Establishing trust in a maintenance free storage container

• US 8,954,787 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Gladwin, S. Christopher, Resch, Jason K., Grube, Gary W., Markison, Timothy W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Manoskey, Joseph D
• Application Number:
  US13/450,212
• Publication Number:
  US 20120290878A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,028 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4.1, 714/4.2, 714/4.3, 714/6.1, 714/6.13, 714/6.2, 714/6.3, 714/20, 714/42, 714/48
• US Class Current: 714/4.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units 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 11/076 by exceeding a count or rate limit, e.g. word- or bit count limit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0775 Content or structure details of the error report, e.g. specific table structure, specific error fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1092 Rebuilding, e.g. when physically replacing a failing disk

Abstract

A maintenance free storage container includes a plurality of storage servers, wherein the maintenance free storage container allows for multiple storage servers of the plurality of storage servers to be in a failure mode without replacement. The maintenance free storage container further includes a container controller operable to manage failure mode information of the plurality of storage servers, manage mapping of a plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers based on the failure mode information, communicate storage server access requests with a device external to the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of virtual storage servers, and communicate the storage server access requests within the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of storage servers.

Claims

1. A maintenance free storage container comprises:

a plurality of storage servers, wherein a storage server of the plurality storage servers includes a plurality of storage devices and a server control module, wherein the server control module manages storage and retrieval of data from the plurality of storage devices, and wherein the maintenance free storage container allows for multiple storage servers of the plurality of storage servers to be in a failure mode without replacement and allows for multiple storage devices of the plurality of storage devices of one or more the plurality of storage servers to be in the failure mode without replacement;

a container controller operable to;

manage failure mode information of the plurality of storage servers;

manage mapping of a plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers based on the failure mode information;

communicate storage server access requests with a device external to the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of virtual storage servers; and

communicate the storage server access requests within the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of storage servers; and

a container certificate authority operable to;

authenticate the plurality of storage servers to produce a plurality of storage server container certificates that are an indication of trust within the maintenance free storage container; and

authenticate the plurality of virtual storage servers to produce a plurality of virtual storage server container certificates that are an indication of trust within the maintenance free storage container.

2. The maintenance free storage container of claim 1, wherein the container controller is further operable to:

facilitate authentication of the plurality of virtual storage servers with a storage network root certificate authority.

3. The maintenance free storage container of claim 1, wherein a storage server access request of the storage server access requests comprises:

a dispersed storage network (DSN) address that includes a vault identifier and a pillar identifier, wherein the vault identifier identifies a virtual storage vault of a DSN and the pillar identifier identifies a specific pillar coded value of data encoded using a dispersed storage error coding function.

4. The maintenance free storage container of claim 1, wherein the managing of the mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to the at least some of the plurality of storage servers further comprises:

accessing a trust table that includes a plurality of entries corresponding to the plurality of storage servers, wherein an entry of the plurality of entries includes an indication as to whether a storage server of the plurality of storage servers in a trusted state, a temporary untrusted state, or a permanent untrusted state.

5. The maintenance free storage container of claim 4, wherein the container controller is further operable to:

update the trust table by;

determining that the storage server is in the temporary untrusted state when the storage server is currently unavailable and the entry does not indicate that the storage server is in the permanent untrusted state; and

determining that the storage server is in the permanent untrusted state when the storage server has failed or has been compromised.

6. The maintenance free storage container of claim 1, wherein the container controller is further operable to:

receive a storage server access request of the storage server access requests, wherein the storage server access request includes a virtual storage server address of a virtual storage server of the plurality of virtual storage servers and a root certificate;

process the storage server access request by;

determining whether the root certificate is valid;

when the root certificate is valid, identifying a storage server of the plurality of storage services based on the mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to the at least some of the plurality of storage servers;

determining trust status of the identified storage server;

when the trust status is a permanent untrusted state, flagging the virtual storage server for remapping to a trusted storage server of the plurality of storage servers; and

when the trust status is a temporary untrusted state, responding to the storage server access request as if the storage server is currently unavailable.

7. The maintenance free storage container of claim 6, wherein the container controller is further operable to:

when the trust status is a temporary untrusted state, convert an address of the storage server access request from the addressing of the plurality of virtual storage servers to the addressing of the plurality of storage servers to produce a container storage server address;

send the converted storage server access request to the identified storage server using the container storage server address; and

convert, by the identified storage server, the container storage server address into a physical address of one or more of the plurality of storage devices within the identified storage server.

8. The maintenance free storage container of claim 1, wherein the container controller is further operable to manage mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers by:

interpreting the failure mode information to identify a failed storage server of the plurality of storage servers;

utilizing a dispersed storage error coding function to rebuild data stored in the failed storage server to produce rebuilt data; and

storing the rebuilt data in another storage server of the plurality of storage servers.

