OFFLOADING STORAGE OPERATIONS TO STORAGE HARDWARE

• US 20090300301A1
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vaghani, Satyam B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/00 Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures digital input from, or digital output to record carriers, e.g. to disk storage units, G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0643 Management of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0662 Virtualisation aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

In a computer system with a disk array that has physical storage devices arranged as logical storage units and is capable of carrying out hardware storage operations on a per logical storage unit basis, the hardware storage operations can be carried out on a per-file basis using various primitives. These primitives include instructions for zeroing file blocks, cloning file blocks, and deleting file blocks, and these instructions operate on one or more files defined in a blocklist, that identifies the locations in the logical storage units to which the files map.

Claims

1. In a computer system including a host computer connected to a storage system having storage devices that are represented as logical storage units, a method of carrying out storage operations on at least one file segment that is stored in at least two non-adjacent locations in one or more logical storage units, said method comprising:

issuing a single instruction from the host computer to the storage system; and

carrying out the single instruction on said at least one file segment at the storage system until completion of the single instruction and independently of the host computer.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the host computer is configured with virtual machines and virtual disks for the virtual machines, and said at least one file segment comprises files in one of said virtual disks.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said at least one file segment comprises all files in said one of said virtual disks.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the single instruction is one of zeroing, cloning, and deleting.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the single instruction comprises a list of blocks, and each block identifies a contiguous region of storage location in a logical storage unit using a logical unit number corresponding to the logical storage unit, an offset value, and length.

6. A computer system comprising:

a host computer; and

a storage system, connected to the host computer, having storage devices that are presented to the host computer as one or more logical storage units,

wherein a data stream from the host computer to the includes an instruction to carry out a storage operation on at least one file segment of the host computer that is stored in one or more logical storage units and the instruction identifies at least two non-adjacent locations in the logical storage units where said at least one file is stored.

7. The computer system according to claim 6, wherein the host computer is configured with virtual machines and virtual disks for the virtual machines, and said at least one file segment comprises files in one of said virtual disks.

8. The computer system according to claim 7, wherein said at least one file segment comprises all files in said one of said virtual disks.

9. The computer system according to claim 6, wherein the storage operation includes one of zeroing, cloning, and deleting.

10. The computer system according to claim 6, wherein the instruction comprises a list of blocks, and each block identifies a contiguous region of storage location in a logical storage unit using a logical unit number corresponding to the logical storage unit, an offset value, and length.

11. A computer readable storage medium having stored therein an instruction to be executed in a storage processor of a storage system that has storage devices that are represented as logical storage units, said instruction comprising an instruction ID and first and second parameters used in executing the instruction, wherein the first and second parameters address non-adjacent storage locations in one or more logical storage units.

12. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the instruction ID corresponds to an ID for an instruction to zero data blocks, to clone data blocks, or to delete data blocks.

13. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the instruction ID corresponds to an ID for an instruction to clone data blocks from a source block list to a destination block list, and the instruction includes parameters that define the source block list and the destination block list.

14. A storage system for virtual machines having files managed through a virtual machine file system, comprising:

a plurality of storage devices in which the files of the virtual machines are stored;

at least one storage processor programmed to;

(i) manage the storage devices as one or more logical storage units, each of which is identified by a logical unit number (LUN) and has addressable blocks;

(ii) receive an instruction from the virtual machine file system; and

(iii) to carry out the instruction,

wherein the instruction contains multiple input parameters and identifies an operation to be carried out on the input parameters, and each input parameter addresses a contiguous region of blocks in a logical storage unit.

15. The storage system according to claim 14, wherein the multiple input parameters define blocks in one or more logical storage units that correspond to at least one file segment.

16. The storage system according to claim 14, wherein the multiple input parameters define blocks in one or more logical storage units that correspond to at least one file.

17. The storage system according to claim 14, wherein the multiple input parameters define blocks in one or more logical storage units that correspond to all files on a virtual disk corresponding to a virtual machine.

18. The storage system according to claim 14, wherein the operation comprises one of zeroing, cloning, and deleting.

19. The storage system according to claim 14, wherein the instruction includes an ID for an instruction to clone data blocks from a source block list to a destination block list, and the instruction further includes parameters that define the source block list and the destination block list.

20. A computer system having a file system for virtual machines and connected to a storage system having storage devices that are represented as one or more logical storage units, the computer system comprising:

an interface through which storage instructions and storage data are transmitted to the storage system; and

a processor programmed to issue an instruction to the storage system,

wherein the instruction contains multiple input parameters and identifies an operation to be carried out on the input parameters, and each input parameter addresses a contiguous region of blocks in a logical storage unit.

21. The storage system according to claim 20, wherein the multiple input parameters define blocks in one or more logical storage units that correspond to all files on a virtual disk corresponding to a virtual machine.

22. The storage system according to claim 20, wherein the operation comprises one of zeroing, cloning, and deleting.

23. The storage system according to claim 20, wherein the instruction includes an ID for an instruction to clone data blocks from a source block list to a destination block list, and the instruction further includes parameters that define the source block list and the destination block list.