System and method for attributing to a corresponding virtual machine CPU utilization of a network driver domain based on weighted communication

1. A method comprising:

observing communication through a virtualized interface between at least one virtual machine (VM) and a driver domain; and

determining for each of the at least one VM, based on the observed communication through the virtualized interface, a weighted amount of communication between the VM and the driver domain, wherein the weighted amount is based at least in part on:

deriving a first weighting for communication flowing in a first direction, wherein the first weighting is based on the evaluated amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing communication flowing in only the first direction; and

deriving a second weighting for communication flowing in a second direction, wherein the second weighting is based on the evaluated amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing communication flowing in only the second direction.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the weighted amount is based at least in part on size of communication units observed.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the weighted amount of communication is determined at least in part as a function of the weighting of the first and second directions of the observed communication and an amount of communication observed having the first and second directions.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining for each of the at least one VM, based on the determined weighted amount of communication between the VM and the driver domain, CPU utilization of the driver domain attributable to the VM.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the driver domain comprises an isolated driver domain (IDD) that comprises a device driver for network communication.

6. A method comprising:

evaluating, by a benchmarking application, Central Processing Unit (CPU) utilization of a target network driver domain in processing communications having different characteristics;

deriving, by the benchmarking application, corresponding weighting for the different communication characteristics, wherein the weighting is based at least in part on:

deriving a first weighting for communication flowing in a first direction, wherein the first weighting is based on the evaluated amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing communication flowing in only the first direction; and

deriving a second weighting for communication flowing in a second direction, wherein the second weighting is based on the evaluated amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing communication flowing in only the second direction; and

employing the derived weighting for the different communication characteristics within a communication monitor that observes communication between virtual machines and the target network driver domain.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the deriving further comprises:

deriving said weighting for each of the different communication characteristics based on the respective amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing each of the different communication characteristics.

8. A system comprising:

Central Processing Unit (CPU);

Virtual Machines (VMs);

at least one isolated network driver domain (net-IDD) in which a device driver for communicatively accessing a communication network resides;

a virtualized back-end interface for the net-IDD through which network packets between the VMs and the device driver flow; and a CPU utilization monitor operable to determine, based at least in part on a weighted amount of communication observed through the virtualized back-end interface between the netIDD and a given VM, an amount of CPU utilization of the net-IDD that is attributable to the given VM, wherein the weighted amount is based at least in part on:

deriving a first weighting for communication flowing in a first direction, wherein the first weighting is based on the evaluated amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing communication flowing in only the first direction; and

deriving a second weighting for communication flowing in a second direction, wherein the second weighting is based on the evaluated amount of CPU utilization of the target network driver domain in processing communication flowing in only the second direction.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the weighted amount of communication is further based in part on: a) a number of network packets communicated through the virtualized back-end interface between the net-IDD and the given VM, and b) at least one characteristic of the network packets.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the at least one characteristic comprises size of network packets.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein different weightings are assigned to network packets of different sizes.

12. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

a communication monitor that observes the network packets communicated through the virtualized back-end interface between the net-IDD and the given VM, derives the weighted amount of communication, and communicates the weighted amount of communication to the CPU utilization monitor.