Switched direct attached shared storage architecture

• US 10,452,316 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2017
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Midst Data LLC
• Original Assignee: Apeiron Data Systems
• Inventors: Lomelino, Larry, Christ, Christopher, Marripudi, Gunneswara Rao, Laswell, Harry, Lahr, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Lan Dai T
• Application Number:
  US15/694,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20170364307A1
• Time in Patent Office: 780 Days
• Field of Search: 709206, 709219, 709223, 709220, 709222, 709238
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/413 with random access, e.g. carrier-sense multiple-access with collision detection [CSMA-CD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• 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

Various embodiments for implementing a switched direct attached shared storage architecture as disclosed herein include: providing a plurality of compute nodes, each compute node having integrated compute capabilities, data storage, and a network interface controller (Host NIC), the plurality of compute nodes being in data communication with each other via a local area network, the plurality of compute nodes each including distributed storage processing software resident thereon; providing a plurality of physical data storage devices in data communication with a storage controller; and enabling data communications in a data store switch fabric between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices via the Host NIC and the storage controller, the data store switch fabric encapsulating data requests from the plurality of compute nodes into data frames for transport to corresponding physical data storage devices.

Claims

1. A switched direct attached shared data storage system comprising:

a plurality of compute nodes, each compute node having integrated compute capabilities, data storage, and a network interface controller (Host NIC), the plurality of compute nodes being in data communication with each other via a local area network, the plurality of compute nodes each including distributed storage processing software resident thereon;

a plurality of physical data storage devices in data communication with a storage controller; and

a data store switch fabric enabling data communications between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices via the Host NIC and the storage controller, the data store switch fabric encapsulating data requests from the plurality of compute nodes into data frames for transport to corresponding physical data storage devices, the data store switch fabric performing a virtual device to physical data storage device mapping and data striping on the physical data storage devices, and the data store switch fabric being configured to use a protocol from the group consisting of;

Ethernet and Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe).

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the plurality of physical data storage devices is a plurality of solid-state drives (SSDs).

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data store switch fabric enables data communications between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices in a manner to emulate a direct data connection.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data store switch fabric enables a distributed object store using an object tag format.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data store switch fabric overlaps processing operations to accelerate input/output operations between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices using an Ethernet connection.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data store switch fabric can present a virtualization layer enabling the plurality of compute nodes to access the plurality of physical data storage devices in a virtual manner, the Host NIC presenting an endpoint to a corresponding compute node.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the storage controller offloads a processing burden of the plurality of compute nodes, thereby allowing the plurality of compute nodes to write to a single data storage replica and have the corresponding data storage device automatically move the updated data to a designated replica within the data store switch fabric.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data store switch fabric implements a peer to peer (P2P) messaging protocol.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 including an analytics framework to build an analytical model.

10. A method comprising:

providing a plurality of compute nodes, each compute node having integrated compute capabilities, data storage, and a network interface controller (Host NIC), the plurality of compute nodes being in data communication with each other via a local area network, the plurality of compute nodes each including distributed storage processing software resident thereon;

providing a plurality of physical data storage devices in data communication with a storage controller; and

enabling data communications in a data store switch fabric between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices via the Host NIC and the storage controller, the data store switch fabric encapsulating data requests from the plurality of compute nodes into data frames for transport to corresponding physical data storage devices, the data store switch fabric performing a virtual device to physical data storage device mapping and data striping on the physical data storage devices, and the data store switch fabric using a protocol from the group consisting of;

Ethernet and Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe).

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the plurality of physical data storage devices is a plurality of solid-state drives (SSDs).

12. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the data store switch fabric enables data communications between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices in a manner to emulate a direct data connection.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the data store switch fabric enables a distributed object store using an object tag format.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the data store switch fabric overlaps processing operations to accelerate input/output operations between the plurality of compute nodes and the plurality of physical data storage devices using an Ethernet connection.

15. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the data store switch fabric can present a virtualization layer enabling the plurality of compute nodes to access the plurality of physical data storage devices in a virtual manner, the Host NIC presenting an endpoint to a corresponding compute node.

16. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the storage controller offloads a processing burden of the plurality of compute nodes, thereby allowing the plurality of compute nodes to write to a single data storage replica and have the corresponding data storage device automatically move the updated data to a designated replica within the data store switch fabric.

17. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the data store switch fabric implements a peer to peer (P2P) messaging protocol.

18. The method as claimed in claim 10 including providing an analytics framework to build an analytical model.