Virtual storage target offload techniques

• US 10,248,334 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2016
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Oshins, Jacob, Green, Dustin L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tiv, Backhean
• Application Number:
  US15/177,142
• Publication Number:
  US 20170017422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,028 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• 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

A virtual machine storage service can be use a unique network identifier and a SR-IOV compliant device can be used to transport I/O between a virtual machine and the virtual machine storage service. The virtual machine storage service can be offloaded to a child partition or migrated to another physical machine along with the unique network identifier.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computing device that comprises a first set of instructions to be performed that when executed by the processor cause the system to;

receive a first input/output request addressed to a first unique identifier for a network from a child partition; and

route, via a network adapter, the first input/output request to a storage service attached to the first unique identifier, the storage service configured to serve as a storage target in the network and manage input/output operations for the child partition to an associated virtual hard disk;

wherein the storage service is attached to a first virtual function including the first unique identifier and the child partition is attached to a second virtual function including a second unique identifier, the first virtual function and the second virtual function being effectuated by the network adapter.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device further comprises a second set of instructions to be performed that when executed by the processor cause the system to:

send a request to a remote computing system to instantiate an instance of the storage service and assign the first unique identifier to the instance of the storage service on the remote computing system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the computing device further comprises a third set of instructions to be performed that when executed by the processor cause the system to:

receive a second input/output request addressed to the first unique identifier from the child partition; and

route, via the network adapter, the second input/output request to the instance of the storage service on the remote computing system.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first input/output request is sent in response to determining that a number of input/output requests over a predetermined threshold have been received from the remote computer system.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the network adapter is configured to transport the input/output operations between the storage service and the child partition without using software communication paths.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the input/output operations are directly communicated between the child partition and the network adapter without support from a hypervisor.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage service is further configured to generate the virtual hard disk.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving a request, from a remote computing system, to instantiate a storage service and assign a first unique identifier for a network to the storage service, the storage service configured to serve as a storage target in the network and manage input/output operations for a child partition to an associated virtual hard disk, the virtual hard disk and the child partition each associated with computing resources of the remote computing system; and

instantiating the storage service without migrating the virtual hard disk, wherein the storage service is assigned the first unique identifier;

wherein the storage service is attached to a first virtual function including the first unique identifier and the child partition is attached to a second virtual function including a second unique identifier, the first virtual function and the second virtual function being effectuated by a network adapter.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an input/output request addressed to the unique identifier from the child partition associated with the computing resources of the remote computing system.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the storage service exchanges data with the virtual hard disk associated with the computing resources of the remote computing system to satisfy the input/output request.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein instantiating the storage service includes instantiating the storage service in a parent partition.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving state information of a protocol stack associated the storage service from the remote computing system.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein instantiating the storage service includes updating a routing table in the network adapter.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the state information is used in instantiating the storage service to provide the child partition with uninterrupted input/output service during migration.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein serialization is performed by an instance of the storage service executing on the remote computing system to generate the state information.

16. A computing system comprising:

a processor; and

a computing device that comprises a first set of instructions to be performed that when executed by the processor cause the system to at least;

send a request to a remote computing system to instantiate a storage service and assign a first unique identifier for a network to the storage service, the storage service configured to serve as a storage target in the network and manage input/output operations for a child partition to an associated virtual hard disk, the child partition and the virtual hard disk each effectuated with computing resources of the computing system; and

send an input/output request from the child partition to the remote computing system that is addressed to the first unique identifier;

wherein the storage service is attached to a first virtual function including the first unique identifier and the child partition is attached to a second virtual function including a second unique identifier, the first virtual function and the second virtual function being effectuated by a network adapter.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device further comprises a second set of instructions to be performed that when executed by the processor cause the system to:

receive data from the storage service at the remote computing system in response to the input/output request.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the data is received from the storage service instantiated in a hypervisor of the remote computing system.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein an input/output memory management unit translates guest physical addresses associated with the input/output request from the child partition to system physical addresses.