Centralized storage management for multiple heterogeneous host-side servers

• US 8,024,442 B1
• Filed: 07/08/2008
• Issued: 09/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thillai, Kumaravel, Kirpekar, Anupama, Bappanadu, Vani, Bhalodia, Atul, Roussos, Konstantinos
• Primary Examiner(s): Caldwell; Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): WILLIS, JONATHAN U
• Application Number:
  US12/169,395
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 709/224, 709/229, 709/212, 709/226, 711/6, 711/162, 711/170, 711/173, 711/203, 711/147, 711/148, 711/202
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; 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], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• 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]

Abstract

Centralized management of both host-side storage objects on multiple heterogeneous host-side servers and logical data containers on a storage system is performed by a management server. In one embodiment, the management server automatically provisions a logical data container on the storage server according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system. In another embodiment, the management server automatically performs a snapshot operation on logical data containers on the storage system according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system. In another embodiment, the management server centrally monitors for out-of-space events in the storage system and automatically correlates the out-of-space events in the storage system to out-of-space events for the host-side file systems.

Claims

1. A computerized system, comprising:

a plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers, wherein each of the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers employs one of a plurality of different host-side virtualization strategies, wherein each host-side virtualization strategy defines a plurality of host-side storage objects;

a storage system, including a storage server, coupled to the plurality of host-side servers, wherein the storage system employs a storage virtualization strategy and has a plurality of logical data containers to store data associated with the plurality of host-side storage objects defined by the storage virtualization strategy; and

a management server coupled to the storage system and the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers, wherein the management server is to centrally manage the plurality of host-side storage objects, according to the plurality of different host-side virtualization strategies, and to centrally manage the plurality of logical data containers that correspond to the plurality of host-side storage objects, according to the storage virtualization strategy, and without administrator interaction at the storage system, wherein the management server comprises a storage resource management tool to coordinate end-to-end storage provisioning of host-side storage objects of the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers homogeneously in storage arrays of the storage system, wherein the storage resource management tool comprises;

a data fabric manager (DFM) server;

a host-side client interface communicatively coupled to host-side agents residing on the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers, wherein the DFM server is configured to manipulate the plurality of host-side storage objects using the host-side agents via the host-side client interface;

a storage system client interface communicatively coupled to storage system, wherein the DFM server is configured to manipulate the plurality of logical data containers via the storage system client interface; and

a data store communicatively coupled to the DFM server to store information regarding a storage resource model which represents how the plurality of host-side storage objects are associated with the plurality of logical data containers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management server is to automatically provision one of the plurality of logical data containers of the storage system according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the management server is to automatically provision one of the plurality of host-side storage objects on one of the plurality of host-side servers, wherein the one logical data container corresponds to the one host-side storage object.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the management server is to automatically provision the one logical data container by thin provisioning the one logical data container on the storage system.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the management server is to automatically provision the one logical data container by sending a request to the storage system to automatically allocate the one logical data container on the storage system which corresponds to the respective one of the plurality of host-side storage objects according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of host-side storage objects comprises a base device that is representative of one of the plurality of logical data containers.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the management server is to manage a server stack across the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers and to utilize the storage virtualization strategy to provision one of the plurality of logical data containers in the storage system for each of a plurality of file systems of the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a management console generated by the management server, wherein an administrator on the management console manages the plurality of host-side virtualization strategies on the plurality of host-side servers and storage virtualization on the storage system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the administrator, by way of the management console, manages the storage virtualization of the storage system automatically without administrator interaction at the storage system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein a first host-side server of the plurality of host-side servers operates a first operating system having a first host-side virtualization type, and a second host-side server of the plurality of host-side servers operates a second operating system having a second host-side virtualization type.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the management server is to automatically perform a snapshot operation on logical data containers on the storage system according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage virtualization strategy is storage device-based virtualization.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage virtualization strategy is network-based virtualization.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage resource management tool is to allow an administrator from a management console to manage virtualization of a plurality of host-side file systems on the plurality of host-side servers according to the plurality of different host-side virtualization strategies and to manage storage virtualization of the storage system according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the storage resource management tool is to communicate with a host-side agent that is to manipulate host-side storage objects on the host-side file system as part of coordinating the end-to-end storage provisioning of host-side storage objects.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage resource management tool is to centrally manage logical data containers in the storage system storing the data corresponding to the host-side storage objects.

