Virtual input/output memory management unit within a guest virtual machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9424199-B2
Application number	US-201213597575-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2012
Priority date	Aug 29, 2012
Publication date	Aug 23, 2016
Grant date	Aug 23, 2016

Abstract

A virtual input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) is configured to provide a firewall around memory requests associated with an input/output (I/O) device. The virtual IOMMU uses data structures including a guest page table, a host page table and a general control register (i.e., GCR3) table. The guest page table is implemented in hardware to support the speed requirements of the virtual IOMMU. The GCR3 table is indexed using a virtual DeviceID parameter stored in a device table.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a virtual I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) within a virtual machine (VM), a memory request by an input/output (I/O) device, wherein the memory request includes a guest virtual address and the I/O device is directly assigned to the VM;
translating, by the virtual IOMMU, the guest virtual address to a guest physical address using a guest page table, the guest page table being maintained by a guest OS (operating system) and accessed based on an indexed entry associated with a virtual I/O device identification in a device table in the virtual IOMMU, wherein the guest page table is implemented in hardware form and the device table is virtualized using software; and
translating, by the virtual IOMMU, the guest physical address to a system physical address using a host page table, the host page table being maintained by a hypervisor;
validating, by the virtual IOMMU, the guest virtual address using the guest page table to determine whether the guest virtual address is within a valid range of addresses authorized by the guest OS for the I/O device; and
if the guest virtual address is not within a valid range of addresses authorized by the guest OS for the I/O device, precluding the memory request from accessing the guest virtual address.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying an entry in a general control register (GCR3) table indexed by a virtual DeviceID associated with the I/O device, wherein the virtual DeviceID is stored in a device table in the virtual IOMMU.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
virtualizing at least one of a control register, a configuration register, an error reporting register, a log, and an interrupt remapping table associated with the virtual IOMMU using software.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
using an identical format for the host page table and the guest page table; and
using a control bit in the device table to distinguish usage of the guest page table as a host table in virtualization mode.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
managing a virtual machine by the hypervisor, the virtual machine configured to support operation of the guest OS.

6. An apparatus, comprising:
a virtual I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) within a virtual machine (VM) configured to receive a memory request transmitted by an input/output (I/O) device, wherein the memory request includes a guest virtual address and the I/O device is directly assigned to the VM, and wherein the virtual IOMMU comprises data structures including:
a guest page table configured to translate the guest virtual address to a guest physical address, the guest page table being maintained by a guest OS (operating system) and accessed based on an indexed entry associated with a virtual I/O device identification in a device table in the virtual IOMMU, wherein the guest page table is implemented in hardware form and the device table is virtualized using software; and
a host page table configured to translate the guest physical address to system physical address, the host page table being maintained by a hypervisor;
wherein the virtual IOMMU is configured to validate the guest virtual address using the guest page table to determine whether the guest virtual address is within a valid range of addresses authorized by the guest OS for the I/O device;
wherein the guest OS precludes execution of the memory request when the guest virtual address is not within a valid range of addresses authorized by the guest OS for the I/O device.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
a GCR3 table configured to be indexed by a virtual DeviceID associated with the I/O device, wherein the virtual DeviceID is stored in a device table in the virtual IOMMU.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein at least one of a control register, a configuration register, an error reporting register, a log, and an interrupt remapping table associated with the virtual IOMMU are virtualized using software.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein:
the host page table and the guest page table use an identical format; and
the device table uses a control bit to distinguish usage of the guest page table as a host table in virtualization mode.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising:
a virtual machine configured to support operation of the guest OS, wherein the virtual machines is managed by the hypervisor.

11. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored thereon, execution of which, by a computing device, causes the computing device to emulate an apparatus comprising:
a virtual I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) within a virtual machine (VM) configured to receive a memory request transmitted by an input/output (I/O) device, wherein the memory request includes a guest virtual address and the I/O device is directly assigned to the VM, and wherein the virtual IOMMU comprises data structures including:
a guest page table configured to translate the guest virtual address to a guest physical address, the guest page table being maintained by a guest OS (operating system) and accessed based on an indexed entry associated with a virtual I/O device identification in a device table in the virtual IOMMU, wherein the guest page table is implemented in hardware form and the device table is virtualized using software; and
a host page table configured to translate the guest physical address to system physical address, the host page table being maintained by a hypervisor;
wherein the virtual IOMMU is configured to validate the guest virtual address using the guest page table to determine whether the guest virtual address is within a valid range of addresses authorized by the guest OS for the I/O device;
wherein the guest OS precludes execution of the memory request when the guest virtual address is not within a valid range of addresses authorized by the guest OS for the I/O device.

Assignees

• Kegel Andrew G
• Hummel Mark D
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc

Inventors

• Kegel Andrew G
• Hummel Mark D

Classifications

• G06F12/1036

  for multiple virtual address spaces, e.g. segmentation (G06F12/1045 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F12/1009 Primary

  using page tables, e.g. page table structures · CPC title

• G06F12/1081

  for peripheral access to main memory, e.g. direct memory access [DMA] · CPC title

• G06F12/109

  for multiple virtual address spaces, e.g. segmentation (G06F12/1036 takes precedence) · CPC title