Methods and apparatus for providing hypervisor level data services for server virtualization
First Claim
1. A hypervisor virtual server system, comprising:
- a plurality of virtual servers that make I/O requests via an I/O data path;
a plurality of virtual disks that are read from and written to using the I/O requests made by said plurality of virtual servers via the I/O data path;
a physical disk;
an I/O backend coupled with said physical disk and in communication with said plurality of virtual disks that reads from and writes to said physical disk;
a tapping driver in communication with said plurality of virtual servers, the tapping driver having visibility access to the I/O requests of the I/O data path and that intercepts the I/O requests made by one of said plurality of virtual servers to at least one of said plurality of virtual disks;
a virtual data services appliance residing outside the I/O data path, in communication with said tapping driver that receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver asynchronously and provides data services based on the intercepted I/O requests;
a data services engine in communication with the virtual data services appliance that provides data services based on the intercepted I/O requests; and
a data analyzer in communication with the virtual data services appliance that determines a data state indicating a state of one virtual server of the plurality of virtual servers that made at least one of the intercepted I/O requests based on content of the intercepted I/O requests,wherein the tapping driver causes the I/O requests to be forwarded along the I/O data path and separately causes the intercepted I/O requests to be forwarded to the virtual data services appliance.
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Abstract
A hypervisor virtual server system, including a plurality of virtual servers, a plurality of virtual disks that are read from and written to by the plurality of virtual servers, a physical disk, an I/O backend coupled with the physical disk and in communication with the plurality of virtual disks, which reads from and writes to the physical disk, a tapping driver in communication with the plurality of virtual servers, which intercepts I/O requests made by any one of said plurality of virtual servers to any one of said plurality of virtual disks, and a virtual data services appliance, in communication with the tapping driver, which receives the intercepted I/O write requests from the tapping driver, and that provides data services based thereon.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A hypervisor virtual server system, comprising:
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a plurality of virtual servers that make I/O requests via an I/O data path; a plurality of virtual disks that are read from and written to using the I/O requests made by said plurality of virtual servers via the I/O data path; a physical disk; an I/O backend coupled with said physical disk and in communication with said plurality of virtual disks that reads from and writes to said physical disk; a tapping driver in communication with said plurality of virtual servers, the tapping driver having visibility access to the I/O requests of the I/O data path and that intercepts the I/O requests made by one of said plurality of virtual servers to at least one of said plurality of virtual disks; a virtual data services appliance residing outside the I/O data path, in communication with said tapping driver that receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver asynchronously and provides data services based on the intercepted I/O requests; a data services engine in communication with the virtual data services appliance that provides data services based on the intercepted I/O requests; and a data analyzer in communication with the virtual data services appliance that determines a data state indicating a state of one virtual server of the plurality of virtual servers that made at least one of the intercepted I/O requests based on content of the intercepted I/O requests, wherein the tapping driver causes the I/O requests to be forwarded along the I/O data path and separately causes the intercepted I/O requests to be forwarded to the virtual data services appliance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15)
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10. A method of providing data services within a hypervisor virtual server system, comprising:
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intercepting, by a tapping driver having visibility to I/O requests of an I/O data path, the I/O requests from at least one of a plurality of virtual servers to at least one of a plurality of virtual disks via the I/O data path; sending, by the tapping driver, the intercepted I/O requests to a virtual data services appliance that resides outside the I/O data path, provides hypervisor data services via one or more data services engines based on the intercepted I/O requests asynchronously to processing of the I/O requests in the I/O data path, and is in communication with a data analyzer that determines a data state indicating a state of one virtual server of the plurality of virtual servers that made at least one of the intercepted I/O requests based on content of the intercepted I/O requests; and causing, by the tapping driver, the I/O request to be forwarded along the I/O data path and separately causes the intercepted I/O requests to be forwarded to the virtual data services appliance. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17)
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18. A system to provide hypervisor data services, comprising:
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a virtual server implemented on a hypervisor that reads from and writes to a virtual disk via an I/O data path; a tapping driver implemented on the hypervisor that is in communication with the virtual server, that has visibility access to the I/O data path, and that intercepts an I/O request from the virtual server to the virtual disk via the I/O data path; a virtual data services appliance implemented on the hypervisor that is in communication with the tapping driver, that receives the I/O request from the tapping driver, that resides outside the I/O data path, that generates a copy of the I/O request received from the tapping driver, and that performs a set of actions based on the copy of the I/O request; a data services engine implemented on the hypervisor that is in communication with the virtual data services appliance to provide data services for the hypervisor based on the performance of the set of actions using the copy of the I/O request generated by the virtual data services appliance asynchronously to processing of the I/O request in the I/O data path; and a data analyzer implemented on the hypervisor that is in communication with the virtual data services appliance that determines a data state indicating a state of one virtual server of the plurality of virtual servers that made at least one of the intercepted I/O requests based on content of the intercepted I/O requests, wherein the tapping driver causes the I/O requests to be forwarded along the I/O data path and separately causes the intercepted I/O requests to be forwarded to the virtual data services appliance. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification