Methods, systems and apparatus to capture error conditions in lightweight virtual machine managers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9436576-B2
Application number	US-201213993257-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 29, 2012
Priority date	Jun 29, 2012
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed to capture error conditions in lightweight virtual machine managers. A disclosed example method includes defining a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM), when the VM is spawned by the VMM, installing an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value, in response to detecting an error, transferring VMM state information to the shared memory structure, and invoking the abort handler on the VM to transfer contents of the shared memory structure to a non-volatile memory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to capture error information from a virtual machine manager (VMM), comprising:
defining a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM) at a first time, the VMM without file system access support at the first time;
when the VM is spawned by the VMM, installing an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value;
in response to detecting an error of the VMM at a second time, transferring VMM state information to the shared memory structure to enable access to a file system for the VMM at the second time; and
preserving the VMM state information in a non-volatile memory at the second time by invoking the abort handler on the VM associated with the vector value to transfer the VMM state information in the shared memory structure via the file system.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the detected error is caused by the VMM.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the shared memory structure includes random access memory (RAM).

4. A method as defined in claim 3 , further including configuring the RAM with read-only access for the VM.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 , further including configuring an interrupt description table to store the vector value.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 , further including determining a severity of the error.

7. A method as defined in claim 6 , further including gathering a first resolution of the error information when the severity is of a first level, and gathering a second resolution of the error information when the severity is of a second level.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the VM includes a guest operating system.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 , further including invoking the abort handler via VMX instructions.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the VMX instructions are associated with entry-interruption-information fields.

11. A method as defined in claim 10 , wherein the fields are tailored to include the vector value.

12. An apparatus to capture error information from a virtual machine manager (VMM), comprising:
a host storage manager to define a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM) at a first time, the VMM without file system access support at the first time;
a guest abort handler to install an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value when the VM is spawned by the VMM;
a host error handler to transfer VMM state information to the shared memory structure in response to detecting an error of the VMM at the second time to enable access to a file system for the VMM at the second time; and
an exception event injector to preserve the VMM state information in a non-volatile memory at the second time by invoking the guest abort handler on the VM associated with the vector value to transfer the VMM state information in the shared memory structure via the file system.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 , wherein the shared memory structure includes random access memory (RAM).

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , wherein the host error handler is to configure the RAM with read-only access for the VM.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 , further including a guest operating system (OS) vector table manager to configure an interrupt description table to store the vector value.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 , further including a host exception monitor to determine a severity of the error.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 16 , further including a host state collector to gather a first resolution of the error information when the severity is of a first level, and to gather a second resolution of the error information when the severity is of a second level.

18. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to, at least:
define a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM) at a first time, the VMM without file system access support at the first time;
when the VM is spawned by the VMM, install an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value;
in response to detecting an error of the VMM at a second time, transfer VMM state information to the shared memory structure to enable access to a file system for the VMM at the second time; and
preserve the VMM state information in a non-volatile memory at the second time by invoking the abort handler on the VM associated with the vector value to transfer the VMM state information in the shared memory structure via the file system.

19. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to configure an interrupt description table to store the vector table.

20. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine a severity of the error.

21. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 20 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to gather a first resolution of the error information when the severity is of a first level, and to gather a second resolution of the error information when the severity is of a second level.

22. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to invoke the abort handler via VMX instructions.

23. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 22 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to associate the VMX instructions with entry-interruption-information fields.

24. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 23 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to tailor the fields to include the vector value.

Assignees

• Zhu Bing
• Zou Peng
• Tallam Madhukar
• Chen Luhai
• Wang Kai
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Zhu Bing
• Zou Peng
• Tallam Madhukar
• Chen Luhai
• Wang Kai

Classifications

• G06F11/0712 Primary

  in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems · CPC title

• G06F11/0778

  Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis · CPC title

• G06F11/3466 Primary

  Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring · CPC title