Patent ID: 8032882

Claim:
A method comprising: allotting a proportional share of usage of a central processing unit (CPU) to a given virtual machine (VM) of a plurality of VMs based on a relative weight assigned to the given VM, wherein the allotted proportional share corresponds to the maximum CPU usage that may be scheduled for the given VM for any scheduling interval, wherein the plurality of VMs use at least one driver domain; determining an actual aggregate usage of the CPU attributable to the given VM during a first scheduling interval, wherein said actual aggregate usage of CPU includes a determined amount of CPU usage by the at least one driver domain that is attributable to the given VM and a determined amount of CPU usage by the given VM; determining, by a processor-based machine, an amount of CPU usage to provide for use by the given VM during a second scheduling interval by adjusting the allotted proportional share that may be scheduled for the given VM based on the determined amount of CPU usage by the at least one driver domain attributable to the given VM during the first scheduling interval; and scheduling, by an aggregate proportional-share scheduler, the determined amount of CPU usage to provide for use by the given VM for the second scheduling interval.