Method of selecting one of execution schedules of guest OSes and virtual machine monitor employing the method

1. A method of switching an execution schedule of a plurality of guest operating systems (OSes) in a virtual machine system in which the plurality of guest OSes are time-divisionally executed under virtual machine execution environments provided by a virtual machine monitor, any two of the plurality of guest OSes executing processing while intercommunicating with each other via a communication interface that is provided by the virtual machine monitor, the method comprising:

specifying a group of guest OSes which intercommunicate with each other via the communication interface, by the virtual machine monitor;

setting a first quantum in an execution schedule of each of the guest OSes included in the specified group of guest OSes shorter by the virtual machine monitor;

controlling repetition of both the specifying and the setting by the virtual machine monitor, the repetition being performed at predetermined schedule time periods;

computing a first average communication time by the virtual machine monitor each time the group of guest OSes is specified, the first average communication time being a current average communication time required for intercommunications between the guest OSes of the specified group of guest OSes; and

comparing the first average communication time with a second average communication time by the virtual machine monitor, the second average communication time being computed when a quantum is set one-scale longer than a second quantum which has been set when the first average communication time is computed,

wherein the first quantum is set one-scale shorter than the second quantum if the first average communication time is shorter than the second average communication time, and the first quantum is set one-scale longer than the second quantum if the first average communication time is not shorter than the second average communication time.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein of said plurality of guest OSes, a set of pairs of guest OSes whose intercommunications are completed within one schedule time period is specified as the specified group of guest OSes.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein when there is another guest OS which performs intercommunications with one of the guest OSes of each of the pairs of guest OSes and completes the intercommunications within one schedule time period, it is determined that said another guest OS belongs to the specified group of guest OSes.

4. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a virtual machine monitor that runs on the computer system via execution of instructions by the processor, and establishes virtual machine execution environments under which a plurality of guest operating systems (OSes) are time-divisionally executed, wherein the virtual machine monitor comprises:

a communication interface configured to perform intercommunications between any two of said plurality of guest OSes by request of the plurality of guest OSes;

a communication status table which holds a status of intercommunications performed between the plurality of guest OSes by the communication interface;

a scheduler configured to specify a group of guest OSes that intercommunicate with each other using the communication interface in accordance with the communication status table and create a new schedule in which a first quantum in the execution schedule of each of the guest OSes included in the specified group of guest OSes, is set short; and

a dispatcher configured to dispatch the processor to the guest OSes included in the specified group of guest OSes to be executed in accordance with the new schedule; wherein:

the communication status information held in the communication status table includes a value of average transmission time as well as the number of messages, the average transmission time being an average time required from transmission of the messages to reception thereof;

the scheduler includes an average communication time computation unit and a comparison unit, the average communication time computation unit being configured to compute a first average communication time, which is a current average communication time required for intercommunications between all guest OSes of the specified group of guest OSes, based on the average transmission time in the communication status information held in the communication status table, in accordance with all pairs of guest OSes included in the specified group of guest OSes, each time the group of guest OSes is specified, the comparison unit being configured to compare the first average communication time with a second average communication time computed when a quantum is set one-scale longer than a second quantum which has been set when the first average communication time is computed; and

the scheduler sets the first quantum one-scale shorter than the second quantum if the first average communication time is shorter than the second average communication time, and sets the first quantum one-scale longer than the second quantum if the first average communication time is not shorter than the second average communication time.

5. The computer system according to claim 4 , wherein the scheduler specifies a set of pairs of guest OSes whose intercommunications are completed within one schedule time period, as the group of guest OSes, the set of pairs of guest OSes being included in said plurality of guest OSes.

6. The computer system according to claim 5 , wherein when there is another guest OS which performs intercommunications with one of the guest OSes of each of the pairs of guest OSes and completes the intercommunications within the one schedule period, the scheduler determines that said another guest OS belongs to the specified group of guest OSes.

7. The computer system according to claim 5 , wherein:

the communication status table holds communication status information including the number of messages received within a shorter time than the one schedule time period for each pair of guest OSes intercommunicating with each other via the communication interface; and

the scheduler refers to the communication status table at predetermined schedule time periods and specifies all pairs of guest OSes corresponding to the communication status information indicating that the number of messages is not zero, as pairs of guest OSes included n the group of guest OSes.