Patent Abstract:
A method for operating a processing system comprising in a hypervisor, negotiating with a host platform to determine compatibility between a virtual machine and the host platform, responsive to determining that the virtual machine is compatible with the host platform, receiving a control block from the virtual machine, tagging the control block with information that associates the control block with a control group, determining whether the hypervisor is a base hypervisor, and scheduling the control block for processing responsive to determining that the hypervisor is the base hypervisor.

Full Description:
DOMESTIC PRIORITY 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/940,568, filed Nov. 13, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to virtual machines, and more specifically, to scheduling control blocks of virtual machines operating in a processing system. 
         [0003]    Virtual machines emulate computer systems. Any number of virtual machines may be operated on a real computing system or network. The virtual machines may naively execute operating systems and software by emulating the underlying hardware of a real machine. Other virtual machines may perform particular processes in a virtual execution environment. 
         [0004]    In some instances, virtual machines are controlled by a hypervisor or a virtual machine monitor that typically operates on a host machine and provides a virtual operating platform to virtual machines (guest machines). Such hypervisors may in turn, operate on a guest machine and host additional guest machines (nested hypervisors/virtual machines), such that there may be a hierarchy of hypervisors operating on a real host machine. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for operating a processing system comprising in a hypervisor, negotiating with a host platform to determine compatibility between a virtual machine and the host platform, responsive to determining that the virtual machine is compatible with the host platform, receiving a control block from the virtual machine, tagging the control block with information that associates the control block with a control group, determining whether the hypervisor is a base hypervisor, and scheduling the control block for processing responsive to determining that the hypervisor is the base hypervisor. 
         [0006]    According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for operating a processing system comprises in a first virtual machine, negotiating with a host platform to determine compatibility between the first virtual machine and the host platform, responsive to determining that the first virtual machine is compatible with the host platform, tagging a control block with information that associates the control block with a control group associated with the first virtual machine, and sending the tagged control block to a scheduler. 
         [0007]    According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, a computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method that comprises in a hypervisor, negotiating with a host platform to determine compatibility between a virtual machine and the host platform, responsive to determining that the virtual machine is compatible with the host platform, receiving a control block from the virtual machine, tagging the control block with information that associates the control block with a control group, determining whether the hypervisor is a base hypervisor, and scheduling the control block for processing responsive to determining that the hypervisor is the base hypervisor. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a processing system. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2A  illustrates an example of a virtual machine system. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2B  illustrates the operation of the virtual machine system of  FIG. 2A . 
           [0011]      FIGS. 3A and 3B  illustrates a diagram of an example of the operation of an exemplary embodiment of the system of  FIG. 1  that coordinates the processing of control blocks amongst virtual machines. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary operation of a virtual machine or a hypervisor of a virtual machine system. 
           [0013]      FIG. 5  illustrates an alternate exemplary method of operation that may be performed by a virtual machine. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0014]    Hypervisors, or more generally, operating systems, schedule processes or compute tasks by encapsulating each process or task in a uniform memory backed data structure. These data structures can be referred to as control blocks. Hypervisors typically receive control blocks from guest machines, the control blocks are portions of processing tasks that are sent to the real machine hardware for execution. In this regard, if multiple virtual machines are operating on a particular real machine, hypervisors will receive multiple control blocks from each of the virtual machines. The hypervisors may associate control blocks from each virtual machine with corresponding control groups. The hypervisor may then apply scheduling rules that promote fairness in the order in which the control blocks are processed amongst the control groups. 
         [0015]    This scheme does indeed promote fairness across control groups if none of the guest machines are in turn hosting other guest machines. In such an alternative scheme, imposing fairness in control block processing becomes more complex. Further, if virtual machines host nested hypervisors or virtual machines of a similar nature, each level of scheduling is operating on the same structures, but the levels of scheduling are isolated from each other. The embodiments described below allow control blocks to be normalized and scheduled from a single context. This reduces scheduling inefficiencies and global scheduling across the system can be optimized. 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a processing system  100 . The system  100  includes a processor portion  102 , a memory portion  104  communicatively connected to the processor portion  102 , a display  106  communicatively connected to the processor portion  102 , and an input device  108  communicatively connected to the processor portion  102 . A network  110  may also be communicatively connected to the processing portion  102  such that the processing portion may communicate with other processors and/or share processing tasks with other processors. 
         [0017]      FIG. 2A  illustrates an example of a virtual machine system that operates on the processor portion  102  (of  FIG. 1 ). The virtual machine system includes a hypervisor I  202  that operates and schedules control block processing on the host system. The hypervisor I  202  hosts a first guest machine or virtual machine (VM 1 )  204 . The VM 1   204  runs a hypervisor II  210  that in turn, hosts a second guest machine or virtual machine (VM 2 )  212 . The hypervisor I  202  may host any number of additional guest machines. In the example, a third virtual machine (VM 3 )  206  is hosted by the hypervisor I  202 . Each virtual machine generates and outputs control blocks, for example, VM 1   204  includes control blocks  206 ( a - d ), VM 2   212  includes control blocks  214 ( a - c ), and VM 3   206  includes control blocks  208 ( a - e ). 
