Method and system for managing and monitoring virtual storage servers of a hosting storage server

• US 7,970,851 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2006
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Surana, Anshu, Kamila, Shailaja, Pannem, Hemanth, Kumar, Kartik, Ponnappan, Senthilkumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky; Moustafa M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams; Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US11/590,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,701 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/211
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• 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 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A storage management application is provided to manage and monitor virtual storage servers in a hosting storage server. In addition, in order to facilitate virtual storage server management and monitoring, a virtual storage server administrator role is provided. The role is allowed to access details of the virtual storage server assigned to the role, but not the details of the hosting server and other virtual servers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in a network storage manager, managing a host server which is configured to provide data access services to a set of clients, wherein the network storage manager is operatively coupled to the host server via an interconnect;

in the network storage manager, discovering a first virtual storage server (VSS) that is hosted in the host server;

in the network storage manager, monitoring the first VSS and a storage object of the first VSS, wherein the storage object is a logical representation of a physical storage device;

in the network storage manager, automatically generating configuration parameters for use by the host server to establish a relationship involving the first VSS and a second VSS, wherein the relationship is a mirroring relationship in which the first VSS is a source server or a destination server, or a backup relationship in which the first VSS is a backup server;

in the network storage manager, monitoring the relationship between the first VSS and the second VSS; and

in the network storage manager, controlling an administrator role'"'"'s privileges associated with the first VSS hosted in the host server and the second VSS so that the administrator role'"'"'s privileges associated with the first VSS and the second VSS are limited to resources uniquely assigned to the first VSS and the second VSS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network storage manager runs on a management console coupled to the host server via the interconnect.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring of the first VSS comprises monitoring a status of the first VSS.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the status of the first VSS is one of a running status, a down status, or a destroyed status.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said monitoring of the storage object further comprises monitoring assignment of the storage object to the first VSS from the host server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the storage object is a volume, a subvolume, or a Logical Unit Number (LUN).

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in the network storage manager, storing results of said monitoring in a database or databases;

and generating a report based on data stored in the database-or databases.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in the network storage manager, discovering the storage object of the first VSS and changing an ownership of the storage object from the host server to the first VSS.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovery of the previously unmonitored VSS is performed automatically and based on a global indicator at the network storage manager.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein, as part of the discovery of the previously unmonitored VSS, an IP space, a status and an available protocol of the VSS are determined.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring, at the network storage manager, a backup relationship in which the VSS includes a backup server.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first VSS and the second VSS are hosted on separate physical servers.

13. A processing system comprising:

a processor;

a network interface through which to communicate with a host server;

a memory coupled to the processor;

first logic to monitor a status of a first virtual storage server (VSS) hosted in the host server;

second logic to monitor a first storage object assigned to the first VSS from the host server, wherein the first storage object is a logical representation of a physical storage device;

third logic to monitor a mirror relationship between the first VSS and a second VSS;

fourth logic to monitor a backup relationship in which the first VSS includes a backup server;

discovery logic to locate a previously unmonitored virtual storage server that is hosted in the host server;

relationship logic to automatically generate configuration parameters for use by the host server to establish a relationship involving the first VSS and the second VSS, wherein the relationship is a mirroring relationship in which the first VSS is a source server or a destination server, or a backup relationship in which the first VSS is a backup server; and

privilege logic to control an administrator role'"'"'s privileges associated with the first VSS hosted in the server so that the administrator role'"'"'s privileges associated with the first VSS are limited to resources uniquely assigned to the first VSS.

14. The processing system of claim 13 further comprising:

a first database to record the status of the first VSS;

a second database to record information related to monitoring the first storage object;

a third database to record information related to monitoring the mirror relationship; and

a fourth database to record information related to monitoring the backup relationship.

15. The processing system of claim 14, wherein each of the first, second, third and fourth logic updates the first, second, third and fourth databases respectively to indicate an ownership change of a second storage object.

16. The processing system of claim 14 further comprising a fifth logic to generate a monitoring report.

17. The processing system of claim 16 further comprising a sixth logic to display the report.

18. The processing system of claim 13 wherein the discovery logic is further configured to discover the storage object at the first VSS and change an ownership of the storage object from the host server to the first VSS.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein a network resource and a storage object, each currently accessible to the previously unmonitored VSS, are determined as part of the discovery of the previously unmonitored VSS.