Microsoft Corporation
Paging in thin-provisioned disaggregated memory

Abstract:

Disclosed herein is a thin-provisioned multi-node computer system with a disaggregated memory pool and a pooled memory controller. The disaggregated memory pool is configured to make a shared memory capacity available to each of a plurality of compute nodes, such memory capacity being thinly provisioned relative to the plurality of compute nodes. The pooled memory controller is configured to assign a plurality of memory segments of the disaggregated memory pool to the plurality of compute nodes; identify a subset of the plurality of segments as cold segments, such identification being based on determining that a usage characteristic for each such cold segment is below a threshold; and page one or more of the cold segments out to an expanded bulk memory device, thereby freeing one or more assigned memory segments of the disaggregated memory pool.