Dynamic allocation and assignment of virtual functions within fabric

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9384060-B2
Application number	US-201414487192-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2014
Priority date	Sep 16, 2014
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

Methods and systems for allocating, one or more virtual functions of a plurality of virtual functions associated with physical functions of I/O interface devices of a computing device are described. One method includes managing one or more physical functions of an I/O interface device within an interconnect partition of a multi-partition virtualization system implemented at least in part on the computing device. The method further includes, during a boot process of a second partition on the computing device, parsing a file to determine an assignment of one or more virtual functions to the second partition and associate each of the one or more virtual functions to corresponding physical functions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of allocating one or more virtual functions of a plurality of virtual functions associated with physical functions of I/O interface devices of a computing device, the method comprising:
managing one or more physical functions of an I/O interface device within an interconnect partition of a multi-partition virtualization system implemented at least in part on the computing device; and
during a boot process of a second partition on the computing device, parsing a file to determine an assignment of one or more virtual functions to the second partition and associate each of the one or more virtual functions to corresponding physical functions, wherein the file comprises an XML file defining associations between at least one physical function and a plurality of virtual functions;
based on a change to the XML file adding a new virtual function associated with one of the physical functions, re-setting a value in an ECAM configuration space identifying a number of virtual functions associated with the physical function, wherein re-setting the value is performed by a trusted code base executing on the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the each of the one or more virtual functions is activated and associated with the second partition prior to booting into an operating system hosted within the guest partition.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing a physical function device driver in the interconnect service partition.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein storing the physical function device driver in the interconnect service partition includes storing the physical function device driver in a single root PCI manager of the interconnect service partition.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second partition comprises a guest partition.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second partition comprises an I/O service partition.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trusted code base is separate from the interconnect service partition.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising reading the value directly from ECAM configuration space by a physical function device driver included in the interconnect service partition.

9. A computer program product of allocating one or more virtual functions of a plurality of virtual functions associated with physical functions of I/O interface devices of a computing device, comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor of a computing system, cause the processor to perform the steps of:
managing one or more physical functions of an I/O interface device within an interconnect partition of a multi-partition virtualization system implemented at least in part on the computing device; and
during a boot process of a second partition on the computing device, parsing a file to determine an assignment of one or more virtual functions to the second partition and associate each of the one or more virtual functions to corresponding physical functions, wherein the file comprises an XML file defining associations between at least one physical function and a plurality of virtual functions;

based on a change to the XML file adding a new virtual function associated with a one of the physical functions, re-setting a value in an ECAM configuration space identifying a number of virtual functions associated with the physical function, wherein re-setting the value is performed by a trusted code base executing on the computing system.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the each of the one or more virtual functions is activated and associated with the second partition prior to booting into an operating system hosted within the guest partition.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 , further comprising storing a physical function device driver in the interconnect service partition.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein storing the physical function device driver in the interconnect service partition includes storing the physical function device driver in a single root PCI manager of the interconnect service partition.

13. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the second partition comprises a guest partition.

14. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the second partition comprises an I/O service partition.

15. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the trusted code base is separate from the interconnect service partition.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , further comprising reading the value directly from ECAM configuration space by a physical function device driver included in the interconnect service partition.

17. An apparatus of allocating one or more virtual functions of a plurality of virtual functions associated with physical functions of I/O interface devices of a computing device, comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the steps of:
managing one or more physical functions of an I/O interface device within an interconnect partition of a multi-partition virtualization system implemented at least in part on the computing device; and
during a boot process of a second partition on the computing device, parsing a file to determine an assignment of one or more virtual functions to the second partition and associate each of the one or more virtual functions to corresponding physical functions, wherein the file comprises an XML file defining associations between at least one physical function and a plurality of virtual functions;
based on a change to the XML file adding a new virtual function associated with a one of the physical functions, re-setting a value in an ECAM configuration space identifying a number of virtual functions associated with the physical function, wherein re-setting the value is performed by a trusted code base executing on the computing system.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the each of the one or more virtual functions is activated and associated with the second partition prior to booting into an operating system hosted within the guest partition.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , further comprising storing a physical function device driver in the interconnect service partition.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein storing the physical function device driver in the interconnect service partition includes storing the physical function device driver in a single root PCI manager of the interconnect service partition.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the second partition comprises a guest partition.

22. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the second partition comprises an I/O service partition.

23. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the trusted code base is separate from the interconnect service partition.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , further comprising reading the value directly from ECAM configuration space by a physical function device driver included in the interconnect service partition.

Assignees

• Hunter James R
• Huynh Sung V
• Cavanagh Edward T
• Landis John A
• Unisys Corp

Inventors

• Hunter James R
• Huynh Sung V
• Cavanagh Edward T
• Landis John A

Classifications

• G06F9/5077 Primary

  Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources (specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455) · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

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

• G06F9/45545

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

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/4411

  Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers · CPC title