Memory allocation techniques at partially-offloaded virtualization managers
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorsAnthony Nicholas Liguori, Jan Schoenherr, Karimallah Ahmed Mohammed Raslan, Konrad Jan Miller, Filippo Sironi
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Abstract
An offloaded virtualization management component of a virtualization host receives an indication from a hypervisor of a portion of main memory of the host for which memory allocation decisions are not to be performed by the hypervisor. The offloaded virtualization management component assigns a subset of the portion to a particular guest virtual machine and provides an indication of the subset to the hypervisor.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- one or more processors of a virtualization host;
- a main memory of the virtualization host;
- and
- one or more offloaded virtualization manager components including a first offloaded virtualization manager component, wherein the first offloaded virtualization manager component is accessible from the one or more processors via a peripheral interconnect;
- wherein the memory comprises program instructions that when executed on the one or more processors implement a hypervisor configured to:
- designate a first portion of the main memory for a first page table for memory pages of a first size, wherein at least some memory pages of the first size are allocated on behalf of one or more subcomponents of the hypervisor;
- reserve at least a second portion of the main memory for an executable object to be used for a live update of the hypervisor;
- in response to a query from the first offloaded virtualization manager component, provide an indication of at least a third portion of the main memory which is available for one or more guest virtual machines;
- and
- wherein the first offloaded virtualization manager component is configured to:
- assign a subset of the third portion of main memory to a first guest virtual machine to be instantiated at the virtualization host;
- and
- transmit, to the hypervisor, paging metadata indicating at least a location of a second page table for memory pages of a second size, wherein the second page table is to be set up by the hypervisor and used on behalf of the first guest virtual machine.
A method, comprising:
- determining, by an offloaded virtualization manager component associated with a virtualization host, at least a first portion of a memory of the virtualization host to be used for one or more guest virtual machines;
- reserving, by a hypervisor of the virtualization host, at least a second portion of the memory for live updates of the hypervisor;
- assigning, by the offloaded virtualization manager component, a subset of the first portion of memory to a first guest virtual machine to be instantiated at the virtualization host;
- and
- providing, to the hypervisor by the offloaded virtualization manager component, an indication of the subset of the first portion of memory to be utilized on behalf of the first guest virtual machine.
A non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more processors implement an offloaded virtualization manager component associated with a virtualization host, wherein the offloaded virtualization manager component is configured to:
- receive, from a hypervisor of the virtualization host, an indication of at least a first portion of a memory of the virtualization host for which memory allocation decisions are not to be performed by the hypervisor;
- assign a subset of the first portion of memory to a particular guest virtual machine to be instantiated at the virtualization host;
- and
- provide, to the hypervisor, an indication of the subset of the first portion of memory to be utilized on behalf of the first guest virtual machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.