17. A method, comprising:

coordinating, using a storage resource management tool of the management server, end-to-end storage provisioning of a plurality of host-side storage objects of a plurality of host-side servers homogeneously in to storage arrays of a storage system, including a storage server, wherein each of the plurality of host-side servers employs one of a plurality of different host-side virtualization strategies, wherein the storage system employs a storage virtualization strategy that is different than the plurality of different host-side virtualization strategies and has a plurality of logical data containers to store data associated with the plurality of host-side storage objects defined by the storage virtualization strategy, wherein said coordinating comprises;

manipulating, by a data fabric manager (DFM) server of the storage resource management tool, the plurality of host-side storage objects using host-side agents residing on the plurality of host-side servers via a host-side client interface and without administrator interaction at the plurality of host-side servers;

manipulating, by the DFM server, the plurality of logical data containers via a storage system client interface and without administrator interaction at the storage system; and

storing, by the DFM server, information at a data store of the management server regarding a storage resource model which represents how the plurality of host-side storage objects are associated with the plurality of logical data containers.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the host-side storage object is a host-side file system.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said manipulating the plurality of logical data containers comprises provisioning one of the plurality of logical data containers, and wherein said provisioning the logical data container comprises thin provisioning the one logical data container on the storage system.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a request at the management server to provision a host-side file system on a first host-side server of the plurality of host-side servers;

provisioning a logical unit of data in one of the plurality of logical data container without administrator interaction at the storage system; and

provisioning the host-side file system, which correspond to the logical unit of data, on the first host-side server without administrator interaction at the first host-side server.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining when a storage size of the host-side file system, specified in the request, exceeds a grant limit for an entity; and

creating one of the plurality of logical data containers having the specified storage size when the storage size does not exceed the grant limit.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein determining when the storage size exceeds the grant limit comprises performing a lookup operation in a data store to determine when the storage size exceeds the grant limit for the entity.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein creating the one logical data container comprises:

sending a request to the storage system to create the one logical data container; and

receiving from the storage system information regarding the created logical data container, and wherein provisioning the logical unit of data comprises;

sending another request to the storage system to provision the logical unit of data in the one logical data container; and

receiving from the storage system information regarding the provisioned logical data container.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein provisioning the host-side file system comprises:

sending a request to the first host-side server to mount the logical unit of data on the first host-side server; and

sending a request to the first host-side server to create the host-side file system, which corresponds to the logical unit of data, on the first host-side server.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining when there are sufficient storage resources to provision the one logical data container, wherein the one logical data container is provisioned when there is sufficient storage resources.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein provisioning the host-side file system comprises receiving at the first host-side server provisioning information from the management server concerning the provisioned logical unit of data, and wherein provisioning the host-side file system comprises provisioning the host-side file system based on the provisioning information.

27. A management server, comprising:

a processor;

a first communication interface through which to communicate with host-side agents residing on a plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers, wherein each of the plurality of host-side servers employs one of a plurality of different host-side virtualization strategies, wherein each host-side virtualization strategy defines a plurality of host-side storage objects;

a second communication interface through which to communicate with a storage system, including a storage server, wherein the storage system employs a storage virtualization strategy and has a plurality of logical data containers to store data associated with the plurality of host-side storage objects defined by the storage virtualization strategy, and wherein the storage virtualization strategy is different from the host-side virtualization strategies; and

a memory storing executable instructions that configure the processor to execute a storage resource management tool to coordinate end-to-end storage provisioning of host-side storage objects of the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers homogeneously in storage arrays of the storage system, wherein the storage resource management tool comprises;

a data fabric manager (DFM) server;

a host-side client interface communicatively coupled to host-side agents residing on the plurality of heterogeneous host-side servers, wherein the DFM server is configured to manipulate the plurality of host-side storage objects using the host-side agents via the host-side client interface;

a storage system client interface communicatively coupled to storage system, wherein the DFM server is configured to manipulate the plurality of logical data containers via the storage system client interface; and

a data store communicatively coupled to the DFM server to store information regarding a storage resource model which represents how the plurality of host-side storage objects are associated with the plurality of logical data containers.

28. The management server of claim 27, wherein the processor is to centrally provision one of the plurality of logical data containers by:

receiving a request to provision the one logical data container for the host-side storage object of the host-side file system;

sending the request to the storage system through the second interface;

receiving provisioning information regarding the one logical data container from the storage system through the second interface; and

provisioning the host-side file system on the first host-side server through the first interface based on the provisioning information.