Support for nested faults in a virtual machine environment

Description of equivalent WO 2006007361 A2

SUPPORT FOR NESTED FAULTS IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE

ENVIRONMENT

Field

[0001] Embodiments of the invention relate generally to virtual

machines, and more specifically to providing support for nested faults in a

virtual machine environment.

Background

[0002] An interrupt or an exception signals a processor that some special

internal or external condition requires attention. Upon receiving such a signal,

a processor suspends the current process and starts executing a routine to

handle the special condition. This routine is referred to as a handler. The

handler's task typically consists of determining the source and cause of the

special condition, handling of the condition, and resuming the suspended

process (if the process has not been terminated).

[0003] To help the software identify the cause of an interrupt or

exception quickly, each special condition may be assigned a distinct number

called a vector or vector number. This assignment is part of a given processor

instruction set architecture (ISA). For example, the ISA of the Intel^® Pentium^® 4

(referred to herein as the IA-32 ISA) assigns a vector number to each exception

(e.g., vector 0 corresponds to a divide error and vector 14 corresponds to a page fault), but leaves open the vector assignment of interrupts (e.g., interrupts

generated by the network interface hardware).

[0004] To speed up interrupt and exception processing, an architecture

may define a structure, called the interrupt descriptor table (IDT), which holds

an entry per vector. Each entry contains a descriptor (e.g., an interrupt gate,

trap gate or task gate in the IA-32 ISA) specifying the location of the

corresponding handler. This design allows software to install distinct handlers

for each interrupt or exception that has been assigned a vector. Some ISAs may

utilize a single vector for all exceptions and/or interrupts.

[0005] When the processor detects a special condition, it fetches the IDT

entry corresponding to the current condition and determines the pointer to the

beginning of the associated handler. In ISAs utilizing a single vector for all

exceptions and/ or interrupts, no indexing of an IDT is required; the pointer to

the beginning of the associated handler is determined from the single vector.

The processor next saves the state of the process currently running (e.g., its

instruction pointer), and jumps to the beginning of the handler using the

extracted pointer. This process is referred to as delivering a fault.

[0006] In some ISAs, for some kinds of exceptions, an error code may be

pushed onto the stack prior to jumping to the beginning of the handler.

Alternatively, an eror code may be provided in a hardware register, one or

more memory locations, or using some other means. The error code provides to

the handler additional information regarding the exceptional condition (e.g., an

identifier for a faulting segment register). [0007] In some ISAs, exceptions may occur while delivering interrupts or

exceptions. For example, in the IA-32 ISA, the processor may encounter a

number of exceptions during delivery of the interrupt or exception to the

handler, such as a page fault resulting from the page where the IDT resides

being marked not present in the page tables. In this case, the processor delivers

a page-fault exception instead of the interrupt.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0008] The invention may be best understood by referring to the

following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrates

embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:

[0009] Figure 1 illustrates one embodiment of a virtual-machine

environment, in which some embodiments of the present invention may

operate;

[0010] Figures 2 and 3 are flow diagrams of two embodiments of a

process for providing support for nested faults in a virtual machine

environment.

[0011] Figure 4 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process for

handling nested faults in a virtual-machine environment. Description of Embodiments

[0012] A method and apparatus for providing support for nested faults

in a virtual machine environment are described. In the following description,

for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth. It will be

apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the invention

can be practiced without these specific details.

[0013] Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are

presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on

data bits within a computer system's registers or memory. These algorithmic

descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data

processing arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art

most effectively. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-

consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations

are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually,

although not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic

signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and

otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for

reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,

symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.

[0014] It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar

terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are

merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated

otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that discussions utilizing terms such as "processing" or "computing" or "calculating"

or "determining" or the like, may refer to the action and processes of a computer

system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and

transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the

computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented

as physical quantities within the computer-system memories or registers or

other such information storage, transmission or display devices.

[0015] In the following detailed description of the embodiments,

reference is made to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of

illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. In

the drawings, like numerals describe substantially similar components

throughout the several views. These embodiments are described in sufficient

detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other

embodiments may be utilized and structural, logical, and electrical changes

may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Moreover, it is to be understood that the various embodiments of the invention,

although different, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, a

particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in one embodiment may

be included within other embodiments.

