Solution for SMP cluster virtualization

Cluster is a kind of important parallel computer architecture with the advantages of low cost and good scalability, but also with the pitfalls of poor programmability and difficult administration. By means of the virtualization technologies, a distributed cluster could be abstracted to a share-memory virtual machine for supporting the share-memory programming mode, so that the pitfalls of a cluster could be overcome. Currently, there were only a few primary study results in this area, and they could not support the virtualization of SMP (symmetric multiprocessor) clusters. A novel solution was presented, which was constructing a DVMM (distributed virtual machine monitor) on a SMP cluster based on hardware-assisted virtualization technologies. The DVMM contained some symmetrical and cooperative VMMs distributed on multi-node. The cooperation among the VMMs virtualized the distributed hardware resources of the cluster. Thus, the DVMM could support an unmodified legacy OS (operating system) to run transparently on a SMP cluster. Compared with the related works, our solution has some advantages of good transparence, high performance, wide usage and easy implementation.