Virtual Machines (Introduction to Virtual Machines)

Chihun Kim
(chihun@aces.snu.ac.kr)

Virtual Machines

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Contents
Abstraction, Virtualization of Computer System Architecture, Implementation Layers What is VM and Where is VM? What kind of VM
Process VM System VM

Example of Complex VM Usage Rest of the book

Virtual Machines

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Abstraction, Virtualization of Computer System Modern computer system is very complex

Hundreds of millions of transisters Interconnected high-speed I/O devices Networking infrastructures Operating systems, libraries, applications Graphics and networking softwares

To manage this complexity

Levels of Abstractions
seperated by well-defined interfaces

Virtualizations
Virtual Machines
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Abstraction, Virtualization of Computer System Levels of Abstraction

Allows implementation details at lower levels of design to be ignored or simplified Each level is seperated by well-defined interfaces
Design of a higher level can be decoupled from the lower levels

Virtual Machines

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Abstraction, Virtualization of Computer System Disadvantage

Components designed to specification for one interface will not work with those designed for another.
Component A Interface A

Component A

Interface A

Interface B

Component A
Interface B

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Abstraction, Virtualization of Computer System Virtualization

Similar to Abstraction but doesnt always hide low layers details Real system is transformed so that it appears to be different
Resource AA BB BB

isomorphism
Resource A B B

Virtualization can be applied not only to subsystem, but to an Entire Machine Virtual Machine
Virtual Machines
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Abstraction, Virtualization of Computer System

Virtualization
Applications or OS Application uses virtual disk as Real disk
Virtualized Disk

Virtualization

File

File

Abstraction
Real Disk

Virtual Machines

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Architecture, Implementation Layers

Architecture
Functionality and Appearance of a computer system but not implementation details Level of Abstraction = Implementation layer
ISA, ABI, API ABI
Operating System Drivers Memory Scheduler Manager Memory Translation Application Programs Libraries

API ISA

Execution Hardware

System Interconnect (Bus) Controllers Controllers Main Memory

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IO Devices, Networking
Virtual Machines

Architecture, Implementation Layers

Implementation Layer : ISA
Instruction Set Architecture Divides hardware and software Concept of ISA originates from IBM 360
IBM System/360 Model (20, 40, 30, 50, 60, 62, 70, 92, 44, 57, 65, 67, 75, 91, 25, 85, 95, 195, 22) : 1964~1971 Various prices, processing power, processing unit, devices But guarantee a software compatibility

User ISA and System ISA

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Architecture, Implementation Layers

Implementation Layer : ABI
Application Binary Interface Provides a program with access to the hardware resource and services available in a system Consists of User ISA and System Call Interfaces

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Architecture, Implementation Layers

Implementation Layer : API
Application Programming Interface Key element is Standard Library ( or Libraries ) Typically defined at the source code level of High Level Language
clib in Unix environment : supports the UNIX/C programming language

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

What is Machine?
2 perspectives
From the perspective of a process
ABI provides interface between process and machine

From the perspective of a system

Underlying hardware itself is a machine. ISA provides interface between system and machine

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

Machine from the perspective of a process
ABI provides interface between process and machine

Application Software System calls

Application Programs Operating System Drivers

Libraries

User ISA ABI Machine

Memory Scheduler Manager Memory Translation

Execution Hardware

System Interconnect (Bus) Controllers IO Devices, Networking Virtual Machines Controllers Main Memory

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

Machine from the perspective of a system
ISA provides interface between system and machine

Application Software

Application Programs Operating System Drivers

Libraries

Operating System

Memory Scheduler Manager Memory Translation

System ISA

User ISA ISA Execution Hardware

Machine

System Interconnect (Bus) Controllers IO Devices, Networking Virtual Machines Controllers Main Memory

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

Virtual Machine is a Machine.
VM virtualizes Machine Itself!
There are 2 types of VM
Process-level VM System-level VM

VM is implemented as combination of
Real hardware Virtualizing software

Virtual Machines

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

Process VM
VM is just a process from the view of host OS
Application on the VM cannot see the host OS
Application Process Application Software System calls ABI User ISA ABI Machine Host System calls Virtualizing Software Runtime Guest

OS

Virtual User ISA Machine

Hardware

Virtual Machines

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

System VM
Provides a system environment

Application Software

Applications Guest

Operating System

OS Virtualizing Software ISA Runtime

System ISA

User ISA

Machine

Virtual Machine
Hardware
Virtual Machines

Host

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What is a VM and Where is the VM?