[0016] Although the below examples may describe support for nested

faults in a virtual machine environment in the context of execution units and

logic circuits, other embodiments of the present invention can be accomplished

by way of software. For example, in some embodiments, the present invention may be provided as a computer program product or software which may

include a machine or computer-readable medium having stored thereon

instructions which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic

devices) to perform a process according to the present invention. In other

embodiments, processes of the present invention might be performed by

specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the

processes, or by any combination of programmed computer components and

custom hardware components.

[0017] Thus, a machine-readable medium may include any mechanism

for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a

computer), but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, Compact Disc,

Read-Only Memory (CD-ROMs), and magneto-optical disks, Read-Only

Memory (ROMs), Random Access Memory (RAM), Erasable Programmable

Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only

Memory (EEPROM), magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, a transmission

over the Internet, electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms of propagated

signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.) or the like.

[0018] Further, a design may go through various stages, from creation to

simulation to fabrication. Data representing a design may represent the design

in a number of manners. First, as is useful in simulations, the hardware may be

represented using a hardware description language or another functional

description language. Additionally, a circuit level model with logic and/ or

transistor gates may be produced at some stages of the design process. Furthermore, most designs, at some stage, reach a level of data representing the

physical placement of various devices in the hardware model. In the case

where conventional semiconductor fabrication techniques are used, data

representing a hardware model may be the data specifying the presence or

absence of various features on different mask layers for masks used to produce

the integrated circuit. In any representation of the design, the data may be

stored in any form of a machine-readable medium. An optical or electrical

wave modulated or otherwise generated to transmit such information, a

memory, or a magnetic or optical storage such as a disc may be the machine

readable medium. Any of these mediums may "carry" or "indicate" the design

or software information. When an electrical carrier wave indicating or carrying

the code or design is transmitted, to the extent that copying, buffering, or re¬

transmission of the electrical signal is performed, a new copy is made. Thus, a

communication provider or a network provider may make copies of an article

(a carrier wave) embodying techniques of the present invention.

[0019] Figure 1 illustrates one embodiment of a virtual-machine

environment 100, in which the present invention may operate. In this

embodiment, bare platform hardware 116 comprises a computing platform,

which may be capable, for example, of executing a standard operating system

(OS) or a virtual-machine monitor (VMM), such as a VMM 112.

[0020] The VMM 112, though typically implemented in software, may

emulate and export a bare machine interface to higher level software. Such

higher level software may comprise a standard or real-time OS, may be a highly stripped down operating environment with limited operating system

functionality, may not include traditional OS facilities, etc. Alternatively, for

example, the VMM 112 may be run within, or on top of, another VMM. VMMs

may be implemented, for example, in hardware, software, firmware or by a

combination of various techniques.

[0021] The platform hardware 116 can be of a personal computer (PC),

mainframe, handheld device, portable computer, set-top box, or any other

computing system. The platform hardware 116 includes a processor 118 and

memory 120.

[0022] Processor 118 can be any type of processor capable of executing

software, such as a microprocessor, digital signal processor, microcontroller, or

the like. The processor 118 may include microcode, programmable logic or

hardcoded logic for performing the execution of method embodiments of the

present invention. Although Figure 1 shows only one such processor 118, there

may be one or more processors in the system.

[0023] Memory 120 can be a hard disk, a floppy disk, random access

memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, any combination of

the above devices, or any other type of machine medium readable by processor

118. Memory 120 may store instructions and/ or data for performing the

execution of method embodiments of the present invention.

[0024] The VMM 112 presents to other software (i.e., "guest" software)

the abstraction of one or more virtual machines (VMs), which may provide the

same or different abstractions to the various guests. Figure 1 shows two VMs, 102 and 114. The guest software running on each VM may include a guest OS

such as a guest OS 104 or 106 and various guest software applications 108 and

110. Each of the guest OSs 104 and 106 expect to access physical resources (e.g.,

processor registers, memory and I/O devices) within the VMs 102 and 114 on

which the guest OS 104 or 106 is running and to perform other functions. For

example, the guest OS expects to have access to all registers, caches, structures,

I/O devices, memory and the like, according to the architecture of the processor

and platform presented in the VM.

