Virtual machine monitor configured to support latency sensitive virtual machines

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable by a host computer, the host computer having a virtualization software that supports execution of a plurality of virtual machines, the virtualization software including a virtual machine monitor for each of the virtual machines, wherein each virtual machine monitor emulates a virtual central processing unit (CPU) for a corresponding virtual machine, where the instructions, when executed, cause the host computer to perform method of halting execution of a virtual CPU of a virtual machine, the method comprising:

• receiving a first halt instruction at a virtual machine monitor from a corresponding virtual machine;
• determining by the virtual machine monitor whether the virtual machine is latency sensitive;
• if the virtual machine is latency sensitive, then issuing from the virtual machine monitor a second halt instruction to halt a physical CPU on which the virtual CPU executes;
• and
• if the virtual machine is not latency sensitive, then executing a system call to a kernel executing on the host computer to indicate to the kernel that the virtual CPU is in an idle state.

A virtualized computing system, comprising:

• a host computer having a virtualization software that supports execution of a plurality of virtual machines;
• a kernel scheduler;
• and
• a virtual machine monitor for each of the virtual machines, wherein each virtual machine monitor emulates a virtual central processing unit (CPU) for a corresponding virtual machine, wherein each virtual machine monitor is configured to perform a method of halting execution of a virtual CPU of a virtual machine, the method comprising:
• receiving a first halt instruction at a virtual machine monitor from a corresponding virtual machine;
• determining by the virtual machine monitor whether the virtual machine is latency sensitive;
• if the virtual machine is latency sensitive, then issuing from the virtual machine monitor a second halt instruction to halt a physical CPU on which the virtual CPU executes;
• and
• if the virtual machine is not latency sensitive, then executing a system call to a kernel executing on the host computer to indicate to the kernel that the virtual CPU is in an idle state.