Hypervisor Resource Access Control via Threshold Monitoring

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional hypervisors do not provide effective mechanisms to prevent errors caused by overuse of allocated resources by virtual machines, leading to conflicts and ungraceful terminations, and lack flexible options for continuing execution after such errors occur.

Innovation Solution

A hypervisor system that allocates and manages access to physical resources, determining when resource utilization exceeds thresholds and implementing limitations such as rate-limiting or pausing virtual machine execution to prevent conflicts and ensure stable operation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If a hypervisor provides virtual machines with access to hardware resources, then resource utilization and productivity are improved, but errors and conflicts occur when resources are overused

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveresource utilizationVSAvoiderror prevention
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The hypervisor performs preliminary actions by allocating resources to virtual machines before execution and establishing resource usage thresholds in advance. This prevents overuse conflicts by having control mechanisms ready before errors occur, rather than reacting after problems arise.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms where the hypervisor continuously monitors resource utilization levels and compares them against defined thresholds. When thresholds are exceeded, the system provides feedback by triggering error responses or adjusting resource allocation, creating a closed-loop control system that maintains reliability while allowing high utilization.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Stability of the object's composition

If the hypervisor limits resource access to prevent errors, then system stability is improved, but flexibility in continuing execution after errors is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesystem stabilityVSAvoidexecution flexibility
Core Design Contradiction:
Stability of the object's compositionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The error response mechanism is designed to be dynamic rather than static. The hypervisor can adjust the degree of resource limitation based on the severity and type of error detected. This allows the system to maintain stability through controlled limitation while preserving flexibility by adapting the response level to match the specific error condition, enabling continued execution when appropriate.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

3Difficulty of detecting and measuring

If the hypervisor monitors resource utilization continuously, then error detection capability is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveerror detection capabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Difficulty of detecting and measuringVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The monitoring system applies local quality by focusing surveillance on specific critical resources and threshold levels rather than uniformly monitoring all system parameters. The hypervisor identifies key resources where overuse conflicts are most likely to occur and applies targeted monitoring and threshold-based control to those specific areas, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining effective error detection capability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP2368184B1Systems and methods for controlling, by a hypervisor, access to physical resources
Publication Date: 2021.04.28 CITRIX SYSTEMS INC
  • EP2368184B1 patent drawingFigure 1A
  • EP2368184B1 patent drawingFigure 1B
  • EP2368184B1 patent drawingFigure 1C

AI summary

A system for controlling, by a hypervisor, access to physical resources during execution of a virtual machine includes a physical disk and a hypervisor. The physical disk is provided by a computing device and stores at least a portion of a virtual disk. The hypervisor executes on the computing device. The hypervisor allocates, to the virtual disk, an amount of access to the physical disk. The hypervisor determines that a level of utilization of the physical disk has exceeded a threshold. The hypervisor limits, in response to the determination, access by the virtual disk to the physical disk.