Persisting High Availability Protection State for Virtual Machines Stored on Distributed Object-Based Storage

• US 20150378857A1
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sevigny, Marc, Farkas, Keith, Karamanolis, Christos
• Granted Patent: US 9,367,414 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/203 using migration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for persisting high availability (HA) protection state for virtual machines (VMs) running on host systems of a host cluster, where the host cluster aggregates locally-attached storage resources of the host systems to provide an object store, and where persistent data for the VMs is stored as per-VM storage objects across the locally-attached storage resources comprising the object store. In one embodiment, a host system in the host cluster executing a HA module determines an identity of a VM that has been powered-on in the host cluster. The host system then persists HA protection state for the VM in a storage object of the VM, where the HA protection state indicates that the VM should be restarted on an active host system in the case of a failure in the host cluster.

Claims

1. A method for persisting high availability (HA) protection state for virtual machines (VMs) running on host systems of a host cluster, wherein the host cluster aggregates locally-attached storage resources of the host systems to provide an object store, and wherein persistent data for the VMs is stored as per-VM storage objects across the locally-attached storage resources comprising the object store, the method comprising:

determining, by a first host system in the host cluster executing a first HA module, an identity of a VM that has been powered-on in the host cluster; and

persisting, by the first host system, HA protection state for the VM in a storage object of the VM, the HA protection state indicating that the VM should be restarted on an active host system in case of a failure in the host cluster.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the storage object is a namespace object that includes a representation of a file system configured to store the VM'"'"'s files.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the HA protection state is persisted as metadata of the storage object.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the persisting comprises:

invoking a first storage application programming interface (API) exposed by a storage layer of the host cluster, the storage layer being configured to manage the object store.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the metadata of the storage object is cached, by the storage layer, in an in-memory database that is available to each host system.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

invoking, by a second host system in the host cluster executing a second HA module, a second storage API exposed by the storage layer, the second storage API being configured to retrieve HA protection states for all accessible VMs in the host cluster; and

receiving, by the second host system in response to the invoking of the second storage API, the HA protection states from the storage layer, wherein the storage layer processes the second storage API by consulting the in-memory database.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the first and second HA modules are master HA modules, and wherein the second HA module is elected in response to a failure that causes the first host system to become inoperable or unreachable by the second host system.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer software executable by a processor of a host system, the computer software embodying a method for persisting high availability (HA) protection state for virtual machines (VMs) running on the host system and other host systems of a host cluster, wherein the host cluster aggregates locally-attached storage resources of the host systems to provide an object store, and wherein persistent data for the VMs is stored as per-VM storage objects across the locally-attached storage resources comprising the object store, the method comprising:

determining, via a HA module executing on the host system, an identity of a VM that has been powered-on in the host cluster; and

persisting, HA protection state for the VM in a storage object of the VM, the HA protection state indicating that the VM should be restarted on an active host system in case of a failure in the host cluster.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the storage object is a namespace object that includes a representation of a file system configured to store the VM'"'"'s files.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the HA protection state is persisted as metadata of the storage object.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein the persisting comprises:

invoking a first storage application programming interface (API) exposed by a storage layer of the host cluster, the storage layer being configured to manage the object store.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the metadata of the storage object is cached, by the storage layer, in an in-memory database that is available to each host system.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein another host system executing another HA module is configured to invoke a second storage API exposed by the storage layer, the second storage API being configured to retrieve HA protection states for all accessible VMs in the host cluster, and

wherein said another host system is configured to receive, in response to the invoking of the second storage API, the HA protection states from the storage layer, the storage layer processing the second storage API by consulting the in-memory database.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein said HA module and said another HA module are master HA modules, and wherein said another master HA module is elected in response to a failure that causes the host system to become inoperable or unreachable by said another host system.

15. A host system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform a method for persisting high availability (HA) protection state for virtual machines (VMs) running on the host system and other host systems of a host cluster, wherein the host cluster aggregates locally-attached storage resources of the host systems to provide an object store, and wherein persistent data for the VMs is stored as per-VM storage objects across the locally-attached storage resources comprising the object store, the method comprising;

determining, via a HA module of the host system, an identity of a VM that has been powered-on in the host cluster; and

persisting, HA protection state for the VM in a storage object of the VM, the HA protection state indicating that the VM should be restarted on an active host system in case of a failure in the host cluster.

16. The host system of claim 15 wherein the storage object is a namespace object that includes a representation of a file system configured to store the VM'"'"'s files.

17. The host system of claim 15 wherein the HA protection state is persisted as metadata of the storage object.

18. The host system of claim 17 wherein the persisting comprises:

invoking a first storage application programming interface (API) exposed by a storage layer of the host cluster, the storage layer being configured to manage the object store.

19. The host system of claim 18 wherein the metadata of the storage object is cached, by the storage layer, in an in-memory database that is available to each host system.

20. The host system of claim 19 wherein another host system executing another HA module is configured to invoke a second storage API exposed by the storage layer, the second storage API being configured to retrieve HA protection states for all accessible VMs in the host cluster, and

wherein said another host system is configured to receive, in response to the invoking of the second storage API, the HA protection states from the storage layer, the storage layer processing the second storage API by consulting the in-memory database.

21. The host system of claim 20 wherein said HA module and said another HA module are master HA modules, and wherein said another master HA module is elected in response to a failure that causes the host system to become inoperable or unreachable by said another host system.