SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MOUNTING SPECIFIED STORAGE RESOURCES FROM STORAGE AREA NETWORK IN MACHINE PROVISIONING PLATFORM

• US 20110131304A1
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Henson, Scott Jared
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,819 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/222
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• 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]

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for mounting specified storage resources from storage area network in machine provisioning platform. A provisioning platform can communicate generate and maintain a provisioning profile encoding the software, hardware, and/or other resources to be provisioned to a target physical and/or virtual machine. The provisioning profile can include a set of storage allocations for each target machine to be provisioned by the platform, indicating the high-level amounts, types, availability, so forth to be associated with each target. The provisioning profile can likewise include a set of storage specifications indicating specific disk types, manufacturers, and specific sources or pools in the set of storage resources available to the storage area network to transparently fulfill the storage allocations. The target(s) can be assigned an alias to identify them to the SAN, and the provisioning platform can mount the corresponding storage resources during the provisioning or updating process.

Claims

1. A method of mounting storage in a provisioning process, comprising:

receiving a set of storage allocations for at least one target machine in a managed network;

identifying the at least one target machine to a storage area network;

accessing a set of storage specifications associated with the at least one target machine to fulfill the set of storage allocations for the at least one target machine; and

mounting storage resources in the storage area network to the at least one target machine based on the set of storage specifications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of storage allocations comprises at least one of an amount of storage, a storage device type, a storage availability rating, or a backup allocation for the at least one target machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of storage specifications comprises at least one of a hard disk identification in the storage area network, an optical disk identification in the storage area network, a vendor identification in the storage area network, or a pooled storage device identification in the storage area network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mounting storage resources comprises generating a network path to associate the storage resources with the at least one target machine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of storage specifications are updateable to revise the set of storage resources mounted to the at least one target machine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the provisioning process comprises distributing at least one of operating system software or a set of application software to the at least one target machine based on a provisioning profile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the storage area network or the managed network uses a network file system (NFS) file configuration, the method further comprising adding the at least one target machine to a netgroup to register the at least one target to the network file system (NFS) file configuration.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one target machine comprises a physical machine.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one target machine comprises a virtual machine.

18. The system of claim 1,0 wherein the at least one target machine comprises a virtual machine.

10. A provisioning system, comprising:

an interface to at least one target machine in a managed network; and

a processor, communicating with the at least one target machine, the processor being configured to—

receive a set of storage allocations for the at least one target machine in the managed network,

identify the at least one target machine to a storage area network,

access a set of storage specifications associated with the at least one target machine to fulfill the set of storage allocations for the at least one target machine, and

mount storage resources in the storage area network to the at least one target machine based on the set of storage specifications.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of storage allocations comprises at least one of an amount of storage, a storage device type, a storage availability rating, or a backup allocation for the at least one target machine.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of storage specifications comprises at least one of a hard disk identification in the storage area network, an optical disk identification in the storage area network, a vendor identification in the storage area network, or a pooled storage device identification in the storage area network.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the mounting storage resources comprises generating a network path to associate the storage resources with the at least one target machine.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of storage specifications are updateable to revise the set of storage resources mounted to the at least one target machine.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the provisioning process comprises distributing at least one of operating system software or a set of application software to the at least one target machine based on a provisioning profile.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one of the storage area network or the managed network uses a network file system (NFS) file configuration, the method further comprising adding the at least one target machine to a netgroup to register the at least one target to the network file system (NFS) file configuration.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one target machine comprises a physical machine.

19. A target machine configured via a managed network, comprising:

a first interface to at least one provisioning platform;

a second interface to at least one storage area network; and

a processor, communicating with the at least one provisioning platform via the first interface and the at least one storage area network via the second interface, the processor being configured to—

identify the at least one target machine to the storage area network,

access a set of storage specifications associated with the at least one target machine to fulfill a set of storage allocations for the at least one target machine, and

mount storage resources in the storage area network to the at least one target machine based on the set of storage specifications.

20. The target machine of claim 19, wherein the set of storage specifications are updatable to revise the set of storage resources mounted to the at least one target machine.