PERFORMANCE THROTTLING OF VIRTUAL DRIVES

• US 20180292999A1
• Filed: 04/07/2017
• Published: 10/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Nadkarni, Harshad
• Granted Patent: US 10,768,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• 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

Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided that enable storage performance to be customized and throttled at the drive level. For example, performance metric(s) may be specified for virtual drive(s) assigned to a virtual machine. Physical storage disk(s), which are mapped to the drive(s), may be allocated based on the specified performance metric(s). By providing a means to customize and throttle on a per-drive basis, each function of the virtual machine can be provided a dedicated channel for input/output transactions, thereby ensuring that no function is starved of resources.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing an interface via which a first performance metric for a first virtual drive and a second performance metric for a second virtual drive are specified, the first virtual drive and the second virtual drive being assigned to a virtual machine; and

causing a first number of one or more first physical storage disks to be allocated in accordance with the specified first performance metric and causing a second number of one or more second physical storage disks to be allocated in accordance with the specified second performance metric, the one or more first physical storage disks being mapped to the first virtual drive and the one or more second physical storage disks being mapped to the second virtual drive.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first performance metric is different than the second performance metric.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first virtual drive is assigned to a first function of the virtual machine to store therefor a first type of data, and wherein the second virtual drive is assigned to a second function of the virtual machine to store therefor a second type of data that is different than the first type of data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first function is one of:

a data function and the first type of data is data associated with a database;

a log function and the first type of data is log information that indicates changes made to the data associated with the database;

or

a backup function and the first type of data is backup data associated with the database,

wherein the second function is one of;

the data function and the second type of data is data associated with the database;

the log function and the second type of data is log information that indicates changes made to the data associated with the database;

or

the backup function and the second type of data is backup data associated with the database, and

wherein the first function is different than the second function.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first performance metric corresponds to a first maximum number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) supported by the first virtual drive, and wherein the second performance metric corresponds to a second maximum number of IOPS supported by the second virtual drive.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first number of the one or more first physical storage disks that are allocated is determined based on the first maximum number of IOPS and a maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more first physical storage disks, and wherein the second number of the one or more second physical storage disks that are allocated is determined based on the second maximum number of IOPS and a maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more second physical storage disks.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first number of the one or more first physical storage disks that are allocated is equal to the first maximum number of IOPS divided by the maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more first physical storage disks, and wherein the second number of the one or more second physical storage disks that are allocated is equal to the second maximum number of IOPS divided by the maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more second physical storage disks.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine is executing on a network-accessible server set comprising a plurality of computing nodes, and wherein the one or more first physical storage disks and the one or more second physical storage disks are maintained by the network-accessible server set.

9. A method, comprising:

providing an interface via which a first performance metric for a first function of a virtual machine and a second performance metric for a second function of the virtual machine are specified; and

causing a first number of one or more first physical storage disks to be allocated to a first virtual disk in accordance with the specified first performance metric, the first virtual disk being assigned for use by the first function, and causing a second number of one or more second physical storage disks to be allocated to a second virtual disk in accordance with the specified second performance metric, the second virtual disk being assigned for use by the second data accessing function.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first performance metric is different than the second performance metric.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the first function and the second function is one of:

a data function configured to access data associated with a database;

a log function configured to access log information that indicates changes made to the data associated with the database;

or

a backup function configured to access backup data associated with the database, and

wherein the first function is different than the second function.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first performance metric corresponds to a first maximum number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) supported by the first virtual disk, and wherein the second performance metric corresponds to a second maximum number of IOPS supported by the second virtual disk.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first number of the one or more first physical storage disks that are allocated is determined based on the first maximum number of IOPS and a maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more first physical storage disks, and wherein the second number of the one or more second physical storage disks that are allocated is determined based on the second maximum number of IOPS and a maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more second physical storage disks.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first number of the one or more first physical storage disks that are allocated is equal to the first maximum number of IOPS divided by the maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more first physical storage disks, and wherein the second number of the one or more second physical storage disks that are allocated is equal to the second maximum number of IOPS divided by the maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more second physical storage disks.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the virtual machine is executing on a network-accessible server set comprising a plurality of computing nodes, and wherein the one or more first physical storage disks and the one or more second physical storage disks are maintained by the network-accessible server set.

16. A method, comprising:

providing an interface via which a performance metric for a first virtual drive and a second virtual drive is specified, the first virtual drive and the second virtual drive being assigned to a virtual machine; and

causing an equal number of one or more first physical storage disks and one or more second physical storage disks to be allocated in accordance with the specified performance metric, the one or more first physical storage disks being mapped to the first virtual drive and the one or more second physical storage disks being mapped to the second virtual drive.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first virtual drive is assigned to a first function of the virtual machine to store therefor a first type of data, and wherein the second virtual drive is assigned to a second function of the virtual machine to store therefor a second type of data that is different than the first type of data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first function is one of:

a data function and the first type of data is data associated with a database;

a log function and the first type of data is log information that indicates changes made to the data associated with the database;

or

a backup function and the first type of data is backup data associated with the database,

wherein the second function is one of;

the data function and the second type of data is data associated with the database;

the log function and the second type of data is log information that indicates changes made to the data associated with the database;

or

the backup function and the second type of data is backup data associated with the database, and

wherein the first function is different than the second function.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the performance metric corresponds to a cumulative maximum number of input/output operations per second (IOPS) supported by the first virtual drive and the second virtual drive.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the equal number of the one or more first physical storage disks and the one or more second physical storage disks is determined based on the cumulative maximum number of IOPS and a maximum number of IOPS supported by each of the one or more first physical storage disks and the one or more second physical storage disks.