JPS6320541A - Communication system between virtual computers - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it unnecessary to provide a physical channel constituted of a channel device, a loop cable, etc., by executing the communication between virtual computers by a constitution of a storage control means, a transfer means, a storage area, and a notice means. CONSTITUTION:When a transfer means 5 is started by a mode 2, a transmitting data (a data on a transmitting buffer 73a) from a transmitting side virtual computer 7 is transferred to a receiving area which a communication control program 82 of a receiving side virtual computer 8 has secured, and a notice means is started by a mode 1. The notice means 6 informs the completion of a transmitting instruction to the transmitting side virtual computer 7, and also, changes a channel state instructing flag of an area 10c in the entry of a logical channel - real channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to a logical channel number '0' which has been used for the transmission, to its original idle state from a state that the transmitting instruction is being executed, informs the completion of a receiving instruction to a control program of the receiving side virtual computer 8, and changes the channel state instructing flag of the entry of the logical channel - real channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to a logical channel number '2' which has been used for the reception, to the idle state from a state that the receiving instruction is being executed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a communication method between virtual computers in a virtual computer system.

[Conventional technology]

When multiple virtual machines are used to process related applications, communication is performed between the virtual machines.

One conventional method for realizing such communication between virtual computers is a method in which physical line channels assigned to each virtual computer are connected by a physical device such as a loop cable.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of such a conventional communication method,
100 is a virtual computer system that realizes a plurality of virtual computers, and 101 is another computer system.

In the virtual computer system 100, a plurality of virtual computers 4i
31102. 102n, a physical line channel control unit 103 that controls the physical line channel, and a channel device 104 that configures the physical line channel. ~104m, and some channel devices are connected to other computer systems 101 via communication lines 2. Now, the virtual computer 102. , 102□ needs to communicate with another computer system 101, for example, the channel device 10
41 exclusively to the virtual machine 1021, and the channel device 104. is exclusively assigned to the virtual machine 102□ (.In this way, each virtual machine 102+, 102g
can communicate with other computer systems 101 using the assigned physical line channel. Also, the virtual computer 102. If communication is also required between W104. 1 is exclusively assigned to the virtual machine 102t, and the channel device 104□ and the channel device 104. Communication is made possible by physically connecting the exits of the terminals with a loop cable 105.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the conventional method described above, physical line channels are used for communication between virtual machines, so when the number of pairs of virtual machines that communicate with each other increases within the virtual machine system 100, a large amount of physical line channels and loops are used. The problem is that a cable is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable communication between virtual calculation stages without using physical channels composed of channel devices, loop cables, and the like.

Means for Solving Problem c] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of virtual needles
In a virtual computer system that implements (a), does each logical channel number assigned to each virtual computer, which has the same format as +1+physical channel number, correspond to an actual physical channel or perform transmission and reception to/from other virtual computers? (2) A logical channel-actual channel correspondence table that holds information indicating whether the channel corresponds to a virtual channel and information indicating the channel state of the physical channel or virtual channel corresponding to the logical channel number; (2) temporarily transmitting data; Storage area to store (3)
(4) a first mode in which the transmission data transferred to the storage area by the storage control means is transferred to the receiving area of the receiving virtual machine; a transfer unit that performs a second mode process of directly transferring processing and transmission data from the sending virtual machine to the receiving area of the receiving virtual machine without going through the storage area; (5) a logical channel number from the virtual machine; In response to a sending/receiving command, the logical channel-real channel correspondence table determines whether the logical channel number in the command corresponds to an actual physical channel or a virtual channel for transmitting/receiving data to/from another virtual machine. determining means for performing the following processing at the time of a reception command and at the time of a transmission command, respectively, if it is determined that the channel corresponds to a virtual channel;
■When receiving a command, if the received data has been stored in the storage area, the transfer means performs the first mode processing, and if it has not been stored, the channel status corresponds to the logical channel number in the logical channel-real channel correspondence table. is changed while the receive instruction is being executed.

■At the time of a transmission command, if the channel state of the virtual channel of the communication partner determined from the logical channel-real channel correspondence table is that a reception command is being executed, the transfer means is caused to perform the second mode processing, and if the reception command is not being executed. Activating the storage control means.

