VIRTUALIZED FILE SERVER DATA SHARING

• US 20190026101A1
• Filed: 09/24/2018
• Published: 01/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Gopalapura Venkatesh, Anil Kumar, Sharpe, Richard James, Arikatla, Durga Mahesh, Bafna, Kalpesh Ashok, Kanada, Devyani Suryakant
• Granted Patent: US 10,949,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0712 in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/201 between storage system components
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2033 switching over of hardware resources
• 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 11/2058 using more than 2 mirrored copies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2092 Techniques of failing over between control units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 : Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1774 : Locking methods, e.g. locking methods for file systems allowing shared and concurrent access to files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 : Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1844 : Management specifically adapted to replicated file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 : Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 : I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 : Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• 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 21/53 : by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/56 : Computer malware detection or handling, e.g. anti-virus arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 : to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 : to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 : Database-specific techniques
• 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 2201/825 : the problem or solution involving locking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 : Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/87 : Monitoring of transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/034 : Test or assess a computer or a system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 : Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 : Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2145 : Inheriting rights or properties, e.g., propagation of permissions or restrictions within a hierarchy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 : in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 : Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 : Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 : at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 : at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 : Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 : Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 : Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 : Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 : Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 : Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 : the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 : by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 : Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 : Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 : for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a first virtualized file server configured to receive a request to access a storage item located at a second virtualized file server, determine that the storage item is designated as being accessible by other virtualized file servers, identify an FSVM of the second virtualized file server at which the storage item is located, and forward the request to the FSVM of the second virtualized file server. The storage item may be designated as being accessible by other virtualized file servers when the storage item is associated with a predetermined tag value indicating that the storage item is shared among virtualized file servers. The predetermined tag value may be stored in a sharding map in association with the storage item.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a first virtualized file server of a first computing device, a request to access a storage item located at a second virtualized file server of a second computing device;

identifying a File Server Virtual Machine (FSVM) of the second virtualized file server configured to serve a storage resource storing the storage item; and

sending the request to the identified FSVM of the second virtualized file server to access the storage item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the request to the identified FSVM of the second virtualized file server to access the storage item is in response to the storage item is being permitted to the first virtualized file server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the first virtualized file server is permitted to access the storage item.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining whether the first virtualized server is permitted to access the storage item includes determining that the storage item is associated with a tag value indicating that the storage item is shared with the first virtualized file server.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the storage item is associated with a container storage item that includes another storage item, wherein determining that the storage item is associated with the tag value indicating that the storage item is shared with the first virtualized file server is in response to a determination that the another storage item is associated with the tag value indicating that the another storage item is shared with the first virtualized file server.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising retrieving the tag value from a sharding map.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the FSVM of the second virtualized file server configured to serve a storage resource storing the storage item includes querying the sharding map for the storage item.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage item includes at least one of a file, a folder, or a directory.

9. A computer-readable, non-transitory media storing instructions embodying software for managing a virtualization environment including a first virtualized file server, the media comprising instructions operable, when executed, to:

receive a request to access a storage item located at a second virtualized file server;

identify a File Server Virtual Machine (FSVM) of the second virtualized file server configured to serve a storage resource storing the storage item; and

send the request to the identified FSVM of the second virtualized file server.

10. The media of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed, are operable to send the request to the identified FSVM of the second virtualized file server in response to a determination that the storage item is accessible to the first virtualized file server.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further operable to determine whether the first virtualized server is permitted to access the storage item.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein to determine whether the first virtualized server is permitted to access the storage item, the instructions are operable, when executed, to determine that the storage item is associated with a tag value indicating that the storage item is shared with the first virtualized file server.

13. The media of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further operable to query a sharding map for the storage item to retrieve the tag value.

14. The media of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further operable to provide a first virtualized file server are further operable, when executed, to:

receive a response to the request to access the storage item; and

provide the response to a system from which the request was received.

15. A system comprising:

a first virtualized file server which, while running on one or more processors, is configured to;

receive a request to access a storage item located at a second virtualized file server;

identify a File Server Virtual Machine (FSVM) of the second virtualized file server configured to serve a storage resource storing the storage item; and

send the request to the identified FSVM of the second virtualized file server.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first virtualized file server is configured to be hosted on a plurality of host machines.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein a host machine of the plurality of host machines includes at least one of a hypervisor, one or more user virtual machines (user VMs), or a virtual machine controller.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the first virtualized file server is further configured to determine whether the first virtualized file server is permitted to access the storage item and to send the request to the identified FSVM of the second virtualized file server in response to a determination that the first virtualized file server is permitted to access the storage item.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first virtualized file server is further configured to determine whether the first virtualized file server is permitted to access the storage item based in part on a determination that the storage item is associated with a tag value indicating that the storage item is shared with the first virtualized file server.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first virtualized file server is further configured to query a sharding map for the storage item to retrieve the tag value.