A method and system are provided for integrating partitions in a virtual
machine environment. Specifically, a partition bus is provided, where the
partition bus operatively connects partitions in such a way that it
functions as a data transport mechanism allowing for data transfer and
device sharing between partitions. The partition bus relies on
virtualizing software in order to establish itself and to establish
channels of communication between partitions and to inject interrupts to
partitions where it is appropriate to do so. Furthermore, the partition
bus employs such mechanisms ring buffers, transfer pages, and memory map
changes to transfer information (requests and data). Furthermore, it uses
policy agents to decide when information should be transferred or when
devices should be shared among partitions. Lastly, it employs various
mechanisms to ensure smooth integration between partitions, which
includes remote services that have proxy devices and device versioning
functionalities.