Heartbeat monitoring of virtual machines for initiating failover operations in a data storage management system, including virtual machine distribution logic
First Claim
1. A method for assigning virtual machines as targets for monitoring by heartbeat monitor nodes in a data storage management system, the method comprising:
- by a master heartbeat monitor node, validating whether a first set of virtual machines are operational in the data storage management system,wherein the master heartbeat monitor node comprises a data agent in communication with a storage manager,wherein the data agent executes on one of (i) a nonvirtualized computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, and (ii) a first virtual machine executing on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory and executing a hypervisor,wherein the storage manager executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, andwherein the storage manager manages storage management operations in the data storage management system;
wherein the validating comprises;
obtaining from the storage manager a first list of the first set of virtual machines that are targeted for heartbeat monitoring by one or more heartbeat monitor nodes, andquerying one or more hypervisors operating in the data storage management system to confirm whether the targeted first set of virtual machines are currently operational, resulting in a list of confirmed target virtual machines;
by the master heartbeat monitor node, assigning, based on distribution rules, each target virtual machine on the list of confirmed target virtual machines to one of a plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes, resulting in a worker-to-virtual-machine mapping; and
by each of the plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes, performing heartbeat monitoring of one or more target virtual machines assigned thereto by the master heartbeat monitor node.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An illustrative “VM heartbeat monitoring network” of heartbeat monitor nodes monitors target VMs in a data storage management system. Accordingly, target VMs are distributed and re-distributed among illustrative worker monitor nodes according to preferences in an illustrative VM distribution logic. Worker heartbeat monitor nodes use an illustrative ping monitoring logic to transmit special-purpose heartbeat packets to respective target VMs and to track ping responses. If a target VM is ultimately confirmed failed by its worker monitor node, an illustrative master monitor node triggers an enhanced storage manager to initiate failover for the failed VM. The enhanced storage manager communicates with the heartbeat monitor nodes and also manages VM failovers and other storage management operations in the system. Special features for cloud-to-cloud failover scenarios enable a VM in a first region of a public cloud to fail over to a second region.
568 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for assigning virtual machines as targets for monitoring by heartbeat monitor nodes in a data storage management system, the method comprising:
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by a master heartbeat monitor node, validating whether a first set of virtual machines are operational in the data storage management system, wherein the master heartbeat monitor node comprises a data agent in communication with a storage manager, wherein the data agent executes on one of (i) a nonvirtualized computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, and (ii) a first virtual machine executing on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory and executing a hypervisor, wherein the storage manager executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, and wherein the storage manager manages storage management operations in the data storage management system; wherein the validating comprises; obtaining from the storage manager a first list of the first set of virtual machines that are targeted for heartbeat monitoring by one or more heartbeat monitor nodes, and querying one or more hypervisors operating in the data storage management system to confirm whether the targeted first set of virtual machines are currently operational, resulting in a list of confirmed target virtual machines; by the master heartbeat monitor node, assigning, based on distribution rules, each target virtual machine on the list of confirmed target virtual machines to one of a plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes, resulting in a worker-to-virtual-machine mapping; and by each of the plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes, performing heartbeat monitoring of one or more target virtual machines assigned thereto by the master heartbeat monitor node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A data storage management system for assigning virtual machines as targets for heartbeat monitoring by heartbeat monitor nodes, the system comprising:
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a data agent that executes on a computing device comprising one of;
(i) one or more processors and computer memory, and (ii) a first virtual machine hosted by a hypervisor executing on one or more processors and computer memory;wherein the data agent is configured to operate as a master heartbeat monitor node for validating whether a first set of virtual machines are operational in the data storage management system, wherein the master heartbeat monitor node is in communication with a storage manager that executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, and wherein the storage manager manages storage management operations in the data storage management system; wherein the validating by the master heartbeat monitor node comprises; obtaining from the storage manager a first list of the first set of virtual machines that are targeted for heartbeat monitoring by one or more heartbeat monitor nodes, and querying one or more hypervisors operating in the data storage management system to confirm whether the targeted first set of virtual machines are currently operational, resulting in a list of confirmed target virtual machines; wherein the master heartbeat monitor node is further configured to;
based on distribution rules, assign each target virtual machine on the list of confirmed target virtual machines to one of a plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes, resulting in a worker-to-virtual-machine mapping that is transmitted to each of the plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes by a distributed file system having an instance on each of the plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes; andwherein each of the plurality of worker heartbeat monitor nodes is configured to perform heartbeat monitoring of one or more target virtual machines assigned thereto by the master heartbeat monitor node. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification