Allocating entitled processor cycles for preempted virtual processors

A storage medium encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions when executed comprise:

• determining whether a virtual processor is preempted and unable to receive an entitled capacity of physical processor cycles of physical processor during a dispatch window of a partition, wherein the virtual processor is allocated to the partition, and wherein the virtual processor represents a number of cycles of the physical processor, and wherein the physical processor that the virtual processor represents changes between a plurality of physical processors over time;
• if the determining is true, allocating a portion of the entitled capacity that the virtual processor was unable to receive to the virtual processor during at least one subsequent dispatch window, wherein the allocating further comprises calculating a preemption credit for the partition based on the entitled capacity of the physical processor cycles that the partition was unable to receive during the dispatch window;
• and
• if the determining is false, allocating the entitled capacity to the virtual processor during the subsequent dispatch window.

A computer system comprising:

• a physical processor;
• and
• a storage device encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions when executed on the physical processor comprise:
• determining whether a virtual processor is preempted and unable to receive an entitled capacity of physical processor cycles of the physical processor during a dispatch window of a partition, wherein the virtual processor is allocated to the partition, and wherein the virtual processor represents a number of cycles of the physical processor, and wherein the physical processor that the virtual processor represents changes between a plurality of physical processors over time,
• if the determining is true, allocating a portion of the entitled capacity that the virtual processor was unable to receive to the virtual processor during at least one subsequent dispatch window, wherein the allocating further comprises calculating a preemption credit for the partition based on the entitled capacity of the physical processor cycles that the partition was unable to receive during the dispatch window, and
• if the determining is false, allocating the entitled capacity to the virtual processor during the subsequent dispatch window.

A method for configuring a computer, comprising:

• configuring the computer to determine whether a virtual processor is preempted and unable to receive an entitled capacity of physical processor cycles of a physical processor during a dispatch window of a partition, wherein the virtual processor is allocated to the partition, and wherein the virtual processor represents a number of cycles of the physical processor, and wherein the physical processor that the virtual processor represents changes between a plurality of physical processors over time;
• configuring the computer to allocate a portion of the entitled capacity that the virtual processor was unable to receive to the virtual processor during at least one subsequent dispatch window if the virtual processor is preempted, wherein the configuring the computer to allocate further comprises configuring the computer to calculate a preemption credit for the partition based on the entitled capacity of the physical processor cycles that the partition was unable to receive during the dispatch window;
• and
• configuring the computer to allocate the entitled capacity to the virtual processor during the subsequent dispatch window if the virtual processor is not preempted.