ATTACHING STORAGE RESOURCES TO VIRTUAL MACHINE INSTANCES

• US 20190310873A1
• Filed: 07/31/2018
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Amann, Stefan, Niklaus, Walter, Weber, Linda-Marie, Chavanne, Matthias Lukas
• Granted Patent: US 11,204,792 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A data processing system includes one or more computer systems, each executing at least one hypervisor. Host bus adapters on the computer system are connectable to storage resources in at least one storage area network. The at least one hypervisor provides virtual instances of the host bus adapters as virtual host bus adapters, and a world-wide unique port number and a logical unit number are used to access a storage volume. A globally unique identifier is used to identify the storage volume. The system includes a management server comprising a management instance for evaluating a possibility of attaching storage resources to virtual machine instances generated by the hypervisor.

Claims

1. A data processing system for attaching storage resources to virtual machine instances, the data processing system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the data processing system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising;

obtaining, by a management instance of a management server, a storage area network request for a group comprising at least one world-wide unique port number for one or more virtual host bus adapters, wherein a virtual host bus adapter is a virtual instance of a host bus adapter of a computer system of the data processing system, the host bus adapter to couple the computer system to one or more storage resources of one or more storage area networks, the at least one world-wide unique port number to be used to access at least one storage resource of at least one storage area network;

initiating, based on the storage area network request, discovery for each world-wide unique port number of the at least one world-wide unique port number in the group on one or more host bus adapters of the computer system to collect information;

analyzing the information collected to determine availability of storage resources to attach to one or more virtual machine instances generated by a hypervisor of the computer system; and

initiating, based on the analyzing, configuring at least one of virtual host bus adapter to attach one or more storage resources to at least one virtual machine instance of the one or more virtual machine instances.

2. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining a request by the management instance on each startup of a virtual machine instance in order to optimize selection of host bus adapters for virtual host bus adapters of the virtual machine instance; and

analyzing the information collected to determine a best available host bus adapter in dependence of path quality criteria.

3. The data processing system according to claim 2, wherein the path quality criteria comprise at least one of path redundancy and utilization of one or more host bus adapters.

4. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the storage area network request comprises information on storage requirements, including information on a number and storage size of storage resources to be requested.

5. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises automatically determining when the storage area network request has been fulfilled.

6. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the initiating discovering comprises triggering a discovery process through one or more host bus adapters for one or more virtual host bus adapters of a virtual machine instance.

7. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises performing continuous monitoring to determine changes in availability of a storage resource.

8. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises alerting the hypervisor based on requirements of the storage area network request being fulfilled in the discovery.

9. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises updating the storage area network request based on information on new virtual host bus adapters being provided to the management instance.

10. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises periodically repeating discovery to update information on one or more storage resources.

11. The data processing system according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises obtaining the storage area network request by the management instance from the hypervisor before a virtual machine instance is generated by the hypervisor.

12. A computer program product for attaching storage resources to virtual machine instances, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for performing a method comprising;

obtaining, by a management instance of a management server, a storage area network request for a group comprising at least one world-wide unique port number for one or more virtual host bus adapters, wherein a virtual host bus adapter is a virtual instance of a host bus adapter of a computer system of the data processing system, the host bus adapter to couple the computer system to one or more storage resources of one or more storage area networks, the at least one world-wide unique port number to be used to access at least one storage resource of at least one storage area network;

initiating, based on the storage area network request, discovery for each world-wide unique port number of the at least one world-wide unique port number in the group on one or more host bus adapters of the computer system to collect information;

analyzing the information collected to determine availability of storage resources to attach to one or more virtual machine instances generated by a hypervisor of the computer system; and

initiating, based on the analyzing, configuring of at least one virtual host bus adapter to attach one or more storage resources to at least one virtual machine instance of the one or more virtual machine instances.

13. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining a request by the management instance on each startup of a virtual machine instance in order to optimize selection of host bus adapters for virtual host bus adapters of the virtual machine instance; and

analyzing the information collected to determine a best available host bus adapter in dependence of path quality criteria.

14. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises performing continuous monitoring to determine changes in availability of a storage resource.

15. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises updating the storage area network request based on information on new virtual host bus adapters being provided to the management instance.

16. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises periodically repeating discovery to update information on one or more storage resources.

17. A computer-implemented method of attaching storage resources to virtual machine instances, the computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, by a management instance of a management server, a storage area network request for a group comprising at least one world-wide unique port number for one or more virtual host bus adapters, wherein a virtual host bus adapter is a virtual instance of a host bus adapter of a computer system of the data processing system, the host bus adapter to couple the computer system to one or more storage resources of one or more storage area networks, the at least one world-wide unique port number to be used to access at least one storage resource of at least one storage area network;

initiating, based on the storage area network request, discovery for each world-wide unique port number of the at least one world-wide unique port number in the group on one or more host bus adapters of the computer system to collect information;

analyzing the information collected to determine availability of storage resources to attach to one or more virtual machine instances generated by a hypervisor of the computer system; and

initiating, based on the analyzing, configuring of at least one virtual host bus adapter to attach one or more storage resources to at least one virtual machine instance of the one or more virtual machine instances.

18. The computer-implemented method according to claim 17, further comprising:

obtaining a request by the management instance on each startup of a virtual machine instance in order to optimize selection of host bus adapters for virtual host bus adapters of the virtual machine instance; and

analyzing the information collected to determine a best available host bus adapter in dependence of path quality criteria.

19. The computer-implemented method according to claim 17, further comprising performing continuous monitoring to determine changes in availability of a storage resource.

20. The computer-implemented method according to claim 17, further comprising updating the storage area network request based on information on new virtual host bus adapters being provided to the management instance.