Systems and methods for selectively discovering storage devices connected to host computing devices

• US 8,225,009 B1
• Filed: 02/25/2010
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Sharma, Sumit, Nayak, Sathish, Ganapathi, Venkatesha Maphalamajalu
• Primary Examiner(s): SUN, SCOTT C
• Application Number:
  US12/713,164
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 710/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• 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

A computer-implemented method for selectively discovering storage devices connected to a host computing device may include: 1) identifying at least one storage device connected to the host computing device that provides storage for at least one resource managed by the host computing device, 2) identifying a discovery classification assigned to the storage device that is based at least in part on an availability requirement associated with the resource, and then 3) discovering the storage device in accordance with the discovery classification assigned to the storage device. Various other methods, systems, and configured computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for selectively discovering storage devices connected to host computing devices, at least a portion of the method being performed by a host computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

identifying at least one storage device connected to the host computing device that provides storage for at least one resource managed by the host computing device;

identifying a discovery classification assigned to the storage device, wherein the discovery classification assigned to the storage device is based at least in part on an availability requirement of the resource for which the storage device provides storage;

discovering the storage device in accordance with the discovery classification assigned to the storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the storage device comprises:

identifying a unique identifier associated with the storage device;

using the unique identifier to uniquely identify the storage device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the discovery classification assigned to the storage device comprises retrieving the discovery classification from a configuration file.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, prior to retrieving the discovery classification from the configuration file:

identifying the availability requirement of the resource;

assigning the discovery classification to the storage device based at least in part on the availability requirement of the resource;

storing the discovery classification in the configuration file.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein assigning the discovery classification to the storage device based at least in part on the availability requirement of the resource comprises assigning the discovery classification to the storage device based at least in part on a tiered-storage classification assigned to the storage device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the availability requirement comprises a user-assigned availability requirement that specifies at least one of:

making the resource available during startup of the host computing device;

making the resource available during a specific startup phase of the host computing device;

making the resource available after startup of the host computing device is complete;

making the resource available in accordance with a priority ranking associated with the resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovery classification specifies at least one of:

discovering the storage device during startup of the host computing device;

discovering the storage device during a specific startup phase of the host computing device;

discovering the storage device after startup of the host computing device is complete;

discovering the storage device on an as-needed basis.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering the storage device in accordance with the discovery classification assigned to the storage device comprises at least one of:

discovering the storage device during startup of the host computing device;

discovering the storage device during a specific startup phase of the host computing device;

discovering the storage device after startup of the host computing device is complete;

discovering the storage device on an as-needed basis.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering the storage device comprises:

identifying a disk group associated with the storage device;

discovering all other storage devices within the identified disk group.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising, upon discovering the storage device, configuring the storage device for use by the resource.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising, upon configuring the storage device, making the resource available.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein making the resource available comprises making the resource available in accordance with a priority ranking associated with the resource.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the host computing device comprises a cluster node within a computing cluster.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage device comprises a logical storage device within a virtualized storage environment.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource comprises at least one of:

an application managed by the host computing device;

a service managed by the host computing device.

16. A system for selectively discovering storage devices connected to a host computing device, the system comprising:

an identification module programmed to;

identify at least one storage device connected to the host computing device that provides storage for at least one resource managed by the host computing device;

identify a discovery classification assigned to the storage device, wherein the discovery classification assigned to the storage device is based at least in part on an availability requirement of the resource for which the storage device provides storage;

a discovery module programmed to discover the storage device in accordance with the discovery classification assigned to the storage device;

at least one processor configured to execute the identification module and the discovery module.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

an availability-requirement module programmed to identify the availability requirement of the resource;

a discovery-classification module programmed to assign the discovery classification to the storage device based at least in part on the availability requirement of the resource.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the discovery-classification module assigns the discovery classification to the storage device based at least in part on a tiered-storage classification assigned to the storage device.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the discovery module discovers the storage device in accordance with the discovery classification assigned to the storage device by at least one of:

discovering the storage device during startup of the host computing device;

discovering the storage device during a specific startup phase of the host computing device;

discovering the storage device after startup of the host computing device is complete;

discovering the storage device on an as-needed basis.

20. A computer-readable-storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a host computing device, cause the host computing device to:

identify at least one storage device connected to the host computing device that provides storage for at least one resource managed by the host computing device;

identify a discovery classification assigned to the storage device, wherein the discovery classification assigned to the storage device is based at least in part on an availability requirement of the resource for which the storage device provides storage;

discover the storage device in accordance with the discovery classification assigned to the storage device.