System and method for handling I/O timeout deadlines in virtualized systems

A method for avoiding multiple Guest I/O timeouts, comprising:

• a. generating a request to an I/O device in a Guest Operating System (OS);
• b. setting a VM timeout deadline to prevent a Virtual Machine (VM) from failing if a response from the I/O device is not received;
• c. in a component that has a higher privilege level than the VM, setting an I/O deadline for the I/O device to respond, wherein the I/O deadline is shorter than the VM timeout deadline;
• d. receiving additional requests to the I/O device prior to expiration of the I/O deadline;
• e. setting I/O deadlines for the additional requests, and writing all the I/O deadlines into a deadline structure;
• f. if a response from the I/O device is received prior to expiration of the I/O deadline in c, forwarding the response to the Guest OS, and deleting the I/O deadline for the request to the I/O device corresponding to the received response, from the deadline structure;
• g. if a response from the I/O device is not received prior to expiration of the I/O deadline in c, pausing the Guest OS by halting all processes running on a virtual CPU associated with the VM;
• h. freezing a system time of the Guest OS;
• i. upon receipt of the response to the request after the I/O deadline, checking if other requests from the VM are pending in the deadline structure;
• j. if any pending requests remain in the deadline structure, keeping the Guest OS paused;
• k. if no other requests from the VM are pending in the deadline structure, unpausing the Guest OS and unfreezing the system time;
• and
• l. if no response is received from the I/O device, the Guest OS remains paused with the system time frozen.