Secured Multi-Tenancy Data in Cloud-Based Storage Environments

• US 20160371021A1
• Filed: 06/17/2015
• Published: 12/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Goldberg, Itzhack, Liu, Henry Z., Rueger, Erik, Sondhi, Neil
• Granted Patent: US 9,678,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• 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]

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for multi-tenancy data security. A storage device receives a request for storage from a client device. Responsive to the request for storage being from an existing tenant, the storage device determines whether there is allocated unused storage in a freed space storage pool associated with the existing tenant. Responsive to the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool, the storage device re-allocates all or a portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to an active storage pool associated with the existing tenant in order to satisfy the request such that the client device accesses the allocated unused storage in the active storage pool.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for multi-tenancy data security, the method comprising:

receiving, in a storage device, a request for storage from a client device;

responsive to the request for storage being from an existing tenant, determining, by the storage device, whether there is allocated unused storage in a freed space storage pool associated with the existing tenant; and

responsive to the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool, re-allocating, by the storage device, all or a portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to an active storage pool associated with the existing tenant in order to satisfy the request such that the client device accesses the allocated unused storage in the active storage pool.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the reallocation of all of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to the active storage pool associated with the existing tenant failing to complete the request for storage, allocating, by the storage device, additional storage from a global free storage pool.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein re-allocating all or the portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to the active storage pool is performed utilizing a bitmap where a respective bit that represents the portion of the allocated unused storage in the freed space storage pool is changed from a first value to a second value in order that the allocated unused storage is active storage in the active storage pool.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the request for storage being from a new tenant, allocating, by the storage device, storage from a global free storage pool.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to receiving a request to release unused storage space from the active storage pool associated with the existing tenant, re-allocating, by the storage device, the unused storage space from the active storage pool associated with the tenant to the freed space storage pool associated with the tenant.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the freed space storage pool exceeding a predetermined threshold, identifying, by the storage device, a portion of unused storage in the freed space storage pool that will lower the freed space storage pool below the predetermined threshold;

reassigning, by the storage device, the identified unused storage in the freed space storage pool to a returned used storage pool;

recycling, by the storage device, the identified unused storage in the returned used storage pool; and

returning, by the storage device, the recycled unused storage to the global free storage pool.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein recycling the identified unused storage in the returned used storage pool comprises one or more of erasing, scrubbing, or shredding the data of the identified unused storage.

8. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

receive a request for storage from a client device;

responsive to the request for storage being from an existing tenant, determine whether there is allocated unused storage in a freed space storage pool associated with the existing tenant; and

responsive to the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool, re-allocate all or a portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to an active storage pool associated with the existing tenant in order to satisfy the request such that the client device accesses the allocated unused storage in the active storage pool.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

responsive to the reallocation of all of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to the active storage pool associated with the existing tenant failing to complete the request for storage, allocate additional storage from a global free storage pool.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein re-allocating all or the portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to the active storage pool is performed utilizing a bitmap where a respective bit that represents the portion of the allocated unused storage in the freed space storage pool is changed from a first value to a second value in order that the allocated unused storage is active storage in the active storage pool.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

responsive to the request for storage being from a new tenant, allocate storage from a global free storage pool.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

responsive to receiving a request to release unused storage space from the active storage pool associated with the existing tenant, re-allocate the unused storage space from the active storage pool associated with the tenant to the freed space storage pool associated with the tenant.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the computer readable program further causes the computing device to:

responsive to the freed space storage pool exceeding a predetermined threshold, identify a portion of unused storage in the freed space storage pool that will lower the freed space storage pool below the predetermined threshold;

reassign the identified unused storage in the freed space storage pool to a returned used storage pool;

recycle the identified unused storage in the returned used storage pool; and

return the recycled unused storage to the global free storage pool.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein recycling the identified unused storage in the returned used storage pool comprises one or more of erasing, scrubbing, or shredding the data of the identified unused storage.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a request for storage from a client device;

responsive to the request for storage being from an existing tenant, determine whether there is allocated unused storage in a freed space storage pool associated with the existing tenant; and

responsive to the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool, re-allocate all or a portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to an active storage pool associated with the existing tenant in order to satisfy the request such that the client device accesses the allocated unused storage in the active storage pool.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

responsive to the reallocation of all of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to the active storage pool associated with the existing tenant failing to complete the request for storage, allocate additional storage from a global free storage pool.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein re-allocating all or the portion of the allocated unused storage existing in the freed space storage pool to the active storage pool is performed utilizing a bitmap where a respective bit that represents the portion of the allocated unused storage in the freed space storage pool is changed from a first value to a second value in order that the allocated unused storage is active storage in the active storage pool.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

responsive to the request for storage being from a new tenant, allocate storage from a global free storage pool.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

responsive to receiving a request to release unused storage space from the active storage pool associated with the existing tenant, re-allocate the unused storage space from the active storage pool associated with the tenant to the freed space storage pool associated with the tenant.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

responsive to the freed space storage pool exceeding a predetermined threshold, identify a portion of unused storage in the freed space storage pool that will lower the freed space storage pool below the predetermined threshold;

reassign the identified unused storage in the freed space storage pool to a returned used storage pool;

recycle the identified unused storage in the returned used storage pool, wherein recycling the identified unused storage in the returned used storage pool comprises one or more of erasing, scrubbing, or shredding the data of the identified unused storage; and

return the recycled unused storage to the global free storage pool.