to detecting a page table related modification.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the page table related modification comprises a change to a value stored in a page table base register.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the page table related modification comprises a change to an entry within the page table.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the switching the VMFUNC ability to the enabled state is in response to detecting a threshold number of VMFUNC on calls within a predefined time limit.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the threshold is based on historical data.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein validating the page table is performed while in a context of the hypervisor.

16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein validating the page table comprises determining that the page table correctly maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses.

17 . A system comprising:
a processor; and memory comprising machine readable instructions that comprise a hypervisor configured to manage a number of guests, wherein a guest of the number of guests is configured to:
request execution of a virtual machine function instruction, the virtual machine function instruction allowing the guest to access a protected portion of memory without exiting a context of the guest;
determine that virtual machine function ability is in a disabled state;
exiting a context of the guest in response to detecting the request for execution of the first virtual machine function instruction while the virtual machine function ability is in the disabled state;
after a page table that maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses has been validated, determining that the virtual machine function ability is enabled; and
in response to determining that the virtual machine function ability is in an enabled state, executing a virtual machine function instruction.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the hypervisor is configured to, in response to the exiting the context of the guest, validating a page table that maps guest virtual addresses to guest physical addresses.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the hypervisor is configured to switch the virtual machine function ability for the guest to the enabled state after validating the page table.

20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein to switch the virtual machine function ability to the enabled state is in response to detecting a threshold number of virtual machine function calls within a predefined time limit.

Assignees

• Red Hat Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Tsirkin Michael

Classifications

• G06F9/5011

  the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45583

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