Systems and methods for processing privileged instructions using user space memory
AssigneeRed Hat, Inc.
InventorMichael Tsirkin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for enabling a hypervisor that is implemented in the user space to execute privileged instructions on behalf of the virtual machines without triggering VM exits. An example method may comprise detecting, by an exception handler of a virtual machine running on a host computer system, a request to execute a privileged instruction by the virtual machine; storing at least a part of a state of the virtual machine in a memory associated with the virtual machine; signaling, by modifying a predefined memory location in the memory associated with the VM, a request to execute a privileged instruction by a user space processing thread running on the host computer system; and pausing execution of the virtual machine.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- detecting, by an exception handler of a virtual machine running on a host computer system, a request to execute a privileged instruction by the virtual machine;
- storing at least a part of a state of the virtual machine in a memory associated with the virtual machine;
- signaling, by modifying a predefined memory location in the memory associated with the VM, a request to execute a privileged instruction by a user space processing thread running on the host computer system;
- and
- pausing execution of the virtual machine.
A method, comprising:
- monitoring, by user space processing thread running on a host computer system, a predefined memory location of a memory associated with a virtual machine running on the host computer system;
- responsive to detecting a modification of the predefined memory location, executing a privileged instruction on behalf of the virtual machine;
- and
- sending a notification to the virtual machine that the privileged instruction was executed.
A system, comprising:
- a memory;
- a processing device operatively coupled to the memory, the processing device configured to:
- monitor, by user space processing thread running on a host computer system, a predefined memory location of a memory associated with a virtual machine running on the host computer system;
- responsive to detecting a modification of the predefined memory location, execute a privileged instruction on behalf of the virtual machine;
- and
- send a notification to the virtual machine that the privileged instruction was executed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.