US 7,743,375 B2Granted

Information handling system including dynamically merged physical partitions

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsBenjiman Lee Goodman, Milton Devon Miller, II, Naresh Nayar

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Abstract

An information handling system includes instruction processing nodes in respective physical partitions. A communications bus couples two information processing nodes together. Each node includes hardware resources such as CPUs, memories and I/O adapters. Prior to a command to merge the physical partitions, the communication bus exhibits a disabled state such that the two information processing nodes are effectively disconnected. After receiving a command to merge the physical partitions, the system enables the communication bus to effectively hot-plug the two nodes together. A modified master hypervisor in one node stores data structures detailing the hardware resources of the two nodes. The modified master may assign resources from one node to a logical partition in another node.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

providing first and second nodes that are physically partitioned from one another, the first and second nodes being in a pre-merger state;
configuring the first node to operate in a first predetermined address range while the first node exhibits the pre-merger state;
configuring the second node to operate in a second predetermined address range that is non-overlapping with respect to the first predetermined address range while the second node exhibits the pre-merger state;
and
activating, in response to a merge command, a communication bus between the first and second nodes to merge the first and second nodes to form a merged physical partition in a post-merger state, wherein the first node communicates over the communication bus with the second node via the second predetermined address range of the second node, and further wherein the second node is capable of communicating over the communication bus with the first node via the first predetermined address range of the first node;
wherein the first node includes first hardware resources and a first logical partition, wherein the second node includes second hardware resources and a second logical partition, the first and second hardware resources being within the merged physical partition, wherein the first hardware resources include a first memory, the method further comprising configuring the first memory to operate in the first predetermined address range;
wherein the second hardware resources include a second memory, the method further comprising configuring the second memory to operate in the second predetermined address range that is not overlapping with respect to the first predetermined address range;
configuring a master hypervisor on the first node and a slave hypervisor on the second node during the pre-merger state;
storing first hardware resource data structures of the first node in the master hypervisor and storing second hardware resource data structures of the second node in the slave hypervisor;
transmitting, by the second node, the second hardware resource data structures to the first node;
and
configuring a modified master hypervisor to include the first hardware resource data structures and the second hardware resource data structures.

9 more elements

An information handling system (IHS) comprising:

first and second nodes that are physically partitioned from one another, the first and second nodes being in a pre-merger state, wherein the first node is operative in a first predetermined address range and the second node is operative in a second predetermined address range that is non-overlapping with respect to the first predetermined address range;
and
a communication bus situated between the first and second nodes, the communication bus being logically disabled during the pre-merger state, the communication bus responding to a merge command to merge the first and second nodes to form a merged physical partition in a post-merger state wherein the first node is capable of communicating over the communication bus with the second node via the second predetermined address range of the second node, and further wherein the second node communicates over the communication bus with the first node via the first predetermined address range of the first node;
wherein the first node includes first hardware resources and a first logical partition, wherein the second node includes second hardware resources and a second logical partition, the first and second hardware resources being within the merged physical partition, such that the first logical partition accesses the second hardware resources in the merged partition;
wherein the first hardware resources include a first memory that is configured to operate in the first predetermined address range;
wherein the second hardware resources include a second memory that is configured to operate in the second predetermined address range that is not overlapping with respect to the first predetermined address range;
wherein the first node includes a master hypervisor during the pre-merger state and the second node includes a slave hypervisor during the pre-merger state;
wherein the master hypervisor includes first hardware resource data structures of the first node and the slave hypervisor includes second hardware resource data structures of the second node;
wherein the second node is configured to transmit the second hardware resource data structures to the first node;
and
the system further comprising a modified master hypervisor that includes the first hardware resource data structures and the second hardware resource data structures.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.