DATA MOVER FOR COMPUTER SYSTEM

• US 20100186014A1
• Filed: 01/21/2009
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: RAI, Abhishek, VAGHANI, Satyam B., RAWAT, Mayank
• Granted Patent: US 9,454,368 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/119 Details of migration of file systems migration mechanisms in storage systems G06F3/0647
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/261 Storage comprising a plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0643 Management of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• 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 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices

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, data movement operations can be carried out on a per-file basis. A data mover software component for use in a computer or storage system enables cloning and initialization of data to provide high data throughput without moving the data between the kernel and application levels.

Claims

1. In a computer system including a host computer connected to a storage system having storage devices, a method of carrying out data movement operations comprising:

receiving a data movement instruction, from an application program executing on the host computer, specifying a source data location in the storage devices and a destination data location in the storage devices; and

transferring source data from the source data location to the destination data location at an operating system level of the host computer without transferring the source data between the application program and the operating system level.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the source data location is translated into a list of source 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.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a logical unit number of a source block is null.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the transferring of the source block comprises setting a write destination zeros flag of a destination block within the destination data location.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the transferring of the source block comprises writing zeros to a destination block within the destination data location.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein an attribute associated with each source block indicates if the source block is cleared to zero.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the destination data location is translated into a list of destination 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.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the transferring of the source block comprises setting a write destination zeros flag of a destination block within the destination data location when an attribute of the source block indicates that the source block is cleared to zero.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the transferring of the source block comprises:

reading a source block within the source data location; and

setting a write destination zeros flag of a corresponding destination block within the destination data location when the source block stores zeros.

10. The method according to claim 1, where the transferring of the source data comprises:

determining a transfer size of a task that represents a portion of the source data; and

dividing the source data into multiple tasks, wherein no task exceeds the transfer size.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the transferring of the source data comprises determining a number of worker threads for executing the data movement instruction.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the transferring of the source data comprises distributing the multiple tasks to the number of worker threads to execute the data movement instruction.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising reporting a move status to the application program at completion of the data movement instruction.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the move status includes a quantity of the source data that was read from the source data location.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the move status includes a quantity of the source data that was written to the destination data location.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the move status includes an error indication.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the transferring of the source block comprises:

reading a source block within the source data location; and

writing the source block to a corresponding destination block within the destination data location.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the host computer is configured with virtual machines and virtual disks for the virtual machines, and the source data comprises files in one of the virtual disks.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data movement instruction specifies a movement directive to enable or disable an optimization to reduce amount of the source data that is read or written.

20. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data movement instruction specifies a movement directive to control a quality of service parameter.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data movement instruction specifies a length defining a quantity of the source data.

22. A computer system comprising:

a host computer configured to execute an application program and an operating system including a data mover; 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 the application program issues a data movement instruction specifying a source data location in the storage devices and a destination data location in the storage devices and the data mover transfers source data from the source data location to the destination data location within the operating system without transferring the source data between the application program and the operating system.

23. The computer system according to claim 22, 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.

24. The computer system according to claim 22, wherein the data movement 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.

25. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a host computer connected to a storage system having storage devices, cause the host computer to carry out data movement operations, by performing the steps of:

receiving a data movement instruction, from an application program executing on the host computer, specifying a source data location in the storage devices and a destination data location in the storage devices; and

transferring source data from the source data location to the destination data location at an operating system level of the host computer without transferring the source data between the application program and the operating system level.