[0025] The resources that can be accessed by the guest software may

either be classified as "privileged" or "non-privileged." For privileged

resources, the VMM 112 facilitates functionality desired by guest software while

retaining ultimate control over these privileged resources. Non-privileged

resources do not need to be controlled by the VMM 112 and can be accessed by

guest software.

[0026] Further, each guest OS expects to handle various fault events such

as exceptions (e.g., page faults, general protection faults, traps, aborts, etc.),

interrupts (e.g., hardware interrupts, software interrupts), and platform events

(e.g., initialization (INIT) and system management interrupts (SMIs)). Some of

these fault events are "privileged" because they must be handled by the VMM

112 to ensure proper operation of VMs 102 and 114 and for protection from and

among guest software.

[0027] When a privileged fault event occurs or guest software attempts to

access a privileged resource, control may be transferred to the VMM 112. The transfer of control from guest software to the VMM 112 is referred to herein as a

VM exit. After facilitating the resource access or handling the event

appropriately, the VMM 112 may return control to guest software. The transfer

of control from the VMM 112 to guest software is referred to as a VM entry.

[0028] In one embodiment, the processor 118 controls the operation of

the VMs 102 and 114 in accordance with data stored in a virtual machine

control structure (VMCS) 124. The VMCS 124 is a structure that may contain

state of the guest software, state of the VMM 112, execution control information

indicating how the VMM 112 wishes to control operation of guest software,

information controlling transitions between the VMM 112 and a VM, etc. The

processor 118 reads information from the VMCS 124 to determine the execution

environment of the VM and to constrain its behavior. In one embodiment, the

VMCS 124 is stored in memory 120. In some embodiments, multiple VMCS

structures are used to support multiple VMs.

[0029] When a fault event occurs during the operation of a VM, the

processor 118 determines whether this fault event is associated with a VM exit

(i.e., whether an execution control indicator associated with this fault is set to a

VM exit value to cause a VM exit for this fault). If the fault event is associated

with a VM exit, the processor 118 generates a VM exit to the VMM 112,

indicating that the VM exit was caused by the fault event. The VMM 112 may

then decide to handle the fault itself or request the processor 118 to deliver the

fault to an appropriate VM. [0030] In one embodiment, delivering of the fault involves searching a

redirection structure for an entry associated with the fault being delivered,

extracting from this entry a descriptor of the location of a routine designated to

handle this fault, and jumping to the beginning of the routine using the

descriptor. Routines designated to handle corresponding interrupts, exceptions

or any other faults are referred to as fault handlers. In another embodiment,

delivering of the fault does not require searching a redirection structure. In

such an embodiment, the descriptor of the location of the fault handling routine

may be included in a single entry (e.g., configurable by software) or hardcoded

(e.g., at a fixed location in memory).

[0031] Delivery of a fault may require the performance of one or more

address translations, converting an address from a virtual to physical form. For

example, the address of the interrupt table or the address of the associated

handler may be a virtual address. The processor may also need to perform

various checks during the delivery of a fault. For example, the processor may

perform consistency checks such as validation of segmentation registers and

access addresses (resulting in limit violation faults, segment-not-present faults,

stack faults, etc.), permission level checks that may result in protection faults

(e.g., general-protection faults), etc.

[0032] Address translations and checking during fault delivery may

result in a variety of faults, such as page faults, general protection faults, etc.

Such a nested fault must be delivered to the appropriate handler. The delivery

of the new, nested fault may also result in a fault. Depending on an ISA, such fault nesting may continue until it reaches a maximum allowed nested fault

level, at which the processor 118 brings the VM to a shutdown state. In the IA-

32 ISA, for example, a triple fault causes the processor to bring the VM to a

shutdown state. Various events may cause the VM to leave the shutdown state.

For example, in the IA-32 ISA, when the processor is in the triple fault

shutdown state, system initialization messages (INITs), non-maskable

interrupts (NMIs), machine check exceptions, and system-management

interrupts (SMIs) cause the processor to leave the shutdown state.

