SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR STORAGE ALLOCATION IN PROVISIONING OF VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20100057913A1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: DeHaan, Michael Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,776 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• 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 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for storage allocation in the provisioning of virtual machines. A provisioning (or “cobbler”) server can interact with a local virtual machine installation client to initiate software provisioning to a set of virtual machines. The provisioning process can entail, for example, the selection and delivery of an operating system to the target set of virtual machines, as well as the installation of applications or other software. In conjunction with the provisioning process, the virtual machine installation client can identify and access a set of storage resources, such as hard disk or other storage, to be associated with the set of virtual machines, which themselves contain no local storage. That client can determine an allocation of the set of storage resources to each virtual machine in the set of virtual machines, for instance on a pro-rata basis or based on processing consumption or other factors.

Claims

1. A method of allocating storage resources to virtual machines in a software provisioning environment, comprising:

receiving a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on a set of virtual machines in a provisioning server;

communicating with a remote virtual machine installation client to instantiate the set of virtual machines and provision software to the set of virtual machines; and

automatically generating an allocation of storage resources to the set of virtual machines from a common storage pool.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the common storage pool comprises a set of mass storage servers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of mass storage servers comprises at least one of a set of hard disks and a set of electronic memory resources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the provisioned software is stored to the allocated storage resources for respective machines in the set of virtual machines.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocated storage resources are dynamically re-allocated to the set of virtual machines based on conditions in the set of virtual machines.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically generating an allocation of storage resources comprises generating a storage allocation table for the set of virtual machines.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocated storage resources comprise at least one virtual disk.

8. A system for generating an allocation of storage resources to virtual machines in a software provisioning environment, comprising:

an interface to a provisioning server; and

a remote virtual machine installation client, communicating with the provisioning server via the interface, the remote virtual machine installation client being configured to

receive a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on a set of virtual machines in a provisioning server,

communicate with the provisioning server to instantiate the set of virtual machines and provision software to the set of virtual machines, and

automatically generate an allocation of storage resources to the set of virtual machines from a common storage pool.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the common storage pool comprises a set of mass storage servers.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the set of mass storage servers comprises at least one of a set of hard disks and a set of electronic memory resources.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein at least a portion of the provisioned software is stored to the allocated storage resources for respective machines in the set of virtual machines.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the allocated storage resources are dynamically re-allocated to the set of virtual machines based on conditions in the set of virtual machines.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein automatically generating an allocation of storage resources comprises generating a storage allocation table for the set of virtual machines.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the allocated storage resources comprise at least one virtual disk.

15. A set of virtual machines, each virtual machine in the set of virtual machines comprising:

a set of provisioned software, the provisioned software being installed via a request for the initiation of at least one software provisioning process on the set of virtual machines processed via a remote virtual machine installation client communicating with a provisioning server; and

a set of allocated storage resources, the set of allocated storage resources being automatically allocated from a common storage pool to each virtual machine via a remote virtual machine installation client.

16. The set of virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the common storage pool comprises a set of mass storage servers.

17. The set of virtual machines of claim 16, wherein the set of mass storage servers comprises at least one of a set of hard disks and a set of electronic memory resources.

18. The set of virtual machines of claim 15, wherein at least a portion of the provisioned software is stored to the allocated storage resources for respective machines in the set of virtual machines.

19. The set of virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the set of allocated storage resources are dynamically re-allocated to the set of virtual machines based on conditions in the set of virtual machines.

20. The set of virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the allocation of storage resources is generated using a storage allocation table for the set of virtual machines.

21. The set of virtual machines of claim 15, wherein the allocated storage resources comprise at least one virtual disk.