(6) Instruct the necessary virtual computer to complete the storage of the transmission data in the storage area by the three storage control means and the completion of the transfer of the transmission data to the reception area by the first mode processing and second mode processing of the transfer means. A notification means for notification is provided.

[For 1] When a sending virtual computer issues a sending command with a logical channel number, the determining means determines whether the logical channel number in the sending command corresponds to an actual physical channel or whether it is a message for another virtual computer. It is determined whether the channel corresponds to a virtual channel for performing transmission and reception by referring to the logical channel-real channel correspondence table, and if it is determined that it corresponds to a virtual channel, the communication partner's communication partner determined from the logical channel-real channel correspondence table is determined. The channel state of the virtual channel is checked, and if the receiving command is being executed, the transfer means is caused to perform the second mode processing, and if the receiving command is not being executed, the storage control 4 means is activated. On the other hand, when a receiving virtual machine issues a receive command using a logical channel number, the transmitting means determines whether the logical channel number corresponds to a physical channel or a virtual channel in the same manner as the transmitting command, If it corresponds to a virtual channel, it is checked whether the received data has been stored in the storage area, and if it has been stored, the transfer means is made to perform the first mode processing, and if it is not stored, it is transferred to a logical channel or a Nehru real channel. The channel state corresponding to that logical channel number in the correspondence table is changed during execution of the receive command. Therefore, if the reception command temporally precedes the transmission command and the virtual channel for the reception channel is in the process of executing the reception command when the transmission command is processed, the second mode processing by the transfer means
Send data is transferred to the receive area at high speed without going through the storage area, and conversely, when the send command is ahead of the receive command in time and the virtual channel for the receive channel is not in the process of executing the receive command. When the transmission command is processed, the transmission data is temporarily stored in the storage area by the storage control means, and when the reception command is processed, the transmission data is transferred from the storage area to the reception area in the first mode processing by the transfer means. That will happen.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a virtual machine control unit, 7 is a sending side virtual computer, 8 is a receiving side virtual computer, 11 is a physical line channel wI'4n unit, 1
21-12I11 ha channel apparatus teal.

Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention has a virtual total of 3!
The machine control section 1 has a channel command processing section 2, and this channel command processing section 2 has a determining means 3. Memory control means 4. Transfer means 53 notification means 6. It includes a storage area 9 and a logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10.

Also, for convenience of explanation, Figure 1 shows only two virtual calculations @7.8 out of multiple virtual computers realized within the same virtual computer system, one of which is the sending side and the other is the receiving side. . Each virtual machine 7.8 has a control program and a communication control program, and is configured to have several user programs inside.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10. As shown in the diagram, the correspondence table 10 has entries corresponding to logical channel numbers, and each entry has the configuration of the corresponding entry. An area 10a for setting a configuration flag indicating whether the logical channel number corresponds to a physical channel or a virtual channel, an area 10b for setting a virtual channel flag indicating whether the logical channel number corresponds to a physical channel or a virtual channel, and an area 10b for indicating the state of the channel. It is composed of an area 10c for setting a channel state indication flag, and an area 10d for setting a corresponding channel number indicating the channel number of the communication partner. As the corresponding channel number set in the area 10d, if the communication partner channel is a physical channel, the physical channel number is set therein, and if the communication partner channel is a virtual channel, the other party's logical channel number is set.

Now, the sending side virtual machine X machine 7 and the receiving side virtual computer 8 in Fig. 1
If you want to communicate with the virtual machine using a virtual channel, for example, the logical channel number assigned to the sending virtual machine 7 is
As shown in FIG. 2, the entry in the logical channel-real channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to "0" has a flag of "1" indicating that it has been configured in the area 10a and a flag of "1" indicating that it corresponds to a virtual channel in the area 10b. The flag 1' shown in FIG. In the entry of the logical channel-real channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to "2", as shown in FIG. A flag of "1" indicating a message is set, an idle state is set in the area 10c, and a logical channel number "0" assigned to the transmitting board IE device 7 is set in the area 10d.

In the above state, if a transmission request by the user program 73 on the virtual computer 7 is processed before a reception request by the user program 83 on the virtual computer a8 that receives communication from the user program 73, The operation will be explained below.