         [0018]      FIG. 2B  illustrates the operation of the virtual machine system. In operation, the hypervisor II  210  receives control blocks  214  and schedules the control blocks  214  for processing by the VM 1   204 , which outputs both the control blocks  214  from VM 2   212  and the control blocks  206  from VM 1   204  to the hypervisor I  202 . The hypervisor I  202  receives the control blocks  214  and control blocks  206  as well as the control blocks  208  from the VM 3   206 . Since the control blocks  206  and  214  were both output by the VM 1   204 , the hypervisor I  202  groups the control blocks  206  and  214  into a first control group  216  that is associated with the VM 1   204 . The hypervisor I  202  groups the control blocks  208  in a second control group  218  that is associated with the VM 3   206 . If the fairness rules associated with allocating real system resources to processing the control blocks are applied with respect to the control groups  216  and  218  one can see that the VM 1   204  and VM 2   212  will be allocated system resources at a slower rate than the VM 3   206 . 
         [0019]      FIGS. 3A and 3B  illustrates a diagram of an example of the operation of an exemplary embodiment of a system that coordinates the processing of control blocks amongst virtual machines. In this regard,  FIG. 3A  is similar to the arrangement of the system described above in  FIG. 2A . However, in operation, the hypervisor I  202  and the hypervisor II  210  are operative to negotiate with the guest or virtual machines to ensure that the control blocks generated and output by the virtual machines are compatible with the system such that the control blocks  214  may pass through the hypervisor II  210  and the VM 1   204  and be scheduled for processing by the hypervisor I  202  without being scheduled by other hypervisors in the hierarchy. 
         [0020]      FIG. 3B  illustrates an example of the operation of the exemplary embodiment such that the control blocks  206  of VM 1   204  are associated with a control group  302  that is substantially exclusively associated with the VM 1   204 . Likewise, the control blocks  214  of VM 2   212  are associated with a second control group  304  that is substantially exclusively associated with the VM 2   212 , and the control blocks  208  of VM 3   206  are associated with a third control group  306  that is substantially exclusively associated with the VM 3   206 . Thus, when the hypervisor I  202  operates under a fairness rule to more evenly, fairly, or efficiently schedule the processing of the control blocks by control group, the VM 1   206 , VM 2   212 , and VM 3   206  are treated substantially equally with respect to the scheduling of the processing of their control blocks. 
         [0021]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary operation of a virtual machine or a hypervisor of a virtual machine system. In this regard, in some embodiments the methods of  FIG. 4  (and  FIG. 5  described in further detail below) may be performed by either a hypervisor, a virtual machine or both a hypervisor and virtual machine. For clarity, the embodiments described below will be performed by a hypervisor, however alternate embodiments may be performed by a virtual machine or a real machine. Referring to  FIG. 4 , in block  402  the host platform and the virtual machine negotiate to receive and exchange compatibility information. For example, compatibly information may include memory layout and structure of the control blocks operated on by the hypervisor and guest operating systems. When non-identical guest and host operating systems are used, a lookup table or similar construct may be used to hash control block layout and structure. A look up table or similar construct may be used to map and manipulate structures to make them compatible. Such mapping may include, for example, moving fields or renaming fields of the control blocks. In block  404  if the guest is compatible, the virtual machine will receive a control block from a guest machine in block  406 . The virtual machine may apply a tag to the control block that associates the control block with a control group associated with the guest machine, may include information indicative of address space adjustments if needed. 
         [0022]    In block  410 , if the present hypervisor is the base scheduler (e.g., hypervisor I  202  of  FIG. 3A ) the hypervisor, will schedule the control block for processing in block  412 . If in block  410 , the present hypervisor is not the base scheduler; the present hypervisor sends the control block to the next scheduler in the hierarchy in block  414 , which performs a similar process starting with block  402 . 
         [0023]      FIG. 5  illustrates an alternate exemplary method that may be performed by a virtual machine. In this regard, in block  502 , the host platform and the virtual machine negotiate to receive and exchange compatibility information. If the host platform and the virtual machine are compatible in block  504 , a control block from the virtual machine (guest machine) is sent to the hypervisor. Prior to sending the control block, the virtual machine may tag, annotate, or associate the control block with information that associates the control block with a control group associated with the guest machine, and may include information indicative of address space adjustments if needed. 
         [0024]    In block  508 , the virtual machine sends the control block to the hypervisor or scheduler for scheduling. Thus, in the embodiment described in  FIG. 5 , the virtual machine may tag control blocks that are generated or received by the virtual machine with information that identifies the control block group that the control block belongs to, and in some embodiments, include address space information or adjustments that allow the control blocks to be processed fairly, and reduces the processing burdens of the virtual machines or hypervisors in the hierarchy by addressing control blocks to ideally, real address spaces on the host processor. 
         [0025]    Such exemplary methods of operation described above improve the efficiency of the processing of the control blocks of virtual machines and improves the performance of the system. 
         [0026]    The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention. 
         [0027]    The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire. 
         [0028]    Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device. 
         [0029]    Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user&#39;s computer, partly on the user&#39;s computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user&#39;s computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user&#39;s computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention. 
         [0030]    Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions. 
         [0031]    These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. 
         [0032]    The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. 
         [0033]    The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions. 
         [0034]    The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6