[0033] Delivery of a fault to a VM may be performed by the processor

118, or by another entity such as VMM 112. The processor 118 may provide

facilities for VMM 112 to deliver a fault to a VM as a part of a VM entry to the

VM, removing the necessity for the VMM 112 to emulate this behavior.

[0034] In one embodiment, the processor 118 includes nested fault logic

122 that is responsible for tracking fault nesting and capturing information

pertaining to faults occurring at various levels. This fault-nesting information

may subsequently be used by the VMM 112 once a nested fault causes a VM

exit. In one embodiment, the VMM 112 includes a fault coordinator 126 that is

responsible for coordinating handling of nested faults based on the fault nesting

information. For example, if a page fault owned by the VMM 112 occurs during

the delivery of an original interrupt (e.g., if the VMM 112 uses a physical

memory virtualization algorithm to protect and partition physical memory

among the VMs and the page where the IDT resides in physical memory is not

mapped by the page tables), such an induced page fault causes a VM exit to the VMM 112. The fault coordinator 126 of the VMM 112 then resolves the induced

page fault, returns control to the VM and reinitiates the delivery of the original

interrupt (or otherwise emulate its delivery). The fault coordinator 126

determines that it needs to return control to the VM and to reinitiate the

delivery of the original interrupt based on the details about the original

interrupt in the fault nesting information.

[0035] In one embodiment, the nested fault logic 122 captures

information about nested faults using a set of fields corresponding to various

nesting levels. In one embodiment, fault information is captured for each of the

allowed nesting levels. For example, if four nesting levels are allowed, the fault

information is captured for each of the four levels. In one embodiment, the

fault information includes fault identifying information such as a fault identifier

and a fault type (e.g., external interrupt, internal interrupt, non-maskable

interrupt (NMI), exception, etc.). In another embodiment, in which a fault is

associated with an error code that needs to be pushed onto a stack (or provided

in a hardware register or via other means) prior to jumping to the beginning of

the handler, the fault information also includes an error code. In this

embodiment, the set of nested fault fields may include two or more fields for

each allowed nesting level: one field for fault identifying information and the

other field(s) for the error code or other information pertaining to the fault.

[0036] In an alternative embodiment, the fault information is captured

only for two most recent faults. For example, if four nesting levels are allowed

and nested faults occur at each allowed nesting level without causing a VM exit at any of the first three levels, the fault information is reported to the VMM only

for faults associated with levels 3 and 4 (i.e., the two most recently encountered

faults). Again, for each of the two most recent levels, the fault information

includes fault identifying information such as a fault identifier and a fault type,

and, in one embodiment, also an error code associated with the fault. The loss

of fault information for earlier faults may place requirements on the VMM to

configure operation of VMs to cause VM exits for more types of faults to avoid

the loss of nested fault information because the loss of fault information may

make restarting of the VM difficult or impossible.

[0037] One or more storage locations are available to store fault

information. In one embodiment, these locations are in the VMCS 124.

Alternatively, these locations may be in the processor 118, the memory 120, a

combination of the memory 120 and the processor 118, or in any other storage

location or locations.

[0038] One set of the storage locations available to store fault information

for a single fault is referred to herein as a fault information field, or simply a

field (even though more than one storage location may exist such as, for

example, a storage location for fault identifying information and a storage

location for the error code).

[0039] Figure 2 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of a process for

providing support for nested faults in a virtual machine environment. The

process may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware

(e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (such as that run on a general purpose computer system or a dedicated

machine), or a combination of both. In one embodiment, the process is

performed by nested fault logic 122 of Figure 1.

[0040] Referring to Figure 2, process 200 begins with processing logic

detecting an initial fault (referred to as fault 1) during operation of a VM

(processing block 202). Faults detected during operation of a VM may be

exceptions (e.g., page faults, general protection faults, a trap, an abort, etc.),

interrupts (e.g., a hardware interrupt, a software interrupt, etc.), or a variety of

platform events (e.g., INIT, an SMI, etc.). Processing logic initializes a variable

n to 1 to track the fault nesting level (processing block 203).

