Server Virtualization Technology for Mission-critical Systems
SekiguchiOne special feature of Virtage is its hardware transparency; that is, direct access to hardware is possible. By making use of this feature, it is possible to set up a "cluster system" of logical servers in exactly the same manner as setting up a cluster system composed of physical servers. That said, it is also easy to set up a dual system comprising an "active" cluster system with physical servers and a "standby" cluster system with logical servers. That flexibility is the strength of Virtage.
SekiguchiAs for hardware transparency, although I just mentioned an image in which a physical device can be "seen" from a logical server, in fact, that does not correspond to the device itself copes with virtualization. Which logical server uses which device is controlled by Virtage. The hardware referred to as a "virtualization assist feature" is playing that role. This virtualization assist feature realizes transparency"—that is to say, direct access to physical devices from logical servers. With this feature, when a fault occurs in some of the logical servers, it is possible to reliably prevent fraudulent I/O access so that the fault does not have an effect on the other logical servers. For this reason, we can say that the needs of "mission-critical" systems can be handled.
Figure 3: Virtualization assist feature for realizing hardware transparency
Related Links
Conference presentation reports written by researchers at SDL.
Technical terms related to research themes at SDL are explained.
