METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING HYPERVISOR LEVEL DATA SERVICES FOR SERVER VIRTUALIZATION

• US 20110264786A1
• Filed: 07/04/2011
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Zerto Incorporated
• Inventors: Burshan, Chen, Levonai, Gil, Kuszpet, Yair, Kedem, Ziv
• Granted Patent: US 9,710,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, including a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor including a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise, at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise, and a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services, and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the respective virtual data services appliances for those cloud hypervisors that service its corresponding enterprise.

Claims

1. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor comprising;

a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise;

at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise; and

a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services; and

multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the respective virtual data services appliances for those cloud hypervisors that service its corresponding enterprise.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each enterprise comprises one or more virtual servers, wherein each of said data services managers designates a group of one or more of said cloud virtual servers as being a target virtual protection group for one or more virtual servers of its corresponding enterprise, and wherein the virtual data services appliance of each of said cloud hypervisors that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to a target virtual protection group of an enterprise, receives copies of write requests issued from one or more of the virtual servers of the enterprise.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the virtual data services appliance of each of said cloud hypervisors that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to a target virtual protection group of an enterprise, periodically applies the copies of write requests to one or more of said cloud virtual disks in the cloud hypervisor that are associated with the enterprise.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from the same one of said cloud hypervisors.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from more than one of said cloud hypervisors.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein at least one of said cloud hypervisors comprises at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a target virtual protection group for a first enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a virtual protection group for a second enterprise.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the virtual servers of its enterprise to its enterprise target virtual protection group.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein each of said cloud hypervisors further comprises a tapping driver in communication with its said at least one cloud virtual server, wherein said tapping driver intercepts I/O requests made by any one of its said at least one cloud virtual server to any one of its said at least one cloud virtual disk, and wherein its said virtual data services appliance receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver, and provides its cloud-based data services therefrom.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from its enterprise target virtual protection group to the virtual servers of its enterprise.

10. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor comprising;

a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise;

at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise; and

at least one virtual data services appliance, one virtual data services appliance per respective enterprise serviced by the hypervisor, which provides cloud-based data services to its respective enterprise; and

multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the virtual data services appliances that service its respective enterprise.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein each enterprise comprises one or more virtual servers, wherein each of said data services managers designates a group of one or more of said cloud virtual servers as being a target virtual protection group for one or more virtual servers of its corresponding enterprise, and wherein each one of the virtual data services appliances for an enterprise, that resides within a cloud hypervisor that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of the enterprise, receives copies of write requests issued from one or more of the virtual servers of its enterprise.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein each one of the virtual data services appliances for the enterprise, that resides within a cloud hypervisor that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of the enterprise, periodically applies the copies of write requests to one or more of said cloud virtual disks in the cloud hypervisor that are associated with the enterprise.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from the same one of said cloud hypervisors.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the target virtual protection group of an enterprise comprises cloud virtual servers from more than one of said cloud hypervisors.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one of said cloud hypervisors comprises at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a target virtual protection group for a first enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a virtual protection group for a second enterprise.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the virtual servers of its enterprise to its enterprise target virtual protection group.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein each of said cloud hypervisors further comprises a tapping driver in communication with said at least one virtual server, which intercepts I/O requests made by any one of its said at least one virtual server to any one of its said at least one virtual disk, and wherein its said at least one virtual data services appliance receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver, and provides its cloud-based data services therefrom.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from its enterprise target virtual protection group to the virtual servers of its enterprise.

19. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each enterprise being located in a corresponding jurisdiction, and each hypervisor being associated with a corresponding jurisdiction, wherein each hypervisor comprises;

a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise; and

at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise; and

a rights manager that restricts access of an enterprise to a cloud hypervisor associated with the enterprise if there is a restriction to export data between the jurisdiction associated with the enterprise and the jurisdiction associated with the cloud hypervisor.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a user interface for specifying pairs of jurisdictions that are restricted from transferring data therebetween, and wherein said rights manager restricts access based on the pairs of jurisdictions specified via said user interface.