The Design Of The Vmware Vmkernel --An Os Kernel For Managing Virtual Machines

Kinshuk Govil, VMWare, Palo Alto

Stevenson Hall 1300
12:00 PM - 12:50 PM

VMware ESX Server is a platform for running many Intel-x86 virtual machines on a single physical machine for purposes of consolidating workloads and simplifying system management. ESX Server runs an OS kernel specifically designed to manage virtual machines (VMs). This OS kernel, known as the VMkernel, provides strict resource allocation guarantees for VMs, highly efficient I/O, and advanced reliability features. It runs on servers with up to 16 processors and can manage up to 10 VMs per processor. This talk describes the architecture of the VMkernel, some of the unique issues that it solves in order to manage VMs effectively, and interesting research topics that remain.