Patent ID: 8015562
Filing Date: 2011-09-06
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A process for managing virtual machines comprising: providing a virtual machine monitoring function running on a physical machine, said virtual machine monitoring function including the operations of: running in privileged mode; operating multiprogramming functions; providing a plurality of said virtual machines identical to said physical machine executing unmodified guest operating systems; providing said physical machine with privileged instruction traps that do not alter a state of said physical machine, comprising: allowing all privileged instructions to generate a trap when executed in unprivileged mode; restricting the use of unprivileged instructions depending on whether a portion of the state of the physical machine belongs to a privileged state view of the physical machine for its outcome; and allowing the physical machine to relocate its exception vector table anywhere in the addressing space in order to allow said virtual machine monitoring to intercept all traps generated by the physical machine by defining a privileged register, in particular a trap table base register that, at each instant, holds the virtual base address of said exception vector table.