9. The maintenance free storage container of claim 1, wherein the container controller is further operable to manage mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers by:

interpreting the failure mode information to identify a failed storage device of a storage server of the plurality of storage servers;

utilizing a dispersed storage error coding function to rebuild data stored in the failed storage device to produce rebuilt data; and

storing the rebuilt data in another storage device in the storage server or in another storage server of the plurality of storage servers.

10. A container controller for use in a maintenance free storage container, the container controller comprises:

an external network interface;

an internal network interface; and

a module operable to;

manage failure mode information of a plurality of storage servers of the maintenance free storage container, wherein a storage server of the plurality storage servers includes a plurality of storage devices and a server control module, wherein the server control module manages storage and retrieval of data from the plurality of storage devices, and wherein the maintenance free storage container allows for multiple storage servers of the plurality of storage servers to be in a failure mode without replacement and allows for multiple storage devices of the plurality of storage devices of one or more the plurality of storage servers to be in the failure mode without replacement;

manage mapping of a plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers based on the failure mode information;

communicate, via the external network interface, storage server access requests with a device external to the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of virtual storage servers; and

facilitate authentication of the plurality of virtual storage servers with a storage network root certificate authority;

communicate, via the internal network interface, the storage server access requests within the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of storage servers.

11. The container controller of claim 10, wherein a storage server access request of the storage server access requests comprises:

a dispersed storage network (DSN) address that includes a vault identifier and a pillar identifier, wherein the vault identifier identifies a virtual storage vault of a DSN and the pillar identifier identifies a specific pillar coded value of data encoded using a dispersed storage error coding function.

12. The container controller of claim 10, wherein the managing of the mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to the at least some of the plurality of storage servers further comprises:

accessing a trust table that includes a plurality of entries corresponding to the plurality of storage servers, wherein an entry of the plurality of entries includes an indication as to whether a storage server of the plurality of storage servers in a trusted state, a temporary untrusted state, or a permanent untrusted state.

13. The container controller of claim 12 is further operable to:

update the trust table by;

determining that the storage server is in the temporary untrusted state when the storage server is currently unavailable and the entry does not indicate that the storage server is in the permanent untrusted state; and

determining that the storage server is in the permanent untrusted state when the storage server has failed or has been compromised.

14. The container controller of claim 10 is further operable to:

receive a storage server access request of the storage server access requests, wherein the storage server access request includes a virtual storage server address of a virtual storage server of the plurality of virtual storage servers and a root certificate;

process the storage server access request by;

determining whether the root certificate is valid;

when the root certificate is valid, identifying a storage server of the plurality of storage servers based on the mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to the at least some of the plurality of storage servers;

determining trust status of the identified storage server;

when the trust status is a permanent untrusted state, flagging the virtual storage server for remapping to a trusted storage server of the plurality of storage servers; and

when the trust status is a temporary untrusted state, responding to the storage server access request as if the storage server is currently unavailable.

15. The container controller of claim 10 is further operable to:

when the trust status is a temporary untrusted state, convert an address of the storage server access request from the addressing of the plurality of virtual storage servers to the addressing of the plurality of storage servers to produce a container storage server address;

send the converted storage server access request to the identified storage server using the container storage server address; and

convert, by the identified storage server, the container storage address into a physical address of one or more of the plurality of storage devices within the identified storage server.

16. The container controller of claim 10 is further operable to manage mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers by:

interpreting the failure mode information to identify a failed storage server of the plurality of storage servers;

utilizing a dispersed storage error coding function to rebuild data stored in the failed storage server to produce rebuilt data; and

storing the rebuilt data in another storage server of the plurality of storage servers.

17. The container controller of claim 10 is further operable to manage mapping of the plurality of virtual storage servers to at least some of the plurality of storage servers by:

interpreting the failure mode information to identify a failed storage device of a storage server of the plurality of storage servers;

utilizing a dispersed storage error coding function to rebuild data stored in the failed storage device to produce rebuilt data; and

storing the rebuilt data in another storage device in the storage server or in another storage server of the plurality of storage servers.

18. A container certificate authority for using in a maintenance free storage container, the container certificate authority comprises:

an internal network interface; and

a processing module operable to;

authenticate, via the internal network interface, a plurality of storage servers to produce a plurality of storage server container certificates that are an indication of trust within the maintenance free storage container; and

authenticate, via the internal network interface, a plurality of virtual storage servers to produce a plurality of virtual storage server container certificates that are an indication of trust within the maintenance free storage container, wherein a storage server of the plurality storage servers includes a plurality of storage devices and a server control module, wherein the server control module manages storage and retrieval of data from the plurality of storage devices, and wherein the maintenance free storage container allows for multiple storage servers of the plurality of storage servers to be in a failure mode without replacement and allows for multiple storage devices of the plurality of storage devices of one or more the plurality of storage servers to be in the failure mode without replacement, wherein storage server access requests are communicated with a device external to the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of virtual storage servers, and wherein the storage server access requests are communicated within the maintenance free storage container using addressing of the plurality of storage servers.