Method and apparatus for application-driven storage provisioning on a unified network storage system

• US 20080235240A1
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vaid, Aseem, Patel, Rimple, Su, Ronghuei A., Rajashekar, Rajesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,065,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• 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 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A configuration for a network-accessible storage device is prepared by automatically computing a configuration parameter based on a setup parameter that pertains to an application-level function of the network accessible device. Software and systems that implement or use aspects of the invention are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a storage server; and

a configuration wizard to configure the storage server based on at least one application-level setup parameter.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the configuration wizard is to automatically prepare a configuration constellation from the at least one application-level setup parameter.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the configuration wizard is to execute on a processor of the storage server.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the configuration wizard is to execute on a processor of a computer other than the storage server.

5. A method comprising:

accepting a setup parameter pertaining to a function of a storage server;

automatically computing a configuration parameter to control the function of the storage server based on the setup parameter; and

applying the configuration parameter to the storage server.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

retrieving an operational parameter from the storage server;

automatically preparing a status value from the operational parameter; and

displaying the status value.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein automatically computing comprises:

selecting the configuration parameter from a database of configuration best practices.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the function of the storage server is a file-based storage service.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the function of the storage server is a block-based storage service.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the setup parameter is a name.

11. A system comprising:

a storage server that refers to a plurality of configuration parameters to control its usage of at least one mass storage device; and

a wizard to prepare the plurality of configuration parameters automatically based on an application-level setup dialog.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the wizard is to display information on a handheld device via a wireless connection.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a plurality of mass storage devices coupled to the storage server, the plurality of mass storage devices to be operated as a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (“

RAID”

) array.

14. A computer-readable medium containing executable instructions to cause a programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

accepting an application-level setup value from a user;

calculating a group of configuration values based on the application-level setup value; and

applying the group of configuration values to control a function of a storage server.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, containing additional executable instructions to cause the programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

retrieving a group of current operational parameters from the storage server;

converting the group of operational parameters to a status value; and

causing the status value to be displayed to the user.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the function is a file-based storage service.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the function is a block-based storage service.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the group of configuration values is to configure a plurality of subsystems of the storage server.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein one of the plurality of subsystems is a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (“

RAID”

) subsystem.

20. A computer-readable medium containing executable instructions to cause a programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

accepting a first group of setup parameters;

automatically calculating configuration values for a first subset of a configuration constellation based on the first group of setup parameters;

accepting a second group of setup parameters;

automatically calculating configuration values for a second subset of the configuration constellation based on the second group of setup parameters; and

applying the configuration constellation to a network-accessible mass storage server.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the first subset of the configuration constellation intersects the second subset of the configuration constellation.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein the first subset of the configuration constellation and the second subset of the configuration constellation both affect a volume allocation of the network-accessible mass storage server.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the first group of setup parameters is to prepare a file-structured storage volume.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the first group of setup parameters is to prepare a block-structured storage volume.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein applying comprises transmitting the configuration constellation to the network-accessible mass storage server via a wireless data connection.