Managing the sharing of logical resources among separate partitions of a logically partitioned computer system

摘要

A mechanism is provided for sharing resources among logical partitions in a logical partitioned data processing system and for managing the changes to resources in such a way that the sharing operating systems are able to handle the various transitions in a graceful manner. Four hypervisor functions plus a specific return code manage the granting of access of resources owned by one partition to another (client) partition, accepting of granted resources by client partitions, returning of granted resources by client partitions, and rescinding of access by the owning partition. These four hypervisor functions are invoked either explicitly by the owning and client partitions or automatically by the hypervisor in response to partition termination. The hypervisor functions provide the needed infrastructure to manage the sharing of logical resources among partitions.

主权项

1. A method for managing shared resources in a logical partitioned computer, the method comprising:
managing, by a partition manager, a plurality of logical partitions that are included in the computer, wherein each one of the plurality of logical partitions executes one of a plurality of operating systems, and wherein each one of the plurality of logical partitions owns a different plurality of logical resources; granting, by a server partition to a client partition, access to one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition, wherein the server partition and the client partition are included in the plurality of logical partitions, wherein the client partition is a first client partition; requesting that the partition manager generate a first identifier that identifies the one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition; generating, by the partition manager, the first identifier; communicating, by the server partition, the first identifier from the server partition to the first client partition, wherein the first identifier is a cookie that identifies the one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition; and responsive to the first client partition accepting the first identifier, mapping the one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition into a logical address space of the first client partition, wherein the mapping is performed by the first client partition; granting, by the first client partition in the logical partitioned computer, the one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition to a second client partition in the logical partitioned data processing system; requesting that the partition manager generate a second identifier that identifies the one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition; generating, by the partition manager, the second identifier; communicating the second identifier from the first client partition to the second client partition; and responsive to the second client partition accepting the second identifier, mapping the one of the plurality of logical resources that are owned by the server partition into a logical address space of the second client partition, wherein the mapping is performed by the second client partition.