System VM
Example of a System VM as a process
VMWare

Applications

Guest OS Other Host Applications Virtualizing Software (VMWare) Host OS

Hardware

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What kind of VMs

Process Virtual Machines
Multiprogramming Emulators and Dynamic Binary Translators Same-ISA Binary Optimizers HLL (High Level Language) Virtual Machines

System Virtual Machines

Whole-System Emulations Codesigned Virtual Machines

Virtual Machines

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

(1) Multiprogramming
Process VM
First and most common virtual machine
We dont think of this as a VM

Each user is given the illusion of having a complete machine

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

(2) Emulators and Dynamic Binary Translators
Emulates one instruction set on hardware designed for another
As a practical matter, guest and hosts are often the same

Example: FX!32, Aries system

IA-32 Windows Application

Windows OS (for Alpha) Alpha ISA

VM Runtime

FX!32 : guest and host have same ISA

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

Components of Aries system
HP, PA-RISC to IA-64: Transparent Execution, No Recompilation, Cindy Zheng, Carol Thompson, IEEE 2000

HP PA-RISC 7300LC

Program binary for PA-RISC can run on the IA-64 hardware PA-RISC is a microprocessor architecture developed by HP. PA stands for Precision Architecture.
Sometmies, PA is considered to stand for Palo Alto, the location of HPs headquaters. (from Wikipedia)

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

Implemented with
Interpreter or Binary Translator

Interpreter
Emulates the execution of individual source instruction Very slow ( requires 10x processing power )

Binary Translator
Block of source instructions are converted to target instructions Translated blocks are stored in VMs memory Static / dynamic schemes
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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

(3) Same-ISA Binary Optimizers
Source ISA and Target ISA are same
Binary optimizer collects a profile and use this information to optimize application on the fly Example: HP Dynamo

Virtual Machines

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

How HP Dynamo works

HP, Transparent Dynamo Optimization: The Design and Implementation of Dynamo, Vasanth Bala, Evelyn Duesterwald, Sanjeev Banerjia, 1999

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

(4) HLL (High Level Language) Virtual Machines
Main goal is
platform-independence of a application Full cross-platform portability

Binary class files are distributed ISA is part of binary class format Higher level of abstraction
Higher level Virtual ISA OS is abstracted as standard libraries (API)

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

Conventional System and HLL VM
Different layer of distribution

HLL Program Compiler frontend Intermediate Code Compiler backend Object Code Distribution Loader Memory Image

HLL Program Compiler Portable Code Distribution VM loader Virtual Memory Image VM Interpreter / Compiler Host Instructions

(a) Conventional System

(b) HLL VM environment Virtual Machines

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What kind of VMs (Process VM)

Example : Java
Java Source

Java Binary Classes

Java VM Implementation Sparc Workstation

Java VM Implementation X86 PC

Java VM Implementation Apple Mac

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What kind of VMs (System VM)

(1) Whole-System Emulations
Host and guest systems dont have a common ISA
Apple PowerPC-based system and Windows PC Sun servers and Windows PC

Both applications and OS code require emulation

Via binary translation

Example: VMWare Challenges

If the properties of hardware resources are significantly different Emulation of ISA features such as virtual memory management or trap handling
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What kind of VMs (System VM)

Example : VMWare
Applications

Guest OS Other Host Applications Virtualizing Software (VMWare) Host OS

Hardware

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What kind of VMs (System VM)

(2) Codesigned Virtual Machines
Primary goals are
Performance improvement and power efficiency Uses new ISA and hardware features to execute other ISA

VM is a part of hardware design

Includes a binary translator or dynamic optimizer
Applications

Example: Transmeta Crusoe, IBM Daisy

Old ISA

OS

Codesigned VM New ISA New hardware

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What kind of VMs (System VM)

Transmeta Crusoe
Transmeta Corp., The Technology Behind CrusoeTM Processors : Low-power x86-compatible processors implemented with Code MorphingTM software, Alexdander Klaiber, 2000

Translated from x86 ISA to Crusoe VLIW ISA by code morphing software

Transmeta Crusoe

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What kind of VMs (System VM)

IBM Daisy : ISCA97
Dynamically Architected Instruction Set from Yorktown

http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/daisy/ Virtual Machines

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Example of Complex Composition

Java Application JVM Linux IA-32 VMWare Windows IA-32 Code Morphing

Crusoe VLIW

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The Rest of this Textbook

Chapter.2 Chapter.3 Process VM Chapter.4 Chapter.5 Chapter.6 Chapter.7 System VM Chapter.8 Chapter.9 Bonus Chapter.10
Concepts and Techniques in Emulation : Emulating ISA and Binary Translation Techniques Process VM Architecture and Construction Issues Dynamic Optimization : to improve VM performance Architecture of HLL VM : Popular HLL VM ( Pascal P-code, Java ) HLL VM Implementation Codesigned VM : hardware-based performance enhancements Conventional System VM : Basic mechanisms for implementation Virtualization issues in Multiprocessor environment : Partitioning Future of Virtual Machines
Virtual Machines
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