When the user program 73 on the virtual machine 7 prepares the transmission buffer 73a and issues a transmission request according to the procedure of the virtual machine 7, the communication control program 7 on the virtual machine 7
2 issues a transmission command with a logical channel number "0" to which a protocol header etc. according to the communication protocol is added. Note that by setting the logical channel number in the same format as the physical channel number, the communication control 8 program 72 does not need to be aware that it is running on a virtual computer system, and the use of the virtual computer is You can easily test communication procedures, etc. without changing the user program or communication control program.

The above transmission command is given to the determining means 3 of the channel command processing section 2, and the determining means 3 at this time performs, for example, the processing shown in FIG. 3. That is, when the determining means 3 receives a transmission command (SL), it first acquires an entry in the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to the given logical channel number rOJ (S2), and sets the configuration flag of the area 10a. Check the channel state instruction flag in area 10c to determine whether the corresponding entry is configured and whether the channel state of the corresponding entry is in an abnormal state such as a transmission command being executed (S3), in this case. , logical channel number "0"
” entry is already configured and ? Since the i-'.Nayanel state is also in the idle state, the process proceeds to the next step S4, but if an abnormality such as the corresponding entry is not configured is detected, an error is notified to the transmission source.

The step flag S4 is a process of writing a transmission command being executed into the area 10c of the entry corresponding to the 8th entry, that is, the logical channel number "0". After that, the determining means 3 performs the following steps.
The virtual channel flag in the area 10b of the entry is checked to determine whether the corresponding channel corresponds to a physical channel or a virtual channel (S5). In the present example, since the channel with the logical channel number "0" is set as a virtual channel, the determining means 3 next selects the logical channel number "2" of the communication partner channel set in advance in the area 10d of the entry. The corresponding entry in the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10 is obtained from , and the content of the channel state indication flag set in the area 10e in the corresponding entry is checked (S6) to determine whether or not the receiving command is being executed. (37).

In this case, the channel state of the entry in the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to logical channel number "2" assumes that the reception request by the user program 83 has not been processed yet, so it is idle. Since the receiving command is not being executed, the determining means 3 activates the control means 4 (38).

When the storage control means 4 is activated, it transfers the transmission data in the transmission buffer 73a of the sending virtual machine 7 to the storage area 9, for example, as shown in FIG. (312).

When the notification means 6 is activated in mode 1, it starts the process shown in FIG. 5, for example, and first notifies the control program 71 of the sending virtual machine 7 of the completion of the sending command (321).
Next, change the channel state indication flag in the area 10C in the entry of the logical channel-real channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to the logical channel number "0" used for transmission from the sending command execution state to the original idle state (522), It is determined whether or not the activation is by the transfer means 5 (323), but since the current activation is the activation of the determination means 3, the operation ends there.

On the other hand, in the receiving virtual machine 8, when the user program 83 communicating with the user program 73 of the sending virtual machine 7 issues a reception request, the communication control program 82 secures the receiving area 84 and logical channel number "2" is issued. ”, a reception command is issued to the determination means 3.

In this case as well, by setting the logical channel number in the same format as the physical channel number, the communication control program 82 does not need to be aware that it is running on a virtual computer system, and the user of the virtual computer Communication procedures and the like can be easily tested without changing programs and communication control programs.

In response to the above operation, the determining means 3 receives a reception command (531) as shown in FIG. I want to get the entry in correspondence table 1053
2), it is determined whether there is an abnormality such as the corresponding entry is not configured 533), and if there is an abnormality, an error is notified to the receiving source.In this example, the logical channel - real channel correspondence table 10 Since the entry with logical channel number "2" has been configured and the channel state is idle, the process advances to the next step 334.

Step 534 is a process of determining whether the logical channel number corresponds to a physical channel or a virtual channel based on the virtual channel flag in the corresponding entry obtained in step 332. In this example, it is determined whether the logical channel number corresponds to a physical channel or a virtual channel. Therefore, the determination means 3 next searches the storage area 9 and determines whether or not received data for that virtual channel is stored (335).
In this case, since the transmission data addressed to that virtual channel has already been stored in the storage area 9 by the storage control means 4 in response to a request from the sending virtual machine 7 described above, the determination means 3 next determines the logical channel number " The channel state of the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to "2" is changed during execution of the reception command 536), and the transfer means 5 is activated in mode 1 (S37).

