Faster access of virtual machine memory backed by host computing device's virtual memory

Abstract

To increase the speed with which the hierarchical levels of a Second Layer Address Table (SLAT) are traversed as part of a memory access where the guest physical memory of a virtual machine environment is backed by virtual memory assigned to one or more processes executing on a host computing device, one or more hierarchical levels of tables within the SLAT can be skipped or otherwise not referenced. While the SLAT can be populated with memory correlations at hierarchically higher-levels of tables, the page table of the host computing device, supporting the host computing device's provision of virtual memory, can maintain a corresponding contiguous set of memory correlations at the hierarchically lowest table level, thereby enabling the host computing device to page out, or otherwise manipulate, smaller chunks of memory. If such manipulation occurs, the SLAT can be repopulated with memory correlations at the hierarchically lowest table level.

Description

Background technique [0001] Modern computing devices operate by executing computer-executable instructions in high-speed volatile memory in the form of random access memory (RAM), and execution of such computer-executable instructions typically requires reading data from RAM. Due to cost, physical size limitations, power requirements, and other similar constraints, computing devices typically include less RAM than is typically required by processes executing on such computing devices. To accommodate such constraints, virtual memory is utilized whereby it appears that the memory available to processes executing on the computing device is larger than that provided by the physical memory circuitry. The relationship between virtual memory and physical memory is typically managed by one or more memory managers, which implement, maintain, and / or refer to "page tables" whose information describes one or more virtual memory addresses The relationship to the location of corresponding ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Such inefficiencies may prevent users from reaping the security benefits and other benefits of accessing storage through a hypervisor

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