STORAGE OPTIMIZATION SELECTION WITHIN A VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT

• US 20110246984A1
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Published: 10/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Scott, David, Sharp, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,413,142 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

Storage optimization selection for virtual disks of a virtualization environment, where the storage optimization can be selected based in part on the disk type of a virtual disk included in a virtual machine. The disk type of the virtual disk can be discovered by the virtualization environment which queries a database within the virtualization environment for metadata associated with the virtual disk. The metadata can be created when a virtual desktop infrastructure creates the virtual disk, and a virtual machine template that includes the at least one virtual disk. The virtual disk can be modified to either include or be associated with the metadata that describes a disk type of the virtual disk. Upon executing the virtual machine that includes the modified virtual disk, a storage subsystem of the virtualization environment can obtain the metadata of the virtual disk to discover the disk type of the virtual disk.

Claims

1. A method for selecting storage optimizations for a disk within a virtualization environment using metadata indicating a disk type of the disk, the method comprising:

creating, by a virtual desktop infrastructure executing on a computing machine, a virtual machine template comprising at least one virtual disk;

modifying, by the virtual desktop infrastructure responsive to creating the virtual machine template, the at least one virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a disk type of the at least one virtual disk;

executing, by a virtualization environment, a virtual machine created using the virtual machine template created by the virtual desktop infrastructure;

obtaining, by a storage subsystem of the virtualization environment, metadata of the at least one virtual disk; and

selecting, by the storage subsystem, a storage optimization for the at least one virtual disk based in part on the disk type described in the metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising copying the virtual machine template to create a second virtual machine template comprising the at least one virtual disk comprising the metadata describing the disk type.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising attaching an optimized storage according to the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the storage optimization further comprises selecting a storage optimization based in part on the disk type and a specific disk storage type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a disk type further comprises modifying the virtual disk to comprise metadata describing an operating system image disk type.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting a storage optimization further comprises selecting a storage optimization comprising creating a cache of the virtual disk.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a disk type further comprises modifying the virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a non-persistent cache disk type.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting a storage optimization further comprises selecting a storage optimization comprising any one of re-order writes and early write acknowledgements.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a disk type further comprises modifying the virtual disk to comprise metadata describing an image customization disk type.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting a storage optimization further comprises selecting a storage optimization comprising security measures.

11. A system for selecting storage optimizations for a disk within a virtualization environment using metadata indicating a disk type of the disk, the system comprising:

a virtual desktop infrastructure executing on a computing machine to;

create a virtual machine template comprising at least one virtual disk,

modify, responsive to creating the virtual machine template, the at least one virtual disk to comprise metadata describing a disk type of the at least one virtual disk; and

a virtual machine executing within a virtualization environment, the virtual machine created using the virtual machine template created by the virtual desktop infrastructure; and

a storage subsystem of the virtualization environment to obtain the metadata of the at least one virtual disk, and select a storage optimization for the at least one virtual disk based in part on the disk type described in the metadata.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the virtual desktop infrastructure copies the virtual machine template to create a second virtual machine template comprising the at least one virtual disk comprising the metadata describing the disk type.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage subsystem attaches a storage optimized according to the selected storage optimization.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage subsystem selects the storage optimization based in part on the disk type and a specific disk storage type.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata describes an operating system image disk type.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the storage optimization comprises a cache of the virtual disk.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata describes a non-persistent cache disk type.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the storage optimization comprises any one of re-order writes and early write acknowledgements.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the metadata describes an image customization disk type.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the storage optimization comprises security measures.