OFFLOADING STORAGE OPERATIONS TO STORAGE HARDWARE USING A SWITCH

• US 20090300302A1
• 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 8,566,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• 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 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

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, a switch is provided to offload storage operations from a file system to storage hardware. The switch translates primitives used for performing storage operations into commands executable by the physical storage devices so that the data moving portion of the storage operations can be offloaded from the file system to the storage devices.

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 offloading storage operations from a file system to the storage system through a switch, said method comprising:

receiving a storage operation for the storage system at the switch; and

generating commands for the storage system at the switch that enable the storage system to carry out the storage operation.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining, by the switch, that the storage operation specifies execution of a primitive that needs to be translated into the commands for execution by the storage devices.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a control path processor within the switch translates the primitive into the commands.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein a virtual target server that is coupled to the switch translates the primitive into the commands.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining, by a control path processor within the switch, that the control path processor is not configured to translate the primitive into the commands.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising outputting the primitive by the switch to a virtual target server for translation of the primitive into the commands.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising returning the commands from the virtual target server to the switch for routing to the storage system.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the primitive is a zero blocklist primitive that is configured to write zeros to each block specified by a source blacklist.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the primitive is a clone blocklist primitive that is configured to copy each block specified by a source blocklist to a destination blacklist.

10. A computer system comprising:

a host computer configured to provide a file system that maintains location information for files;

a storage system, connected to the host computer, having storage devices that store the files and are presented to the host computer as one or more logical storage units of the file system; and

a switch that is coupled between the host computer and the storage system and configured to receive protocol packets including storage operations for the storage system, and generate commands for the storage system that enable the storage system to carry out the storage operations.

11. The computer system according to claim 10, wherein the switch is further configured to determine that a storage operation specifies execution of a primitive that needs to be translated for execution by the storage devices.

12. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein a control path processor within the switch is configured to translate the primitive into the commands.

13. The computer system according to claim 11, further comprising a virtual target server that is coupled to the switch and configured to translate the primitive into the commands.

14. The computer system according to claim 13, wherein the virtual target server is further configured to return the commands to the switch for routing to the storage system.

15. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the storage devices are network attached storage devices.

16. The computer system according to claim 11, wherein the storage devices are a storage area network array.

17. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions for causing a system including a switch that is coupled to a storage system with storage devices that are represented as logical storage units, to offload storage operations from the system to the storage system by performing the steps of:

receiving a storage operation for the storage system at the switch; and

generating commands for the storage system at the switch that enable the storage system to carry out the storage operation.

18. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 17, further comprising determining, by the switch, that the storage operation specifies execution of a primitive that needs to be translated for execution by the storage devices.

19. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the instructions cause the system to further perform the step of determining, by a control path processor within the switch, that the control path processor is not configured to translate the primitive into the commands.

20. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 19, wherein the instructions cause the system to further perform the step of outputting the primitive by the switch to the virtual target server for translation of the primitive into the commands.

21. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein the instructions cause the system to further perform the step of returning the commands from the virtual target server to the switch for routing to the storage system.

22. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the primitive is a zero blocklist primitive that is configured to write zeros to each block specified by a source blacklist.

23. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the primitive is a clone blacklist primitive that is configured to copy each block specified by a source blocklist to a destination blacklist.