Dynamic virtual machine memory management

Abstract

Techniques for adjusting memory in virtual machines are disclosed. According to aspects, memory status is obtained for a guest operating system. Based on the obtained memory status, an amount of guest physical addresses is reported to a memory manager of the guest operating system. Moreover, the amount of memory assigned to the guest operating system may be adjusted during the runtime operation of the guest operating system.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A computer readable storage device, comprising instructions for:
 receiving, in a first partition, a notification from a child partition, the notification comprising memory status information, the memory status information comprising an indication of a memory pressure level of the child partition;   determining an amount of guest physical addresses associated with the child partition; and   based at least on the memory pressure level, adjusting the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition.   
     
     
         2 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition. 
     
     
         3 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 2 , wherein the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition is increased via a hot-add operation. 
     
     
         4 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 2 , wherein the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition is increased by committing memory. 
     
     
         5 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the adjusting comprises decreasing the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition. 
     
     
         6 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 5 , wherein the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition is increased via a hot-remove operation. 
     
     
         7 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 2 , wherein the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition is increased by de-committing memory. 
     
     
         8 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises a performance counter. 
     
     
         9 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises a paging rate. 
     
     
         10 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises a cache rotation rate. 
     
     
         11 . The computer readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the notification is based at least in part on a comparison of the determined amount of guest physical addresses and a predefined amount. 
     
     
         12 . A computing system comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising:   receiving, in a first partition, a notification from a child partition, the notification comprising memory status information, the memory status information comprising an indication of a memory pressure level of the child partition;   determining an amount of guest physical addresses associated with the child partition; and   based at least on the memory pressure level, adjusting the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition.   
     
     
         13 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition via a hot-add operation. 
     
     
         14 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition by committing memory. 
     
     
         15 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the adjusting comprises decreasing the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition via a hot-remove operation. 
     
     
         16 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the adjusting comprises decreasing the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition by de-committing memory. 
     
     
         17 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the notification comprises a performance counter. 
     
     
         18 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the notification comprises a paging rate. 
     
     
         19 . The computing system of  claim 12 , wherein the notification comprises a cache rotation rate. 
     
     
         20 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a first partition running on a computing device, a notification from a child partition, the notification comprising memory status information, the memory status information comprising an indication of a memory pressure level of the child partition;   determining, by the first partition, an amount of guest physical addresses associated with the child partition; and   based at least on the memory pressure level, adjusting, by the first partition, the amount of guest physical addresses provided to the child partition.