EECS 441: Resource Virtualization, Winter 2009

Instructor:Peter A. Dinda (Office Hours: Thursdays, 2-4 or by Appointment)
Time:Winter 2009, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:50am
Location:Tech M164 (may move to a conference room)
Course number:EECS 441

Unlike previous iterations of this course (Winter 2007, for example), this instance has a significant difference. We will spend about 1/2 of the quarter examining a virtual machine monitor in depth. In particular, we will examine the implementation of the Palacios VMM from my V3VEE Research Project. Students will collectively scribe and edit this 1/2 of the course to produce a technical report. The readings will be correspondingly reduced.

General Handouts

  • Syllabus (pdf)
  • Scribe and Editor Assignments (pdf)
  • Schedule
  • Reading List (pdf)
  • Project List (handed out in class on paper)

    • Communication

  • We will use a Google group for discussion and to help with scribing. You can request access to our group using the following:
    Google Groups
    Subscribe to EECS 441 Resource Virtualization
    Email:
    Visit this group

  • Scribed notes will be kept in a CVS repository to which all students have access. The note format will be LaTeX.

    • Resources

  • We will be studying the Palacios Virtual Machine Monitor in depth. You want to install it using the git instructions given in the technical report. You can build and run it (under QEMU) on any Linux machine. It is also possible to build and use under Cygwin in Windows, although this has not been tested recently.
  • You should have a Tlab and Wilkinson Lab accounts. The renovated Wilkinson Lab is quite a nice place to work as a group.
  • If you haven't used Linux or Unix remotely before, you will want to read Using Unix Remotely Without the Excruciating Pain.
  • On the TLab computers /home/pdinda/virt contains various tools you will need, including git and QEMU. You will want to add /home/pdinda/virt/bin to your path.
  • You will want to have the Intel Architecture Manuals and the AMD Architecture Manuals handy. You can also get a free copy of the Intel manuals on paper from Intel.
  • QEMU is a free x86 emulator that runs on most operating systems. You can use it to run Palacios.
  • The version of Palacios you will be using is embedded into GeekOS, which has its own useful documentation and description.
  • You watch my Introduction to CVS (realplayer - use netid to access)) or see my slides.
  • Andrew Roberts has a good tutorial on using LaTeX. In our scribe environment, you can just run make to rebuild the document.
  • You may find VLab, the Virtual Lab, to be useful.
  • Infoworld's Virtualization Report gives some idea of the current business and IT topics related to virtualization.
  • Paper Sources
  • CiteSeerX
  • Google Scholar
  • Access to IBM Journals
  • The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Second Edition
  • The Common Language Run-time and .NET
  • Info on the UCSD p-System, the ur-JVM
    • Peter Dinda
    Last modified: Sun Jan 11 15:06:15 CST 2009