At processing block 204, processing logic stores fault information pertaining to

the initial fault (i.e., fault V₁ n=l) in fault information field 1 (i.e., field n). The

fault information pertaining to this initial fault, or any other fault discussed

herein, includes information identifying the fault such as a fault identifier and a

fault type (e.g., external interrupt, internal interrupt, NMI, exception, etc.) and,

in one embodiment, also an error code and/ or other information associated

with the fault. In another embodiment, processing logic does not store the

information pertaining to the initial fault in the fault information field 1 until a

second fault is detected. Rather, processing logic stores the information

pertaining in a temporary storage location (e.g., in memory, in a processor

register or in another location) prior to detecting the second fault.

[0041] At decision block 206, processing logic determines whether fault n

is associated with a VM exit (i.e., a corresponding execution control indicator is set to a VM exit value to require that fault n cause a VM exit). If fault n is

associated with a VM exit, processing logic generates a VM exit (processing

block 210). The determination may be based on the fault identifier (i.e., the fault

vector), an error code associated with the fault, one or more indicators or fields

in the VMCS, etc.

[0042] If fault n is not associated with a VM exit, processing logic

determines whether the nesting level associated with fault n (i.e., nesting level

n) exceeds a maximum allowed nesting level (decision box 216). If the

maximum allowed nesting level has been exceeded, processing logic

determines if a transition to shutdown state is configured to cause a VM exit

(decision box 217). If so, processing logic generates a VM exit, informing the

VMM that the VM exit was caused by a pending transition to the shutdown

state (processing block 224). If a transition to shutdown state is not configured

to cause a VM exit, processing logic brings the VM to shutdown state

(processing block 218). In another embodiment, a pending transition to

shutdown state unconditionally causes a VM exit. In yet another embodiment,

a transition to shutdown state never causes a VM exit, in which case, the VM

always enters the shutdown state if the maximum allowed nesting level is

exceeded.

[0043] If (as determined in decision box 216) the maximum allowed

nesting level has not been exceeded, processing logic attempts to deliver fault n

to the VM (processing block 210) and determines whether any new fault (fault

n+1) occurs during the delivery of fault n (decision box 212). [0044] If no new fault occurs during the delivery of fault n, processing

logic transfers control to the first instruction of the handler associated with fault

n (processing block 214). Alternatively, if fault n+1 occurs during the delivery

of fault n, then processing logic stores fault information for fault n+1 in field

n+1 (processing block 220). Further, processing logic increments n by 1

(processing block 222) and returns to decision box 206.

[0045] Accordingly, process 200 captures and stores information for

nested faults occurring at any allowed nesting levels. Information about all

faults encountered is stored in one or more fault information fields.

[0046] Figure 3 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 300 for

supporting nested faults in a virtual-machine environment. The process may be

performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry,

dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (such as run on

a general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or a combination

of both. In one embodiment, process 300 is performed by nested fault logic 122

of Figure 1.

[0047] Referring to Figure 3, process 300 begins with processing logic

determining that a fault needs to be delivered to a VM (processing block 301).

Processing logic initializes, a level counter to 1 (processing block 302).

Processing logic then stores fault information for the current fault being

delivered in a current fault information field and initializes a previous fault

information field to indicate that no previous fault was encountered (processing

block 304). The initialization of the previous fault field may, for example, clear a bit indicating that the fault information field is valid. Alternatively, any other

encoding can be used to indicate that no fault information is included in the

field.

[0048] Next, processing logic determines whether the current fault is

being delivered as part of a VM entry (decision box 306). If not, processing

logic determines whether the current fault is configured to cause a VM exit

(decision box 308). In one embodiment, this determination is made by

consulting one or more execution controls in the VMCS. If the current fault

causes a VM exit, processing logic generates a VM exit (processing block 314).

In one embodiment, as part of the VM exit, processing logic provides the

current fault information and previous fault information fields to the VMM. In

an embodiment, these fault information fields are included in the VMCS that is

accessible to the VMM. The fault information fields may be made available to

the VMM through any mechanism known in the art (e.g., one or more registers

or memory locations).

[0049] If the current fault does not cause a VM exit, processing logic

determines whether the level counter is equal to the maximum allowed nesting

level (decision box 310). This determination is made using the level variable

(initialized in processing block 302 and incremented in processing block 316).

