Patent ID: 10108446

Abstract:
A late load technique deploys a virtualization layer underneath an operating system executing on a node of a network environment to enable the virtualization layer to control the operating system. Binary executable files (binaries) for the virtualization layer may be included in a ring 0 driver loaded in memory of the node with the highest privilege level (e.g., host mode ring 0) needed to control the guest operating system. The ring 0 driver may request allocation of physical memory from the guest operating system for the virtualization layer and thereafter suspend the guest operating system and hardware resources of the node in a deterministic manner. The ring 0 driver may capture architectural states of those resources, which are used to create a virtual machine and virtual devices having initial states that are substantially identical to the states of the operating system and hardware resources at the time of suspension. The ring 0 driver may then load the binaries of the virtualization layer in the allocated memory, bootstrap the virtualization layer to create the virtual machine, initialize the virtual devices and restart the devices in the virtual machine environment with the captured architectural states.