Method and system for implementing a virtual storage pool in a virtual environment

• US 8,370,833 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2008
• Issued: 02/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Bolles, Benton R., Carter, Adam John, Duclos, Philip J., Helgeson, Brent D.
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, TAMMY EUNHYE
• Application Number:
  US12/101,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20090210875A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,762 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• 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: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A system and method for implementing distributed data storage. In particular, the system includes a plurality of virtualization servers, each of which is associated with available data resources. Each virtualization server supports one or more application virtual machines through a virtualization layer. In addition, a plurality of storage virtual machines is included in the system. Each storage virtual machine is associated with a corresponding and participating virtualization server. A virtual storage pool is included in the system, wherein each storage virtual machine allows the export and aggregation of available data resources within a corresponding virtualization server into the virtual storage pool.

Claims

1. A system for implementing distributed data storage, comprising:

a plurality of virtualization servers each of which is associated with data storage resources, and which supports one or more application virtual machines through a corresponding virtualization layer;

a plurality of storage virtual machines, each of which is associated with a corresponding virtualization server; and

a virtual storage pool, wherein each of said storage virtual machines is to provide for export and aggregation of said data storage resources associated with a corresponding virtualization server into said virtual storage pool, and wherein said storage virtual machines are to cooperate to implement said virtual storage pool, wherein the virtual storage pool is implemented without using external shared storage.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual volume is to be replicated across said virtual storage pool.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual storage pool comprises shared storage, wherein said shared storage enables features involving more than one virtualization server in said plurality of virtualization servers.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual volume in said virtual storage pool is available to said plurality of virtualization servers and their associated application virtual machines.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein a virtual volume in said virtual storage pool is available to one or more application virtual machines associated with one or more virtualization servers.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said virtual volume is available to a first application virtual machine associated with a first virtualization server and a second application virtual machine associated with a second virtualization server.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said virtual volume is available to a first application virtual machine associated with a first virtualization server and a second virtualization server.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual storage pool provides for data redundancy.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said virtual storage pool is to scale as a function of the addition of virtualization servers and corresponding storage virtual machines.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one virtualization server in said plurality of virtualization servers comprises:

a data storage device as said available data storage resource.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said one or more application virtual machines comprises:

a virtual operating system for executing at least one application.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of storage virtual machines are to provide distributed management of said virtual storage pool.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of storage virtual machines are to provide said data storage resources associated with the corresponding virtualization servers for use by the applications virtual machines.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein each of said plurality of virtual machines are separate from the virtualization layer in the corresponding virtualization server.

15. A method for implementing distributed data storage, comprising:

providing a plurality of virtualization servers each of which is associated with data storage resources, and which supports one or more application virtual machines through a virtualization layer;

providing a plurality of storage virtual machines, each of which is associated with a corresponding virtualization server;

providing a virtual storage pool, wherein each of said storage virtual machines is to provide export and aggregation of said data storage resources within the corresponding virtualization server into said virtual storage pool;

cooperating, by the plurality of storage virtual machines, to implement said virtual storage pool; and

enabling a virtualization environment across said plurality of virtualization servers without using external shared storage.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said enabling the virtualization environment comprises:

transferring an application virtual machine from a first virtualization server to a second virtualization server without using said external shared storage.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said enabling the virtualization environment comprises:

providing for dynamic load balancing of one or more application virtual machines across virtualization servers without using said external shared storage.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

providing, by said plurality of storage virtual machines, said data storage resources associated with the corresponding virtualization servers for use by the application virtual machines.

19. A virtualization server for implementing distributed data storage, comprising:

a processor for providing computing resources;

data storage resources;

a virtualization layer for implementing a virtual environment for utilizing said processor, wherein said virtual environment includes at least one application virtual machine executing an application; and

a first storage virtual machine to provide export and aggregation of said data storage resources into a virtual storage pool, wherein said virtual storage pool is to provide said distributed data storage from a plurality of virtualization servers, each of which includes a corresponding storage virtual machine providing the export and aggregation of corresponding data storage resources into said virtual storage pool, wherein the first storage virtual machine is to cooperate with storage virtual machines of other ones of the plurality of virtualization servers to implement said virtual storage pool, wherein the virtual storage pool is implemented without using external shared storage.

20. The virtualization server of claim 19, wherein the virtualization layer is separate from the first storage virtual machine.