For example, in the IA-32 ISA, the maximum allowed fault nesting level is 3. If

the maximum fault nesting level has been reached, processing logic determines

if a transition to a fault shutdown state causes a VM exit (processing box 311).

This determination may be made, in an embodiment, by consulting one or more execution controls in the VMCS. If a VM exit is indicated, processing logic

causes a VM exit to the VMM, indicating that the VM exit was caused by a

pending transition to the fault shutdown state (processing block 326). If a VM

exit is not indicated, processing logic brings the VM to a fault shutdown state

(processing block 312). In another embodiment, a pending transition to

shutdown state unconditionally causes a VM exit. In yet another embodiment,

a transition to shutdown state never causes a VM exit, in which case, the VM

always enters the shutdown state if the maximum allowed nesting level is

exceeded.

[0050] If (as determined in processing box 310) the maximum allowed

fault nesting level has not been reached, processing logic tries to deliver the

current fault to the VM (processing block 318), and determines whether any

new fault occurs during delivery of the current fault (decision box 320). If not,

processing logic transfers control to the first instruction of a handler associated

with the current fault (processing block 322). If so, processing logic increments

the level counter by 1 (processing block 316), moves data from the current fault

information field to the previous fault information field (processing block 324)

and proceeds to decision box 308.

[0051] As described above, in some embodiments, a VMM may, at VM

entry, indicate to the processor that a fault should be delivered to the VM as

part of VM entry processing. If processing logic determines at decision box 306

that the current fault is being delivered as part of a VM entry, then the current

fault cannot cause a VM exit and, therefore, processing logic does not perform the check in processing block 308. Additionally, in the embodiment shown in

Figure 3, the VMM may only inject the initial fault, therefore the check of

processing block 310 is not performed if the check at processing box 306

indicates that the initial fault is being delivered as part of VM entry. Rather,

processing logic proceeds directly to processing block 318.

[0052] Note that some ISAs may not allow for the retention of nested

fault information under some circumstances. Additionally, some ISAs may

have more complex progressions toward a shutdown state than described in the

preceding embodiments of the invention. For example, in the IA-32 ISA, a

double fault occurs due to certain combinations of page fault(s) and

contributory fault(s). The occurrence of a double fault causes the loss of

information of the previous fault(s). A subsequent fault following a double

fault may result in a triple fault, which loses information on all previous faults.

Certain exceptions in the IA-32 ISA may be classified as benign, in which case,

they may not lead to the occurrence of a double or triple fault. Additionally, in

the IA-32 ISA, successive machine check exceptions may initiate a transition to

shutdown state, but a machine check may not lead to the occurrence of a double

or triple fault. Further, the delivery of faults through the IDT may cause a task-

switch, which, when the faults occur during the execution of a VM, may, in an

embodiment, cause a VM exit to the VMM. The ISA-specific functionality is not

reflected in Figure 2 or Figure 3.

[0053] Figure 4 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a process 400 for

handling nested faults in a virtual-machine environment. The process may be performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g., circuitry,

dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (such as run on

a general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or a combination

of both. In one embodiment, process 400 is performed by the VMM 112 of

Figure 1.

[0054] Referring to Figure 4, process 400 begins with processing logic

receiving control due to a VM exit (processing block 402). Next, processing

logic determines that the VM exit was caused by a fault (processing block 404)

and further determines that this fault is a nested fault (i.e., it occurred during

the delivery of an original fault) (processing block 406). In an embodiment,

these determinations may be made by examining data provided by the

processor in exit information fields in the VMCS.

[0055] Further, processing logic handles the fault that caused the VM exit

(processing block 408), reinitiates the delivery of the original fault or otherwise

emulates the delivery of the original fault to the VM (processing block 412), and

returns control to the VM (processing block 410). As described above, the

reinitiation of the delivery of the original fault may be performed, for example,

by the VMM by emulating the delivery of the fault in software, or by the VMM

requesting that the processor perform the delivery of the fault as part of

returning control to the guest.

[0056] Thus, a method and apparatus for providing support for nested

faults in a virtual machine environment have been described. It is to be

understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art

upon reading and understanding the above description. The scope of the

invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended

claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are

entitled.