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

• US 20110131384A1
• 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 10,133,485 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/154
• 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: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for integrating storage resources from a storage area network in a 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 generating a set of storage allocations in a provisioning process, comprising:

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

assigning a set of alias information to the at least one target machine identifying the at least one target machine to a storage area network; and

accessing the storage area network using the alias to provision the set of storage allocations to the at least one target machine in association with the provisioning process.

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 alias information comprises a world wide port number (WWPN) associated with the at least one target machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of alias information further comprises a Fiber Channel (FC) alias associated with the world wide port number.

5. 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.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the storage area network or the managed network uses a network file system (NFS).

7. The method of claim 6, 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.

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,

assign a set of alias information to the at least one target machine identifying the at least one target machine to a storage area network, and

access the storage area network using the alias to provision the set of storage allocations to the at least one target machine in association with the provisioning process.

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 alias information comprises a world wide port number (WWPN) associated with the at least one target machine.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the set of alias information further comprises a Fiber Channel (FC) alias associated with the world wide port number.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to add the at least one target machine to a netgroup to register the at least one target to the network file system (NFS).

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

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one target machine comprises a virtual 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—

receive a set of storage allocations for the target machine, and

access the storage area network using the alias to provide the set of storage allocations assigned to the at least one target machine.

20. The target machine of claim 19, wherein the set of storage allocations is stored in a provisioning store associated with the at least one provisioning platform.