Checkpoint-recovery mechanism using re-/de-virtualization in bare-metal systems

Abstract

Virtualization technique improves management capabilities in computer systems such as live migra- tion and checkpoint. However, there are many applications which are well fitted to bare-metal system because of their certain demands. As these applications do not use virtualization, they cannot benefit from the management capabilities of virtualization. To support management capabilities in bare-metal systems, we design and implement re-virtualization and de-virtualization techniques in an x86 architec-ture without operating system modification. We a insert transient virtualization layer into a bare-metal system using re-virtualization. This layer makes the bare-metal system takes advantage of management capabilities. After using management capabilities, our system removes the virtualization layer to main-tain bare-metal performance. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of the re- and de virtualization techniques, and present a checkpoint-recovery system that can recover from operating system failures by exploiting re- and de-virtualization.