IP Library › Granted Patent US 10,223,148
Granted Patent B2
US 10,223,148 · App. 15/313,682 · Granted Mar 5, 2019

Full virtual machine functionality

Inventor: Richard A. Bramley, Jr. (Mansfield, MA)
Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
G06F9/45558G06F9/4401G06F2009/45562G06F2009/45579
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,223,148
App. No.
15/313,682
Granted
Mar 5, 2019
Kind
B2
Abstract

Full virtual machine (VM) functionality in one example implementation can include sending a complete initialization package to a location in memory of a machine accessible by a hypervisor and generating a VM capable of providing a respective full functionality of a hardware component in the machine.

Claims (34)

1. A system, for full virtual machine (VM) functionality, comprising:

an identify engine to identify a hardware component, having a respective full functionality, included in a physical machine hosting VMs;

a send engine to send a complete initialization package including a plurality of drivers stored in memory of the physical machine hosting the VMs, to a location in random-access memory (RAM) of the physical machine accessible by a hypervisor, wherein the complete initialization package comprises initialization instructions to initialize the hardware component;

an assign engine to assign a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) driver of the plurality of drivers to the hardware component based on a resource identifier that includes a mapping of the driver to the hardware component;

wherein:

the UEFI driver is to facilitate the respective full functionality of the hardware component

the resource identifier is included in a plurality of resource identifiers stored as a table in read-only memory associated with a bootloader of the physical machine; and

the plurality of resource identifiers include resource identifiers having mappings to a plurality of different types of physical machines capable of hosting VMs; and

a generate engine to generate a VM capable of providing the respective full functionality of the hardware component.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the respective full functionality, capable of being provided by the generated VM, is equal to a functionality provided by the hardware component when operating without a hypervisor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding hardware component includes a video card.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein a driver of the plurality of drivers is a video graphics array (VGA) option read-only memory (OpRom), and wherein the VGA OpRom is assigned to the video card.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the UEFI driver is assigned to the hardware component in response to booting the physical machine using a UEFI boot.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical machine is a pass through machine.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the resource identifier includes a globally unique identifier (GUID) and an address of the hardware component.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the resource identifier identifies an address of the hardware component and a driver associated with the hardware component.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by a processing resource to cause a device to:

identify a hardware component associated with a pass through machine of a plurality of pass through machines hosting virtual machines (VM)s;

send a complete initialization package including a plurality of drivers that include at least one of an option read-only memory (OpRom) driver or a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) driver that facilitates a respective full functionality of the hardware component to a location in random-access memory (RAM) of the physical machine accessible by the hypervisor, wherein the complete initialization package comprises initialization instructions to initialize the hardware component;

assign the at least one of the OpRom driver or the UEFI driver to the hardware component associated with the pass through machine using a resource identifier that maps the hardware component to the driver; and

generate a VM capable of providing the respective full functionality

wherein:

the resource identifier is included in a plurality of resource identifiers stored as a table in read-only memory associated with a bootloader of the pass through machine; and

the plurality of resource identifiers include resource identifiers having mappings to a plurality of different types of pass through machines capable of hosting VMs.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the resource identifier is stored in disk memory associated with a bootloader of the pass through machine.

11. A method for full virtual machine (VM) functionality, comprising:

sending drivers stored in a physical machine as a complete initialization package, to a location in random-access memory (RAM) of the physical machine accessible by a hypervisor associated with respective hardware components in a plurality of pass through machines hosting VMs, wherein the complete initialization package comprises initialization instructions to initialize at least one of the respective hardware component;

initializing each of the respective hardware components in the plurality of pass through machines using the drivers in the complete initialization package;

providing pass through access to respective full functionalities of the respective hardware components using globally unique identifiers (GUID)s that map particular drivers of the drivers stored in the pass through machines to the respective hardware components; and

generating VMs having the respective full functionalities of the respective hardware components

wherein:

the GUIDs are stored as a table in read-only memory associated with a bootloader of a pass through machine of the pass through machines; and

the GUIDs include a GUID having mappings to a plurality of different types of pass through machines capable of hosting VMs.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the method further includes displaying, via a graphical user interface of a support device, the generated VMs having the respective full functionalities of the respective hardware components.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 30, 2016
From: BRAMLEY, RICHARD A, JR
To: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
Reel/Frame 040746/0596 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20170139737A1 · May 18, 2017