Memory and resource management in a virtual computing environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016291998-A1
Application number	US-201414778520-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 12, 2014
Priority date	Sep 12, 2014
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and techniques for memory and resource management in a virtual computing environment are disclosed herein. For example, in some embodiments, an apparatus for memory management in a virtual computing environment may include: a storage device; memory page comparison logic, coupled to the storage device, to determine that a first memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for a guest machine in the virtual computing environment is identical to a second memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for a host machine in the virtual computing environment, wherein the guest machine is hosted by the host machine; and merge logic, coupled to the memory page comparison logic, to, in response to a determination that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page, map the first memory page to the second memory page. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.

First claim

1 . An apparatus for memory management in a virtual computing environment, comprising:
a storage device; memory page comparison logic, coupled to the storage device, to determine that a first memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for a guest machine in the virtual computing environment is identical to a second memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for a host machine in the virtual computing environment, wherein the guest machine is hosted by the host machine; and merge logic, coupled to the memory page comparison logic, to, in response to a determination that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page, map the first memory page to the second memory page.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first memory page and the second memory page comprise interrupt service routine instructions.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to determine that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page comprises determine that a hash of the first memory page is identical to a hash of the second memory page.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the merge logic is further to mark the first memory page as read-only.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to map the first memory page to the second memory page comprises to map the first memory page to the second memory page in a page table.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the memory page comparison logic is to determine that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page in response to a loading of the guest machine.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the memory page comparison logic is to determine that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page as part of a periodic scan of the first memory page and the second memory page.

8 - 25 . (canceled)

26 . One or more computer readable media having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processing devices of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
determine that a first memory page of instructions, stored in a storage device, for a guest machine in the virtual computing environment is identical to a second memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for a host machine in the virtual computing environment, wherein the guest machine is hosted by the host machine; and in response to a determination that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page, map the first memory page to the second memory page.

27 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 26 , wherein the first memory page and the second memory page comprise interrupt service routine instructions.

28 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 26 , wherein determine that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page comprises determine that a hash of the first memory page is identical to a hash of the second memory page.

29 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 26 , further having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by the one or more processing devices of the computing device, cause the computing device to:
mark the first memory page as read-only.

30 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 26 , wherein map the first memory page to the second memory page comprises map the first memory page to the second memory page in a page table.

31 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 26 , wherein determine that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page is performed in response to a loading of the guest machine.

32 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 26 , wherein determine that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page is performed as part of a periodic scan of the first memory page and the second memory page.

33 . One or more computer readable media having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processing devices of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
determine that at least a first memory page of instructions, stored in a storage device, for a guest machine in the virtual computing environment is identical to at least a second memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for a host machine in the virtual computing environment, wherein the guest machine is unassigned to a host or assigned to a host different from the host machine; and in response to a determination that the first memory page is identical to the second memory page, assign the guest machine for execution on the host machine.

34 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 33 , wherein determine that at least the first memory page of instructions for the guest machine is identical to at least the second memory page of instructions for the host machine comprises determine that a plurality of memory pages of instructions, stored in the storage device, for the guest machine, are identical to a corresponding plurality of memory pages of instructions for the host machine.

35 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 33 , wherein the first memory page of instructions and the second memory page of instructions are kernel instructions.

36 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 33 , wherein assign the guest machine for execution on the host machine comprises live migrate the guest machine to the host machine.

37 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 33 , wherein determine that at least the first memory page of instructions for the guest machine is identical to at least the second memory page of instructions for the host machine comprises compare an operating system version of the guest machine to an operating system version of the host machine.

38 . One or more computer readable media having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processing devices of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
determine that a first set of operating system instructions, stored in a storage device, for a guest machine in the virtual computing environment is identical to a second set of operating system instructions, stored in the storage device, for a host machine in the virtual computing environment, wherein the guest machine is not assigned for execution on the host machine; and
in response to a determination that the first set of operating system instructions is identical to the second set of operating system instructions, arrange a set of operating system instructions, the set of operating system instructions selected from the group consisting of the first set of operating system instructions and the second set of operating system instructions, so that the set of operating system instructions is included in one or more memory pages in the storage device, begins at a page boundary of the one or more memory pages, and ends at a page boundary of the one or more memory pages.

39 . The one or more computer readable media of claim 38 , further having instructions thereon that, in response to execution by the one or more processing devices of the computing device, cause the computing device to:
determine that at least a first memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for the guest machine is identical to at least a second memory page of instructions, stored in the storage device, for the host machine, wherein the guest machine is unassigned to a host or assigned to a host different from the host machine; and
in respons

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Dong Yao Zu
• Tian Kun

Classifications

• G06F3/0659

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title

• G06F2009/45583

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

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0683

  Plurality of storage devices · CPC title

• G06F3/0664

  at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system · CPC title