Storage resource integration layer interfaces

• US 20030233510A1
• Filed: 06/18/2002
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Veritas Software Corporation (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Umbehocker, Steven Michael, Unueco, Allen
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,428 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/100
• 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 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Storage resource integration layer interfaces are provided. Storage operations associated with interfaces of a plurality of storage resources are normalized and provided as a common set of modules accessible to a storage application. Moreover, configuration modules are provided to the storage application to acquire configuration settings associated with storage residing on the storage resources. In one embodiment, virtualization modules are provided to the storage application to permit the storage application to create and link virtual storage resources from the storage resources.

Claims

1. A method to provide a storage resource integration layer interface, comprising:

providing a normalized set of storage management operations to a storage management set of executable instructions, wherein the set of storage management operations represents storage resource operations provided by storage resource interfaces to access a first storage resource and a second storage resource; and

providing configuration operations to the storage management set of executable instructions to retrieve configuration settings associated with the storage resources.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing virtual storage resource operations to the storage management set of executable instructions to create and link virtual storage resources from and to the first and second storage resources.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein in providing the normalized storage management operations, the storage management set of executable instructions is at least one of a Volume Manager (VM), a storage backup operation, a storage snapshot operation, and a storage area network (SAN) manager.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein in providing the normalized storage management operations, the first storage resource is different from the second storage resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the storage management operations and the configuration operations, the storage management operations and the configuration operations are provided to the storage management set of executable instructions as at least one of an Application Programming Interface (API) Library, and an Object Module with associated API methods.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein in providing the normalized storage management operations, the storage management set of executable instructions and the first and second storage resources reside in a network environment.

7. A storage resource integration layer Application Programming Interface (API) library, comprising:

storage resource modules that normalize operations associated with storage resources into a common set of storage application accessible modules, accessible to a storage application; and

storage configuration modules accessible to the storage application and used by the storage application to acquire configuration settings associated with the storage resources.

8. The API library of claim 7 further comprising, storage virtualization modules that permit the storage application to create virtual storage resources from the storage resources.

9. The API library of claim 8, wherein a number of the virtualization modules permit the storage application to assign a number of the virtual storage resources to Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) for integration with Storage Area Network (SAN) applications.

10. The API library of claim 9, wherein the configuration settings are acquired by the storage application to determine storage management capabilities of the virtual storage resources.

11. The API library of claim 7, wherein the storage application accessible modules and the storage configuration modules are represented as storage resource objects having storage resource methods that are processed by the storage application.

12. The API library of claim 7, wherein a number of the storage application accessible modules and a number of the storage configuration modules combine to provide a snapshot operation accessible to the storage application, wherein the snapshot operation creates an image of storage.

13. The API library of claim 7, wherein the storage resources include a first storage array having a first storage interface and a second storage array having a second storage interface, and wherein the first and second storage interfaces are different.

14. The API library of claim 7, wherein the API library is dynamically accessible to the storage application.

15. A storage resource integration layer interface system, comprising:

an Application Programming Interface (API) library;

a storage management application;

a first storage resource having a first interface;

a second storage resource having a second interface; and

wherein the API library provides normalization modules to translate the first interface and the second interface into a common set of storage management application accessible modules for use by the storage management application to access and manage storage residing on the first storage resource and the second storage resource.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the API library further includes configuration modules accessible to the storage management application for obtaining configuration settings associated with the storage as it resides on the first and second storage resources.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein in API library further includes virtualization modules used by the storage management application to create virtual storage resources from the first and second storage resources.

18. The system claim 15, wherein the storage management application is a storage Volume Manager (VM) operating in a network environment.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the storage management application manages the storage for a number of host applications in a shared storage environment.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein in the first and second storage resources are storage arrays.