When the transfer means 5 is activated in mode 1, it transfers the transmission data stored in the storage area 9 to the reception area 84 prepared by the communication control program 82 of the receiving virtual machine 8, as shown in FIG. 7, for example. After the transfer is completed, the notification means 6 is activated in mode 2 (342).

When the notification means 6 is activated in mode 2, it notifies the reception side virtual machine 80 control program 81 of the completion of the reception command (351) as shown in FIG. -Actual channel correspondence table 10
The channel state indication flag of the entry is changed from receiving command execution to the original idle state (352).

When the communication control program 82 in the receiving virtual machine 8 receives the completion notification of the receiving command from the control program 81,
It analyzes the protocol header of the received data, transfers the received data to the receive buffer 83a of the user program 83, and notifies reception.

The above operation is performed by the user program 73 on the virtual machine 7.
This is an operation when a transmission request by the user program 73 is processed prior to a reception request by the user program 83 on the virtual machine 8 receiving communication from the user program 73. If the request is processed first, the behavior is as follows.

If the reception request is processed first, it is determined in step 35 of the determination means 3 shown in FIG. Change the channel state instruction flag of the entry in the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10 corresponding to "2" from the idle state to the receiving command execution state (33B)
, the transfer means 5 is not activated as in step S37.

On the other hand, when the transmission command on the virtual machine 7 is received, the third
In the operation of the determining means 3 shown in the figure, it is determined in step S7 that the receiving command is being executed.

Therefore, in this case, since it is possible to transfer directly to the receiving area 84 without going through the storage area 9, the transfer means is activated in mode 2 (S9).

When the transfer means 5 is activated in mode 2, it performs the process shown in FIG. After the transfer is completed, the notification means 6 is activated in mode 1 (S62).

When the notification means 6 is activated in mode 1, as shown in FIG. Change the channel state indication flag in the area 10c in the entry of the channel-actual channel correspondence table 10 from the sending command execution state to the original idle state 321. 3
22) In addition, the control program of the receiving side virtual machine 8 is notified of the completion of the reception command 324), and the channel of the entry in the logical channel-real channel correspondence table 1O corresponding to the logical channel number "2" used for reception is Change the status indication flag from receiving command execution to idle status (S2
5).

The above has described the flow of data in one direction from the virtual calculation [7 to the virtual computer 8], but data transmission in the opposite direction is performed in parallel or independently. The data flow in this case is also processed in the same way as above.

The above is the operation of communication between virtual computers using a virtual channel, but in this embodiment, it is also possible to perform communication using a channel device as in the conventional case, and this will be explained below.

In FIG. 1, a virtual computer 7. Virtual calculation 4!18 is
Channel device 12. It is also possible to communicate with other computers connected to ~12m via a communication line, and in such a case, the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 1O may include virtual calculations as shown in Figure 2. A flag of "0" indicating that the area 10b in the entry of the logical channel number "1" assigned to Ja7 corresponds to the physical channel is set to the corresponding channel number of the area 10d, and the virtual calculation 4!17
Set the physical channel number of the channel device 12 flag, area 1
The physical channel number of the channel device 12□ that is exclusively assigned to the virtual machine 8 is set to the corresponding channel number of 0d (.

In such a state, the user program 73 on the virtual machine 7 prepares the transmission buffer 73a and issues a transmission request, and the communication control program 72 uses the logical channel number rlJ with a protocol header etc. added according to the communication protocol. When a transmission command is issued, it is determined in step S5 during the processing shown in FIG. 3 by the determining means 3 that it is a physical channel, and the channel is processed as a normal transmission command. That is, the transmission data in the transmission buffer 73a of the user program 73 is taken into the channel device 121 via the physical line channel control section 11.

On the other hand, the user program 8 in the receiving virtual machine 8
3 issues a reception request, and the communication control program 82 secures the reception area 84 and issues a reception command with the logical channel number "3" to the determination means 3. When the determination means 3 executes the steps shown in FIG. At step 334, it is determined that the channel is a physical channel, and the received command is processed as a normal reception command. That is,
The reception buffer 83a of the user program 83 enters a reception state for the channel device 12□ via the physical line channel control unit 11.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention provides storage control means.

