Methods, systems and apparatus to capture error conditions in lightweight virtual machine managers

An apparatus to capture error information from a virtual machine manager (VMM), comprising:

• a host storage manager to define a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM) at a first time, the VMM without file system access support at the first time;
• a guest abort handler to install an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value when the VM is spawned by the VMM;
• a host error handler to transfer VMM state information to the shared memory structure in response to detecting an error of the VMM at the second time to enable access to a file system for the VMM at the second time;
• and
• an exception event injector to preserve the VMM state information in a non-volatile memory at the second time by invoking the guest abort handler on the VM associated with the vector value to transfer the VMM state information in the shared memory structure via the file system.

A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to, at least:

• define a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM) at a first time, the VMM without file system access support at the first time;
• when the VM is spawned by the VMM, install an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value;
• in response to detecting an error of the VMM at a second time, transfer VMM state information to the shared memory structure to enable access to a file system for the VMM at the second time;
• and
• preserve the VMM state information in a non-volatile memory at the second time by invoking the abort handler on the VM associated with the vector value to transfer the VMM state information in the shared memory structure via the file system.