Storage area network emulation
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- establishing a virtual storage area network, wherein the virtual storage area network includes a virtual machine communicatively coupled to a storage pool, wherein the storage pool is at least an allocation of data storage at a physical block storage device, and wherein the virtual machine represents a portion of the storage pool as a mass storage device to other virtual machines;
receiving metadata, wherein the metadata defines at least one storage pool configuration of the storage pool and at least one virtual machine configuration of the at least one virtual machine; and
configuring the virtual machine and the storage pool of the virtual storage network in accordance with the received metadata.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Generating a virtual storage area network (VSAN) is disclosed. From the perspective of a customer'"'"'s virtual machine, the VSAN is a logical network of storage devices that provide features that are typically associated with a physical storage access network, such as block level data storage; logical disk arrays; tape libraries; optical jukeboxes; quality of service; disk mirroring, backup and restoration services; archival and retrieval of archived data; data migration from one virtual storage device to another; sharing of data among different virtual machines in a network; and the incorporation of virtual subnetworks.
22 Citations
39 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
-
establishing a virtual storage area network, wherein the virtual storage area network includes a virtual machine communicatively coupled to a storage pool, wherein the storage pool is at least an allocation of data storage at a physical block storage device, and wherein the virtual machine represents a portion of the storage pool as a mass storage device to other virtual machines; receiving metadata, wherein the metadata defines at least one storage pool configuration of the storage pool and at least one virtual machine configuration of the at least one virtual machine; and configuring the virtual machine and the storage pool of the virtual storage network in accordance with the received metadata. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A virtual storage area network, comprising:
-
a first virtual machine; a second virtual machine; and a storage pool, wherein the first virtual machine is programmed to; receive one or more storage access requests from the second virtual machine, wherein the one or more storage access requests were sent at a first I/O data rate, and send the one or more storage access requests to the storage pool at a second I/O data rate, wherein the second I/O data rate is within a storage pool I/O data rate limit defined by metadata associated with the storage pool. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
-
initiating one or more storage pools at a physical block storage device, wherein a each storage pool is at least an allocation of data storage at the physical block storage device, and wherein metadata associated with each storage pool determines characteristics of one or more of the initiated storage pools; receiving storage operation requests from a virtual machine, wherein the storage operation requests are for accessing one of the storage pools at the physical block storage device; adjusting a rate at which the storage operation requests are sent to the physical block storage device to comply with an I/O data rate limit defined by the metadata; and sending the storage operation requests to the physical block storage device at the adjusted rate. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
36. A computer-implemented system including at least one processor, the system comprising:
virtual storage area network software executed on the at least one processor to; establish a virtual storage network, wherein the virtual storage network include a virtual machine communicatively coupled to a storage pool, wherein the storage pool is at least an allocation of data storage at a physical block storage device, and wherein the virtual machine represents a portion of the storage pool as a mass storage device to other virtual machines; determine metadata, wherein the metadata defines at least one storage pool configuration of the storage pool and at least one virtual machine configuration of the at least one virtual machine; and configure the virtual machine and the storage pool of the virtual storage network in accordance with the determined metadata. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39)
Specification