Matching storage resource packs to storage services

• US 10,033,811 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2014
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Goodman, Daniel I., Harel, Ran, Matosevich, Rivka M., Nissan-Messing, Orit, Siles, Yossi
• Primary Examiner(s): Book, Phyllis A
• Application Number:
  US14/155,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20150201019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,652 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include receiving, by a first computer in communication with a storage system, multiple resource packs, each of the resource packs including a plurality of attributes for storage resources on the storage system. Upon the first computer receiving a request from a second computer for a storage service, one or more of the received resource packs are identified that have respective attributes matching the storage service, a given identified resource pack is selected and the given identified resource pack is conveyed to the second computer. In some embodiments, the given identified resource pack can be conveyed by conveying an allocation request to the storage system for a portion of the given identified resource pack, and in response to the request, the storage system can allocate the requested portion of the given identified resource pack to the second computer.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a first computer in communication with a storage system and prior to receiving a request for a storage service from a second computer, multiple resource packs upon the first computer conveying a resource pack inventory request to the storage system, each of the resource packs comprising a plurality of attributes for storage resources on the storage system such that a particular resource pack references a set of storage resources including processors, memory devices, and storage devices defined to comprise the particular resource pack;

wherein each of the multiple resource packs are associated with a resource pack type, the resource pack types initialized as entries into a table within the first computer and each resource type initialized as entries into the table associated with a certain application type;

receiving, by the first computer, the request from the second computer for the storage service, the storage service request comprising a set of storage requirements needed which include at least a required available storage capacity, a storage pool type, an indicator as to whether data compression is required, and a required number of average number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) supported by the storage system;

identifying one or more of the received resource packs having respective attributes matching the storage service and the certain application type requested;

selecting a given identified resource pack; and

conveying the given identified resource pack to the second computer by conveying, by the first computer, an allocation request to the storage system for a portion of the given identified resource pack, and allocating, by the storage system the requested portion of the given identified resource pack to the second computer.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second computer comprises a client computer in a cloud computing environment.

3. The method according to claim 1, and comprising prior to receiving the multiple resource packs, conveying, by the first computer, the resource pack inventory request to the storage system, and conveying, by the storage system, the multiple resource packs to the first computer in response to the resource pack request.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storage service is selected from a list consisting of application parameters and storage requirements.

5. The method according to claim 4, and comprising prior to receiving the request, associating, by the first computer, the application with the one or more resource packs, and wherein identifying the one or more resource packs comprises identifying the one or more resource packs associated with the application.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein identifying the one or more resource packs comprises identifying the one or more resource packs whose respective attributes can fulfill the one or more storage requirements.

7. A storage facility, comprising:

a storage system having storage resources; and

a first computer configured;

to receive, from the storage system and prior to receiving a request for a storage service from a second computer, multiple resource packs upon the first computer conveying a resource pack inventory request to the storage system, each of the resource packs comprising a plurality of attributes for the storage resources such that a particular resource pack references a set of storage resources including processors, memory devices, and storage devices defined to comprise the particular resource pack;

wherein each of the multiple resource packs are associated with a resource pack type, the resource pack types initialized as entries into a table within the first computer and each resource type initialized as entries into the table associated with a certain application type,

to receive, from the second computer, the request for the storage service, the storage service request comprising a set of storage requirements needed which include at least a required available storage capacity, a storage pool type, an indicator as to whether data compression is required, and a required number of average number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) supported by the storage system,

to identify one or more of the received resource packs having respective attributes matching the storage service and the certain application type requested,

to select a given identified resource pack, and

to convey the given identified resource pack to the second computer by conveying, by the first computer, an allocation request to the storage system for a portion of the given identified resource pack, and allocating, by the storage system the requested portion of the given identified resource pack to the second computer.

8. The storage facility according to claim 7, wherein the second computer comprises a client computer in a cloud computing environment.

9. The storage facility according to claim 7, wherein prior to receiving the multiple resource packs, the first computer is configured to convey the resource pack inventory request to the storage system, and wherein the storage system is configured to convey the multiple resource packs to the first computer in response to the resource pack request.

10. The storage facility according to claim 7, wherein the storage service is selected from a list consisting of application parameters and storage requirements.

11. The storage facility according to claim 10, wherein prior to receiving the request, the first computer is configured to associate the application with the one or more resource packs, and wherein the first computer is configured to identify the one or more resource packs by identifying the one or more resource packs associated with the application.

12. The storage facility according to claim 10, wherein the first computer is configured to identify the one or more resource packs by identifying the one or more resource packs whose respective attributes can fulfill the one or more storage requirements.

13. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive, from a storage system and prior to receiving a request for a storage service from a client computer, multiple resource packs upon the first computer conveying a resource pack inventory request to the storage system, each of the resource packs comprising a plurality of attributes for storage resources on the storage system such that a particular resource pack references a set of storage resources including processors, memory devices, and storage devices defined to comprise the particular resource pack;

wherein each of the multiple resource packs are associated with a resource pack type, the resource pack types initialized as entries into a table within a first computer in the storage system and each resource type initialized as entries into the table associated with a certain application type;

computer readable program code configured to receive, from the client computer, the request for the storage service, the storage service request comprising a set of storage requirements needed which include at least a required available storage capacity, a storage pool type, an indicator as to whether data compression is required, and a required number of average number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) supported by the storage system;

computer readable program code configured to identify one or more of the received resource packs having respective attributes matching the storage service and the certain application type requested;

computer readable program code configured to select a given identified resource pack; and

computer readable program code configured to convey the given identified resource pack to the client computer by conveying, by the first computer, an allocation request to the storage system for a portion of the given identified resource pack, and allocating, by the storage system the requested portion of the given identified resource pack to the client computer.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, and comprising computer readable program code configured, prior to receiving the multiple resource packs, to convey the resource pack inventory request to the storage system, and computer readable program code executing on the storage system and configured to convey the multiple resource packs to the first computer in response to the resource pack request.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the storage service is selected from a list consisting of application parameters and storage requirements.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, and comprising computer readable program code configured, prior to receiving the request, to associate the application with the one or more resource packs, and wherein the computer readable program code is configured to identify the one or more resource packs by identifying the one or more resource packs associated with the application.

17. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein the computer readable program code is configured to identify the one or more resource packs by identifying the one or more resource packs whose respective attributes can fulfill the one or more storage requirements.