DISASTER RECOVERY FOR DISTRIBUTED FILE SERVERS, INCLUDING METADATA FIXERS

• US 20180157561A1
• Filed: 12/05/2017
• Published: 06/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Venkatesh, Anil Kumar Gopalapura, Kanada, Devyani Suryakant, Bafna, Kalpesh Ashok, Ranasingh, Mausumi, Tyagi, Saurabh, Bellubbi, Vijaykumar
• Granted Patent: US 11,294,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2041 with more than one idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency
• 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 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Examples of systems described herein include a virtualized file servers. Examples of virtualized file servers described herein may support disaster recovery of the virtualized file server. Accordingly, examples of virtualized file servers may support metadata fixing procedures to update metadata in a recovery setting. Examples of virtualized file servers may support hypervisor-agnostic disaster recovery.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a snapshot database; and

a file server virtual machine in communication with the snapshot database, the file server virtual machine configured to retrieve a plurality of snapshots from the snapshot database, wherein a snapshot image of the plurality of snapshot images includes an image of a respective portion of a backed-up virtualized file server, wherein, based on the plurality of snapshots, the file server virtual machine is further configured to generate a virtualized file server having a plurality of file server virtual machines and a plurality of volume groups, wherein the file server virtual machine is further configured to update a metadata database of the virtualized file server based on inconsistencies between the metadata database and storage items of the plurality of volume groups.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the file server virtual machine is configured to add an entry to the metadata database in response to detecting that no entry exists for a file or folder of the storage items of the virtualized file server.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the file server virtual machine is configured to delete an entry from the metadata database in response to detecting that the entry is associated with a file or folder that no longer exists in the storage items of the virtualized file server.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the file server virtual machine comprises a recovery manager configured to generate the plurality of file server virtual machines and the plurality of volume groups based on the plurality of snapshot images.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the recovery manager is further configured to remove one of the plurality of file server virtual machines in response to a determination that the one of the plurality of file server virtual machines is not associated with any of the plurality of volume groups.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the recovery manager is further configured to add an additional file server virtual machine to the plurality of file server virtual machines in response to a determination that the additional file server virtual machine is associated with one of the plurality of volume groups but not yet added to the plurality of file server virtual machines.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein a first snapshot of the plurality of snapshots is configured to capture an image of the plurality of file server virtual machines including the metadata database and a second snapshot of the plurality of snapshots is configured to capture an image of a subset of the plurality of volume groups, wherein, during a snapshot capture procedure, the first image is captured prior to the second image, wherein the file server virtual machine configured to generate the virtualized file server is based at least in part on the first image and the second image.

8. A system comprising:

a file server virtual machine comprising a recovery manager configured to perform a recovery of a virtualized file server to generate a recovered virtualized file server, wherein the recovery manage performs the recovery of the virtualized file server based on the plurality of snapshots of file server virtual machines and volume groups of the virtualized file server, wherein, during the recovery, the recovery manager is configured to manage differences in configurations between the virtualized file server and the recovered virtualized file server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the recovery manager configured to manage the differences in configurations between the virtualized file server and the recovered virtualized file server comprises converting the plurality of snapshots to images that are compatible with a hypervisor associated with the recovered virtualized server.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein a hypervisor associated with the virtualized file server is different that the hypervisor associated with the recovered virtualized server.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the recovery manager configured to manage the differences in configurations between the virtualized file server and the recovered virtualized file server comprises converting network configurations generated from the plurality of snapshots to network configurations that are compatible with the recovered virtualized server.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the recovery manager configured to convert the network configurations generated from the plurality of snapshots to the network configurations that are compatible with the recovered virtualized server comprises changing from a segmented network configuration with more than one different network for communication to an unsegmented network configuration with a single network for communication.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the recovery manager comprises a metadata database fixer configured to update a metadata database in the recovered virtualized file server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the metadata database fixer configured to update the metadata database comprises adding an entry to the metadata database in response to detecting that no entry exists for a file or folder of the storage items of the virtualized file server and deleting an entry from the metadata database in response to detecting that the entry is associated with a file or folder that no longer exists in the storage items of the virtualized file server.

15. A method comprising:

retrieving a plurality of snapshots from a snapshot database by a file server virtual machine, wherein a snapshot of the plurality of snapshots includes an image of a respective portion of a backed-up virtualized file server;

based on the plurality of snapshots, generating a virtualized file server having a plurality of file server virtual machines and a plurality of volume groups; and

updating a metadata database of the virtualized file server based on inconsistencies between the metadata database and storage items of the plurality of volume groups.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein updating the metadata database comprises adding an entry to the metadata database in response to detecting that no entry exists for a file or folder of the storage items of the virtualized file server.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein updating the metadata database comprises deleting an entry from the metadata database in response to detecting that the entry is associated with a file or folder that no longer exists in the storage items of the virtualized file server.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising removing one of the plurality of file server virtual machines in response to a determination that the one of the plurality of file server virtual machines is not associated with any of the plurality of volume groups.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising adding an additional file server virtual machine to the plurality of file server virtual machines in response to a determination that the additional file server virtual machine is associated with one of the plurality of volume groups.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising converting the plurality of snapshot images to a format compatible with a hypervisor associated with the virtualized file server.