Patent ID: 8176501

Claim:
A method to virtualize input/output, the method comprising: configuring an input/output adapter using a back-end driver component running back-end in a privileged operating system address space through a setup/control path; registering with the input/output adapter using the back-end driver component to receive information concerning a catastrophic event, wherein the catastrophic events comprise data input/output path events; transmitting the information concerning the catastrophic event to an active front-end driver component running in the front-end in a guest operating system address space, a communication path having been established between the active front-end driver component and the back-end driver component; listening with the back-end driver component to a request from the active front-end driver component; and establishing an input/output context association between an input/output context in the input/output adapter and the active front-end driver component, upon receiving the request from the active front-end driver component, the input/output context association enabling the guest operating system to perform an isolated input/output operation directly with the input/output adapter through a respective data input/output path, wherein the input/output context association terminates at the conclusion of a discrete-time session.