Method and System for Implementing a Virtual Storage Pool in a Virtual Environment

• US 20090210875A1
• Filed: 04/10/2008
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Carter, Adam John, Duclos, Philip J., Bolles, Benton R., Helgeson, Brent D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A system and method for implementing distributed data storage. In particular, the system includes a plurality of virtualization servers, each of which is associated with available data resources. Each virtualization server supports one or more application virtual machines through a virtualization layer. In addition, a plurality of storage virtual machines is included in the system. Each storage virtual machine is associated with a corresponding and participating virtualization server. A virtual storage pool is included in the system, wherein each storage virtual machine allows the export and aggregation of available data resources within a corresponding virtualization server into the virtual storage pool.

Claims

1. A system for implementing distributed data storage, comprising:

a plurality of virtualization servers each of which is associated with available data storage resources, and which supports one or more application virtual machines through a corresponding virtualization layer;

a plurality of storage virtual machines, each of which is associated with a corresponding and participating virtualization server; and

a virtual storage pool, wherein each storage virtual machine provides for the export and aggregation of said available data storage resources associated with a corresponding virtualization server into said virtual storage pool.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein in said virtual storage pool, each storage virtual machine provides said export and aggregation of available data storage resources in a coherent fashion.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein a virtual volume is replicated across said virtual storage pool.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual storage pool comprises shared storage, wherein said shared storage enables features involving more than one virtualization server in said plurality of virtualization servers.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual volume in said virtual storage pool is available to said plurality of virtualization servers and their associated application virtual machines.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual volume in said virtual storage pool is available to one or more application virtual machines associated with one or more virtualization servers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said virtual volume is available to a first application virtual machine associated with a first virtualization server and a second application virtual machine associated with a second virtualization server.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said virtual volume is available to a first application virtual machine associated with a first virtualization server and a second virtualization server.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual storage pool provides for data redundancy.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual storage pool scales as a function of the addition of virtualization servers and corresponding storage virtual machines.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one virtualization server in said plurality of virtualization servers comprises:

a data storage device as said available data storage resource.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said one or more application virtual machines comprises:

a virtual operating system for executing at least one application.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of storage virtual machines provides distributed management of said virtual storage pool.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein each storage virtual machine provides access to said virtual storage pool for corresponding application virtual machines associated with a corresponding virtualization server.

15. A method for implementing distributed data storage, comprising:

providing a plurality of virtualization servers each of which is associated with available data storage resources, and which supports one or more application virtual machines through a virtualization layer;

providing a plurality of storage virtual machines, each of which is associated with a corresponding and participating virtualization server;

providing a virtual storage pool, wherein each storage virtual machine allows the export and aggregation of said available data storage resources within a corresponding virtualization server into said virtual storage pool;

enabling a virtualization environment across said plurality of virtualization servers without using external shared storage.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said enabling a virtualization environment further comprises:

transferring an application virtual machine from a first virtualization server to a second virtualization server without using said external shared storage.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said enabling a virtualization environment further comprises:

providing for dynamic load balancing of one or more application virtual machines across virtualization servers without using said external shared storage.

18. A virtualization server for implementing distributed data storage, comprising:

a processor for providing computing resources;

available data storage;

a virtualization layer for implementing a virtual environment for utilizing said processor, wherein said virtual environment includes at least one application virtual machine executing an application; and

a storage virtual machine providing the export and aggregation of said available data storage resources into a virtual storage pool, wherein said virtual storage pool provides said distributed data storage from a plurality of virtualization servers, each of which includes a corresponding virtual machine providing the export and aggregation of corresponding available data storage resources into said virtual storage pool.