CONFIGURATION UPDATE MANAGEMENT

• US 20160342335A1
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Published: 11/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Dey, Chinmoy, Vijayan, Anoop Chakkalakkal, Srinivas, Prasad
• Granted Patent: US 10,698,607 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for managing configuration updates used to replicate configuration of a primary storage virtual machine to a partner storage virtual machine. For example, the partner storage virtual machine may be configured to provide failover operation in place of the primary storage virtual machine in the event the primary storage virtual machine fails. Configuration updates are queued and replayed on the partner storage virtual machine to replicate objects of the primary storage virtual machine to the partner storage virtual machine (e.g., replay of create, modify, or delete object commands for synchronizing volumes, logical unit numbers, and/or other configuration objects of the primary storage virtual machine to the partner storage virtual machine). Configuration updates may be retained, modified, or discarded/removed based upon consolidation rules, which improves computing resource utilization by consolidating configuration updates and/or removing stale configuration updates while achieving a similar replication consistency result.

Claims

1. A method for managing configuration updates used to replicate configuration of a primary storage virtual machine to a partner storage virtual machine, comprising:

receiving a configuration update, to be applied to a partner storage virtual machine, from a primary storage virtual machine;

evaluating the configuration update to identify an object to which the configuration update is to be applied;

evaluating a queue of configuration updates to determine whether the queue comprises a queued configuration update for the object;

responsive to the queue not comprising the queued configuration update, queuing the configuration update into the queue; and

responsive to the queue comprising the queued configuration update;

determining a first command type of the queued configuration update;

determining a second command type of the configuration update; and

applying a consolidation rule, corresponding to the first command type and the second command type, to the configuration update and the queued configuration update.

2. The method of claim 1, the first command type comprising a create object command, the second command type comprising a modify object command, and the consolidation rule specifying that the queued configuration update is to be modified based upon an attribute of the configuration update to create a modified queued configuration update for queuing into the queue and that the configuration update is to be discarded.

3. The method of claim 1, the first command type comprising a create object command, the second command type comprising a delete object command, and the consolidation rule specifying that the queued configuration update is to be removed from the queue and that the configuration update is to be discarded.

4. The method of claim 1, the first command type comprising a modify object command, the second command type comprising a delete object command, and the consolidation rule specifying that the queued configuration update is to be removed from the queue and that the configuration update is to be queued.

5. The method of claim 1, the first command type comprising a delete object command, the second command type comprising a create object command, and the consolidation rule specifying that the queued configuration update is to be removed from the queue, that the configuration update is to be discarded, and that a new configuration update, corresponding to a modify object command having an attribute of the configuration update, is to be queued.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

maintaining a create queue into which one or more configuration updates, corresponding a create object command type, are to be queued, the queue comprising the create queue.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

maintaining a modify queue into which one or more configuration updates, corresponding a modify object command type, are to be queued, the queue comprising the modify queue.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

maintaining a delete queue into which one or more configuration updates, corresponding a delete object command type, are to be queued, the queue comprising the delete queue.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

maintaining a create queue, a modify queue, and a delete queue; and

defining a queue evaluation order specifying that the create queue is to be evaluated for object identification before the modify queue and the delete queue and that the modify queue is to be evaluated for object identification before the delete queue.

10. The method of claim 1, the applying a consolidation rule comprising queuing the configuration update, and the method comprising:

applying an object command, specified by the configuration update, for the object on the partner storage virtual machine.

11. The method of claim 1, the applying a consolidation rule comprising maintaining the queued configuration update within the queue, and the method comprising:

applying an object command, specified by the queued configuration update, for the object on the partner storage virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 1, the applying a consolidation rule comprising modifying the queued configuration update to create a modified queued configuration update, and the method comprising:

applying an object command, specified by the modified queued configuration update, for the object on the partner storage virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 1, the applying a consolidation rule comprising creating a new configuration update, and the method comprising:

applying an object command, specified by the new configuration update, for the object on the partner storage virtual machine.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising:

maintaining a dependency list of dependencies between objects;

responsive to determining that a second object depends upon the object, applying a the first queued configuration update for the object before applying a second queued configuration update for the second object.

16. The method of claim 1, the object comprising at least one of a logical unit number (LUN), a volume, a data access configuration, a network access configuration, a storage object, or a configuration object.

17. The method of claim 1, the object corresponding to a replication of an original object of the primary storage virtual machine, the object associated with the partner storage virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 15, comprising:

sorting configuration updates within the queue based upon the dependency list.

18. A system for managing configuration updates used to replicate configuration of a primary storage virtual machine to a partner storage virtual machine, comprising:

a processor; and

memory containing instructions which when executed by the processor implement at least some of;

a replication component configured to;

receive a configuration update, to be applied to a partner storage virtual machine, from a primary storage virtual machine;

evaluate the configuration update to identify an object to which the configuration update is to be applied;

evaluate a queue of configuration updates to determine whether the queue comprises a queued configuration update for the object;

responsive to the queue not comprising the queued configuration update, queue the configuration update into the queue; and

responsive to the queue comprising the queued configuration update;

determine a first command type of the queued configuration update;

determine a second command type of the configuration update; and

apply a consolidation rule, corresponding to the first command type and the second command type, to the configuration update and the queued configuration update.

19. The system of claim 18, the replication component configured to:

maintain a create queue, a modify queue, and a delete queue; and

define a queue evaluation order specifying that the create queue is to be evaluated for object identification before the modify queue and the delete queue and that the modify queue is to be evaluated for object identification before the delete queue.

20. A computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed perform a method for managing configuration updates used to replicate configuration of a primary storage virtual machine to a partner storage virtual machine, comprising:

receiving a configuration update, to be applied to a partner storage virtual machine, from a primary storage virtual machine;

evaluating the configuration update to identify an object to which the configuration update is to be applied;

evaluating a queue of configuration updates to determine whether the queue comprises a queued configuration update for the object;

responsive to the queue not comprising the queued configuration update, queuing the configuration update into the queue; and

responsive to the queue comprising the queued configuration update;

determining a first command type of the queued configuration update;

determining a second command type of the configuration update; and

applying a consolidation rule, corresponding to the first command type and the second command type, to the configuration update and the queued configuration update.