Communication can be performed between virtual machines using a configuration such as a transfer means and a storage area 3 notification means, so there is no need to use physical channels consisting of channel devices, loop cables, etc. as in the past, and the number of virtual machines can be reduced. As the number increases, the conventional problem of requiring a large amount of physical resources is effectively solved.

In addition, since the logical channel number has the same format as the physical channel number, the communication control program on the virtual machine does not need to be aware that it is running on the virtual machine system, and the user program of the virtual machine Also, communication procedures, etc. can be easily tested without changing the communication control program.

Furthermore, depending on the progress of processing between the sending virtual machine and the receiving virtual machine, the sending virtual machine may issue the transmission command first, or conversely, the receiving virtual machine may issue the sending command first. Although there is a case where a reception command is issued, in the present invention,
In the former case, by transferring the sending data via the storage area, the sending board virtual machine Xa can move on to the next process without waiting for the receiving virtual machine to operate; in the latter case, the sending data is transferred via the storage area. Fast communication is possible through direct transfer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a logical channel-actual channel correspondence table 10, FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an example of processing for a transmission command by the determining means 3, and FIG. 4 is a storage 5 is a flowchart of an example of processing of the notification means 6 in mode 1; FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example of processing of the determination means 3 in response to a received command; FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an example of processing of the transfer means 5. 8 is a flowchart of a processing example of mode 2 of the notification means 6, FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a processing example of mode 2 of the transfer means 5, and FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the conventional method. be. In the figure, 1...virtual computer control unit, 2...channel instruction processing unit, 3...judgment means, 4...storage control means, 5...transfer means, 6...notification means, 7...
Sending side virtual computer, 8... Receiving side virtual computer, 9
. . . storage area, 10 . . . logical channel-real channel correspondence table, 11 . . . physical line channel control unit, 12. ~
12m... Channel device, 71... Control program for sending virtual machine, 72... Communication control program for sending virtual machine, 73... User program for sending virtual machine, ? 3a... Transmission buffer, 81...
Control program for receiving virtual machine, 82... Communication control program for receiving virtual machine, 84... Receiving area, 83... User program for receiving virtual machine, 8
3a...Reception buffer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a virtual computer system that realizes a plurality of virtual computers, (1) each logical channel number that has the same format as a physical channel number and is assigned to each virtual computer corresponds to an actual physical channel; Logical channel-real channel correspondence that holds information indicating whether the channel corresponds to a virtual channel for sending/receiving data to/from another virtual machine, and information indicating the channel state of the physical channel or virtual channel corresponding to the logical channel number. Table, (2) Storage area for temporarily storing transmission data, (3)
(4) a first mode in which the transmission data transferred to the storage area by the storage control means is transferred to the receiving area of the receiving virtual machine; a transfer unit that performs a second mode process of directly transferring processing and transmission data from the sending virtual machine to the receiving area of the receiving virtual machine without going through the storage area; (5) a logical channel number from the virtual machine; In response to a sending/receiving command, the logical channel-real channel correspondence table determines whether the logical channel number in the command corresponds to an actual physical channel or a virtual channel for transmitting/receiving data to/from another virtual machine. determining means for performing the following processing at the time of a reception command and at the time of a transmission command, respectively, if it is determined that the channel corresponds to a virtual channel;
[1] At the time of a receive command, if the received data has been stored in the storage area, the transfer means is made to perform the first mode processing, and if it is not stored, it corresponds to the logical channel number in the logical channel-real channel correspondence table. Change channel state during receive command execution. [2] At the time of a transmission command, if the channel state of the virtual channel of the communication partner determined from the logical channel-actual channel correspondence table is that the reception command is being executed, the transfer means is caused to perform the second mode processing, and the reception command is executed. If not, the storage control means is activated. (6) Notify necessary virtual machines of the completion of storing the transmission data in the storage area by the storage control means and the completion of transfer of the transmission data to the reception area by the first mode processing and second mode processing of the transfer means. 1. A communication method between virtual machines, characterized by comprising a notification means for sending a notification.