MANAGING HIGH-AVAILABILITY FILE SERVERS

• US 20200137157A1
• Filed: 10/31/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: JOSEPH, Tony, KADIYALA, Galaxy
• Granted Patent: US 11,770,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products for implementing high-availability file services in a clustered computing environment. Two or more clusters are interconnected to carry out operations for replication of file content between file servers. The file servers and their respective network links are registered with a file server witness. The file servers operate in synchrony, where each file I/O is replicated from one file server to another file server over a first set of network paths. A file server witness communicates with each file server using a second set of two or more network paths interfaced with respective file servers. The file server witness monitors the file servers to determine operational health of the file servers. Upon receipt of a file I/O request, the file I/O request is directed to one of the two file servers based at least in part on the determined operational health.

Claims

1. A method for implementing high-availability of at least two file servers in a clustered computing environment, the method comprising:

synchronizing two file servers to maintain synchronized file system content, wherein the two file servers correspond to a first cluster in a first failure domain having a first file server and a second cluster in a second failure domain having second file server;

interfacing a file server witness in a third failure domain with the two file servers;

monitoring the two file servers to determine a status indicator associated with at least one of the two file servers; and

directing an file I/O request to a selected one of the two file servers based at least in part on the status indicator.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

designating the at least one of the two file servers as a primary file server.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the two file servers is selected to be the primary file server based at least in part on the status indicator.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein designating the at least one of the two file servers as the primary file server involves an atomic operation.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

issuing a synchronization control message, the synchronization control message being issued in response to the status indicator.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the synchronization control message is issued to halt synchronization or resume the synchronization.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a file server witness is implemented in a third cluster.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first file server is implemented in a first availability zone, the second file server is implemented in a second availability zone, and the file server witness is implemented in a third availability zone.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the status indicator indicates at least one of, a healthy file server, an oversubscribed file server, a file server failure, a cluster failure, or a connection failure.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the file I/O request from a host.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by a processor causes the processor to perform a set of acts for implementing high-availability of two file servers in a clustered computing environment, the acts comprising:

synchronizing two file servers to maintain synchronized file system content, wherein the two file servers correspond to a first cluster in a first failure domain having a first file server and a second cluster in a second failure domain having second file server;

interfacing a file server witness in a third failure domain with the two file servers;

monitoring the two file servers to determine a status indicator associated with at least one of the two file servers; and

directing an file I/O request to a selected one of the two file servers based at least in part on the status indicator.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the processor causes the processor to perform acts of:

designating the at least one of the two file servers as a primary file server.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the at least one of the two file servers is selected to be the primary file server based at least in part on the status indicator.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein designating the at least one of the two file servers as the primary file server involves an atomic operation.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions which, when stored in memory and executed by the processor causes the processor to perform acts of:

issuing a synchronization control message, the synchronization control message being issued in response to the status indicator.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the synchronization control message is issued to halt synchronization or resume the synchronization.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein a file server witness is implemented in a third cluster.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the first file server is implemented in a first availability zone, the second file server is implemented in a second availability zone, and the file server witness is implemented in a third availability zone.

19. A system for implementing high-availability of two file servers in a clustered computing environment, the system comprising:

a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions; and

a processor that execute the instructions to cause the processor to perform a set of acts, the acts comprising,

synchronizing two file servers to maintain synchronized file system content, wherein the two file servers correspond to a first cluster in a first failure domain having a first file server and a second cluster in a second failure domain having second file server;

interfacing a file server witness in a third failure domain with the two file servers;

monitoring the two file servers to determine a status indicator associated with at least one of the two file servers; and

directing an file I/O request to a selected one of the two file servers based at least in part on the status indicator.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a file server witness is implemented in a third cluster.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

designating the at least one of the two file servers as a primary file server.

22. system of claim 19, further comprising issuing a synchronization control message, the synchronization control message being issued in response to the status indicator.