Host enabled management channel

One or more physical computer-readable storage devices storing information to enable a computer to perform a process, the process comprising:

• executing a virtual machine (VM) and a guest operating system of the VM, wherein the VM comprises a network stack comprising an implementation of a network-level protocol and an implementation of a transport protocol to enable connectivity for the guest operating system according to a network address of the VM, and wherein execution of the VM is managed by a hypervisor on the computer;
• executing an agent by the hypervisor on the computer;
• and
• receiving one or more network-level packets at the hypervisor on the computer, the one or more network-level packets conforming to the network-level protocol and having been routed, via a physical data network, to a network address of the hypervisor on the computer according to the network-level network protocol, the one or more network-level packets comprising one or more respective payloads, the one or more payloads comprising one or more application-level messages that comprise information identifying the VM, wherein the agent accesses the one or more application-level messages and determines, from the information therein identifying the VM, that the VM is to receive the one or more application-level messages, and in response the hypervisor passes the one or more application-level messages to the VM through a communication channel between the VM and the hypervisor, wherein the network stack provides the one or more application-level messages to application-level code executing on the VM.

A method comprising:

• executing a hypervisor on a host, the hypervisor managing and executing a virtual machine (VM);
• executing an agent by the hypervisor;
• receiving a network-level packet by the host, the network-level packet conforming to a network-level protocol and comprising a network-level header comprising a network address of the host, the network-level packet having been routed by a physical data network to the host based on the network address of the host in the network-level header, the network-level packet comprising a payload comprising an application-level message generated by a remote host and sent through a network stack of the remote host by a remote application executing on the remote host, the application-level message carried by the network-level packet comprising a VM identifier that identifies the VM;
• extracting, by a network stack of the hypervisor running on the host, the application-level message from the network-level packet, wherein the application-level message is handled by the agent obtaining the VM identifier therefrom, and based on the obtained VM identifier the agent determines that, among VMs managed by the hypervisor, the application-level message is to be sent to the identified VM;
• and
• responsive to the agent determining that the application-level message is to be sent to the identified VM, causing, by the agent, the application-level message to be passed through a network stack of the VM, wherein the network stack of the VM extracts the application-level message from either the network-level packet or from a second network-level packet and delivers the application-level message to a local application that processes the application-level message.