Virtualized file server rolling upgrade

• US 10,540,165 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2017
• Issued: 01/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Bafna, Kalpesh Ashok, Sohi, Aroosh, Bunch, Alexander Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Kamran, Mehran
• Application Number:
  US15/422,258
• Publication Number:
  US 20170235563A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,084 Days
• Field of Search: 718 1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0712 in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/201 between storage system components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2058 using more than 2 mirrored copies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2092 Techniques of failing over between control units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 : Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1774 : Locking methods, e.g. locking methods for file systems allowing shared and concurrent access to files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 : Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1844 : Management specifically adapted to replicated file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 : Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 : I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 : Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 : Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 : Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 : by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/56 : Computer malware detection or handling, e.g. anti-virus arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 : to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 : to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 : Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 : Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/825 : the problem or solution involving locking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 : Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 : Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/034 : Test or assess a computer or a system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 : Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 : Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 : Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• 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 3/065 : Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 : at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 : at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 : Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 : Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 : Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 : Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 : Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 : Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 : the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 : by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 : Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 : Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices and accessible by the virtual machine controllers, and a deployment system configured to receive a request to upgrade a virtualized file server on a plurality of host machines from a first program code version to a second program code version, and, for each host machine, request an upgrade token. When the host machine acquires the upgrade token, the deployment system is configured to generate a snapshot of a code image associated with the second program code version, and provide the snapshot to the host machine via the virtual disk. The virtual machine controller located on the host machine stores the snapshot on a storage device associated with the host machine.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of user virtual machines (VMs), the virtualized file server configured to provide file services to additional virtual machines hosted by one or more host machines;

a deployment server configured to upgrade the VFS from a first code version to a second code version by performing actions comprising;

generating a snapshot of a code image associated with the second program code version;

providing the snapshot to a selected user VM of the one or more user VMs when the selected user VM has acquired an upgrade token, the upgrade token configured for association with a single one of the user VMs at a time;

detaching an existing code image from the selected user VM, wherein the selected user VM is located on a host machine;

attaching the snapshot to the selected user VM; and

causing the selected user VM to boot from the snapshot.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein when the snapshot has been attached to the selected user VM, the deployment server is further configured to release the upgrade token acquired by the selected user VM.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the snapshot comprises metadata identifying one or more locations of blocks of the code image on a first storage device associated with the host machine.

4. The system of claim 1,

wherein the snapshot comprises metadata identifying a location of at least one block of the a code image on a second storage device associated with a server host machine.

5. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media, the media encoded with instructions for performing operations comprising:

receiving a request to upgrade a virtualized file server, the virtualized file server comprising a plurality of user virtual machines (VMs) configured to provide file services to additional virtual machines hosted by one or more host machines, from a first program code version to a second program code version;

generating a snapshot of a code image associated with the second program code version;

providing the snapshot to a selected user VM of the multiple user VMs when the selected user VM has acquired an upgrade token, the upgrade token configuration for association with a single one of the user VMs at a time;

detaching an existing code image from the selected user VM, wherein the user VM is located on a host machine;

attaching the snapshot to the selected user VM; and

causing the selected user VM to boot from the snapshot.

6. The media of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise, when the snapshot has been attached to the user VM on the host machine, releasing the upgrade token acquired by the selected user VM.

7. The media of claim 5, wherein the snapshot comprises metadata identifying one or more locations of blocks of the code image on a first storage device associated with the host machine.

8. The media of claim 5,

wherein the snapshot comprises metadata identifying a location of at least one block of a code image on a second storage device associated with a server host machine.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a request to upgrade a virtualized file server, the virtualized file server comprising a plurality of user virtual machines (VMs) configured to provide file services to additional virtual machines hosted by one or more host machines, from a first program code version to a second program code version;

generating a snapshot of a code image associated with the second program code version; and

providing the snapshot to a selected user VM of the plurality of user VMs when the selected user VM has acquired an upgrade token, the upgrade token configuration for association with a single one of the user VM at a time;

detaching an existing code image from the selected user VM, wherein the selected user VM is located on a host machine; and

attaching the snapshot to the selected user VM; and

causing the selected user VM to boot from the snapshot.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

when the snapshot has been attached to the selected user VM on the host machine, releasing the upgrade token acquired by the selected user VM.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the snapshot comprises metadata identifying one or more locations of blocks of the code image on a first storage device associated with the host machine.

12. The system method of claim 9,

wherein the snapshot comprises metadata identifying a location of at least one block of a code image on a second storage device associated with a server host machine.

13. A system comprising:

a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of user virtual machines (VMs), the VFS configured to provide file services to additional virtual machines hosted by one or more host machines;

a deployment server configured to upgrade one or more user VMs of the VFS from a first code version to a second code version by performing actions comprising;

generating a snapshot of a code image associated with the second program code version;

providing the snapshot to a selected user VM of the one or more user VMs when the selected user VM has acquired an upgrade token, the upgrade token configured for association with a single one of the user VMs at a time,

wherein during at least a portion of detaching an existing code image from the selected user VM located on a host machine and attaching the snapshot to the selected user VM, a storage device and IP address of the host machine are replaced by a storage device and IP address of another host machine.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a request to upgrade a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of user virtual machines (VMs), the VFS configured to provide file services to additional virtual machines hosted by one or more host machines, from a first program code version to a second program code version;

generating a snapshot of a code image associated with the second program code version; and

providing the snapshot to a selected user VM of the multiple user VMs when the selected user VM has acquired an upgrade token, the upgrade token configuration for association with a single one of the user VM at a time;

wherein during at least a portion of detaching an existing code image and attaching the snapshot to the selected user VM on a host machine, a storage device and IP address of the host machine are replaced by a storage device and IP address of another host machine.