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* [PATCH 0/9] VMware balloon: Large page ballooning and VMCI support
@ 2015-04-14 17:29 Philip P. Moltmann
  2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 1/9] VMware balloon: partially inline vmballoon_reserve_page Philip P. Moltmann
                   ` (9 more replies)
  0 siblings, 10 replies; 61+ messages in thread
From: Philip P. Moltmann @ 2015-04-14 17:29 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: gregkh; +Cc: linux-kernel, xdeguillard, akpm, pv-drivers

The VMware balloon driver optimizes the memory reclamation when Linux
runs in a VM of a VMware hypervisor (such as ESXi, VMware Workstation,
or VMware Fusion). The hypervisor signals the balloon driver how much
memory to reclaim. The balloon driver allocates this amount of memory
via regular Linux allocation mechanisms. As the memory appears to be
used by the driver linux does not touch it and the hypervisor can unmap
it and give the memory to a different VM. This is not different from
any other balloon driver.

This series of patches improves the balloon drivers performance,
latency, and reduces the overhead to reclaim memory. All of this is done
while staying backwards compatible with all ever shipping versions of
VMware's hypervisors.

There are three main improvements:
- The balloon driver and hypervisor communicate about the capabilities
  of each other during balloon load.
- Instead of inflating the memory a single 4 KB page at a time, the
  balloon allocates a whole list of pages and hands it off to the
  hypervisor at once.
- We can now allocate 2 MB and 4 KB pages which further reduces the
  overhead and increases the performance
- If there is an demand to reclaim memory the hypervisor signals the
  balloon driver via VMCI that there is something to do. Before the
  balloon driver polled ever second.


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 61+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2015-08-21 14:05 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 61+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2015-04-14 17:29 [PATCH 0/9] VMware balloon: Large page ballooning and VMCI support Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 1/9] VMware balloon: partially inline vmballoon_reserve_page Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 2/9] VMware balloon: Add support for balloon capabilities Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 3/9] VMware balloon: add batching to the vmw_balloon Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 4/9] VMware balloon: Update balloon target on each lock/unlock Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 5/9] VMware balloon: Show capabilities of balloon and resulting capabilities in the debug-fs node Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 5/9] VMware balloon: Show capabilities or " Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 6/9] VMware balloon: Do not limit the amount of frees and allocations in non-sleep mode Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-16 20:55   ` Dmitry Torokhov
2015-06-11 20:10     ` Philip Moltmann
2015-06-12 11:20       ` dmitry.torokhov
2015-06-12 15:06         ` Philip Moltmann
2015-06-12 15:31           ` dmitry.torokhov
2015-06-12 15:40             ` Philip Moltmann
2015-06-12 16:15               ` dmitry.torokhov
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 0/9] Third revision of the performance improvment patch to the VMWare balloon driver Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 1/9] VMware balloon: partially inline vmballoon_reserve_page Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 2/9] VMware balloon: Add support for balloon capabilities Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 3/9] VMware balloon: add batching to the vmw_balloon Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-05 20:19                   ` Greg KH
2015-08-05 22:36                     ` [PATCH v4 " Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-05 22:44                       ` Greg KH
2015-08-05 22:47                         ` Philip Moltmann
2015-08-05 23:26                           ` gregkh
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 0/9] Fourth revision of the performance improvement patch to the VMware balloon driver Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 1/9] VMware balloon: partially inline vmballoon_reserve_page Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 21:07                               ` Greg KH
2015-08-06 22:17                                 ` [PATCH v5 0/7] Fifth revision of the performance improvement patch to the VMware balloon driver Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-14 23:27                                   ` Philip Moltmann
2015-08-06 22:17                                 ` [PATCH v5 1/7] VMware balloon: add batching to the vmw_balloon Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 22:17                                 ` [PATCH v5 2/7] VMware balloon: Update balloon target on each lock/unlock Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 22:18                                 ` [PATCH v5 3/7] VMware balloon: Show capabilities of balloon and resulting capabilities in the debug-fs node Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 22:18                                 ` [PATCH v5 4/7] VMware balloon: Do not limit the amount of frees and allocations in non-sleep mode Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 22:18                                 ` [PATCH v5 5/7] VMware balloon: Support 2m page ballooning Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-21 14:01                                   ` Kamalneet Singh
2015-08-06 22:18                                 ` [PATCH v5 6/7] VMware balloon: Treat init like reset Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 22:18                                 ` [PATCH v5 7/7] VMware balloon: Enable notification via VMCI Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 2/9] VMware balloon: Add support for balloon capabilities Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 3/9] VMware balloon: add batching to the vmw_balloon Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 4/9] VMware balloon: Update balloon target on each lock/unlock Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 5/9] VMware balloon: Show capabilities of balloon and resulting capabilities in the debug-fs node Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 6/9] VMware balloon: Do not limit the amount of frees and allocations in non-sleep mode Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 7/9] VMware balloon: Support 2m page ballooning Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 8/9] VMware balloon: Treat init like reset Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-06 20:33                             ` [PATCH v4 9/9] VMware balloon: Enable notification via VMCI Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 4/9] VMware balloon: Update balloon target on each lock/unlock Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 5/9] VMware balloon: Show capabilities of balloon and resulting capabilities in the debug-fs node Philip P. Moltmann
2015-08-05 20:14                   ` Greg KH
2015-08-05 20:22                     ` Philip Moltmann
2015-08-05 20:33                       ` dmitry.torokhov
2015-08-05 20:42                         ` John Savanyo
2015-08-05 20:50                           ` gregkh
2015-08-05 21:11                             ` John Savanyo
2015-08-05 20:40                       ` gregkh
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 6/9] VMware balloon: Do not limit the amount of frees and allocations in non-sleep mode Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 7/9] VMware balloon: Support 2m page ballooning Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 8/9] VMware balloon: Treat init like reset Philip P. Moltmann
2015-06-12 18:43                 ` [PATCH v3 9/9] VMware balloon: Enable notification via VMCI Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 7/9] VMware balloon: Support 2m page ballooning Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 8/9] VMware balloon: Treat init like reset Philip P. Moltmann
2015-04-14 17:29 ` [PATCH 9/9] VMware balloon: Enable notification via VMCI Philip P. Moltmann

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