CREATING GLOBAL AGGREGATED NAMESPACES FOR STORAGE MANAGEMENT

• US 20140310278A1
• Filed: 04/12/2013
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: D'Amato, Andrea, Rajpal, Shiv, Kuznetsov, Vyacheslav, Havewala, Sarosh Cyrus, Mehra, Karan, Domzalski, Gregory Robert, Kasturiya, Ankur
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,161 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to creating global, aggregated namespaces for storage management and to providing consistent namespaces in a distributed storage system. In one scenario, a computer system defines data storage objects for each data storage node. The data storage objects uniquely identify storage elements of the data storage nodes, where each data storage object includes various associated attributes. The computer system replicates the defined data storage objects and any associated attributes from a first data storage node to a second, different data storage node among the data storage nodes. As such, the defined data storage objects are visible from any node in the data storage nodes. The computer system also aggregates the defined data storage objects for each of the data storage nodes and creates a global, aggregated namespace that includes the aggregated data storage objects for each of the data storage nodes.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for creating global, aggregated namespaces for storage management, the method comprising the following;

an act of defining one or more data storage objects for each of a plurality of data storage nodes, the data storage objects uniquely identifying one or more storage elements of the data storage nodes, each data storage object including one or more associated attributes;

an act of replicating the defined data storage objects and any associated attributes from a first data storage node to a second, different data storage node among the plurality of data storage nodes, such that the defined data storage objects are visible from any node in the plurality of data storage nodes;

an act of aggregating the defined data storage objects for each of the plurality of data storage nodes; and

an act of creating a global, aggregated namespace that includes the aggregated data storage objects for each of the plurality of data storage nodes.

2. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising performing a management action using the global, aggregated namespace.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein performing the management action comprises determining on which one or more data storage nodes among the plurality of data storage nodes the management action is to be performed.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein function calls corresponding to the management action are routed to the determined one or more data storage nodes.

5. The computer system of claim 3, further comprising:

an act of determining that delivery for at least one of the function calls sent to the determined data storage nodes has failed; and

an act of rerouting the at least one function call to at least one other data storage object among the aggregated data storage objects.

6. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the management action comprises monitoring the aggregated data storage objects using the global, aggregated namespace.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the aggregated data storage objects are monitored from any data storage node of the plurality of data storage nodes.

8. The computer system of claim 6, further comprising diagnosing one or more problems detected during the monitoring.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the storage objects comprise hard disks that are part of a data storage array.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein global, aggregated namespace is resilient such that users see a coherent, global namespace for the aggregated data storage objects.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the global, aggregated namespace maintains the aggregated data storage objects despite physical data storage device failures.

12. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising an act of providing a user interface that allows users to enter intent-based commands, the intent-based commands being performed using the global, aggregated namespace.

13. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for providing consistent namespaces in a distributed storage system, the method comprising the following;

an act of receiving an input from a user requesting one or more portions of information regarding data storage objects in a distributed data storage system;

an act of determining that the user input was received from a computing node that is internal to the data storage system;

an act of aggregating one or more node-specific data storage objects of the computing node;

an act of aggregating one or more global data storage objects of the distributed data storage system; and

an act of creating a global, unified namespace for the distributed data storage system, the global, unified namespace including the aggregated node-specific data storage objects and the aggregated global data storage objects.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the global, unified namespace for the distributed data storage system is consistent for each node of the distributed data storage system, regardless of which internal computing node the user input was received from.

15. The computer system of claim 13, wherein a single application programming interface (API) is used to manage local resources on the internal computing node and one or more global resources on the distributed data storage system.

16. The computer system of claim 13, wherein data storage objects are automatically generated and aggregated into the global, unified namespace for data storage devices that are added to the distributed data storage system.

17. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the global, unified namespace includes the aggregated global data storage objects as well as node-specific data storage objects that are specific to the node at which the input was received.

18. A computer system comprising the following:

one or more processors;

system memory;

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the computing system to perform a method for providing consistent namespaces in a distributed storage system, the method comprising the following;

an act of receiving an input from a user requesting one or more portions of information regarding data storage objects in a distributed data storage system;

an act of determining that the user input was received from a computing node that is external to the data storage system;

an act of aggregating one or more global objects of the distributed data storage system; and

an act of creating a global, unified namespace for the distributed data storage system, the global, unified namespace including the aggregated global objects.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the global, unified namespace for the distributed data storage system is consistent for each node of the distributed data storage system, regardless of which external computing node the user input was received from.

20. The computer system of claim 18, further comprising an act of presenting both a node-specific view for the computing node from which the user input was received and an aggregated, global view of the data storage objects in the distributed data storage system.