Method for managing volumes/snapshots in pools of external virtual memory

• US 8,645,659 B1
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infinidat Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Infinidat Ltd.
• Inventors: Winokur, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Yu, Jae
• Application Number:
  US12/957,613
• Time in Patent Office: 1,161 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170, 711/171, 711/202, 711/203, 711/206
• US Class Current: 711/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0223 User address space allocation, e.g. contiguous or non contiguous base addressing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A method for managing resources in a storage pool of external virtual memory, that includes a host manager being associated with a storage pool by a storage manager. The host manager manages the resources, the managing including creating resources in the storage pool and/or deleting resources in the storage pool. The host manager further accesses the resource in the pool, such accessing including reading data to or writing data to the resource.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating management of resources in a storage pool of external virtual memory, comprising:

(a) by a storage manager of a storage system, creating a pool for accommodating resources permitted to be managed by a host and associating the host with said pool;

(b) by the storage manager, creating a handle for granting access to said pool by the host and attaching the handle to the host and to said pool;

(c) receiving by the storage manager, from the host, a management command embedded in an I/O (input/output) command that utilizes the handle, wherein the management command is for managing of a resource in the pool; and

(d) by the storage manager, executing the command in said pool, if the pool is assigned to the host.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising creating a pool volume and associating the pool volume with the pool, wherein said handle includes an initiator port for attaching to the host, a target port for attaching to the pool volume, and LUN uniquely identifying the handle.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said management command complies with an I/O protocol.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said I/O protocol being the SCSI protocol.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said resources are selected from a group that includes at least one of the following, volume, thin volume, snapshot.

6. A system for facilitating management of resources in a storage pool of external virtual memory, comprising:

a storage manager creating a pool for accommodating resources permitted to be managed by a host and associating the host with said pool and creating a unique handle for granting access to said pool by the host;

a pool resource control module of the storage manager configured to attach the handle to the host and to said pool;

the storage manager configured to receive from the host a management command embedded in an I/O (input/output) command that utilizes the handle, wherein the management command is for managing of a resource in the pool; and

the storage manager is configured to execute the command in said pool, if the pool is assigned to the host.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for facilitating management of resources in a storage pool of external virtual memory, the product includes a storage storing computer code comprising:

(a) a computer code portion for creating a pool for accommodating resources permitted to be managed by a host and associating the host with said pool;

(b) a computer code portion for creating a handle for granting access to said pool by the host and attaching the handle to the host and to said pool;

(c) a computer code portion for receiving by the storage manager, from the host, a management command embedded in an I/O (input/output) command that utilizes the handle, wherein the management command is for managing of a resource in the pool; and

(d) a computer code portion for executing the command in said pool, if the pool is assigned to the host.