Storing virtual machines on a file system in a distributed environment

• US 9,047,313 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2011
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat Israel Ltd. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Baron, Ayal
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Adam
• Application Number:
  US13/091,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20120272238A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,503 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/196 Specific adaptations of the file system to access devices and non-file objects via standard file system access operations, e.g. pseudo file systems dedicated interfaces to storage systems G06F3/0601
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A mechanism for storing virtual machines on a file system in a distributed environment is disclosed. A method of the invention includes initializing creation of a VM by a hypervisor of a host machine, allocating a logical volume from a logical volume group of a shared storage pool to the VM, and creating a file system on top of the allocated logical volume, the file system to manage all files, metadata, and snapshots associated with the VM.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

initializing, by a hypervisor executed by a processing device of a host machine, creation of a plurality of virtual machines (VMs); and

for each VM of the plurality of VMs;

allocating, by the hypervisor, a logical volume from a logical volume group of a shared storage pool to the VM, the allocated logical volume solely assigned to the VM;

mounting, by the hypervisor, a file system dedicated to the VM on the allocated logical volume assigned to the VM, the dedicated file system to manage information of the VM stored in the allocated logical volume and does not manage information of other allocated logical volumes assigned to other VMs of the plurality of VMs, wherein the information of the VM assigned to the allocated logical volume comprises virtual disks, snapshots, data, and metadata of the VM; and

filing, by the hypervisor, the virtual disks, the snapshots, the data, and the metadata of the VM inside the dedicated file system of the VM on the allocated logical volume assigned to the VM, wherein the filed virtual disks, snapshots, data and metadata are each treated as files in the dedicated file system, and wherein the virtual disks are separate from the allocated logical volume.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared storage pool comprises a plurality of disparate physical storage disks.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a VM of the plurality of VMs is accessed and executed from the shared storage by mounting the file system dedicated to the VM on the host machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein any of a plurality of other host machines access and execute a VM of the plurality of VMs from the shared storage by mounting the file system dedicated to the VM on the any other host machine.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein only one host machine of the plurality of host machines can access a dedicated file system of a VM of the plurality of VMs at any point in time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more snapshots created as part of running a VM of the plurality of VMs on the host machine are filed into the file system dedicated to the VM.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the dedicated file system comprises executing a make file system command from the hypervisor.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the files and metadata of a VM of the plurality of VMs are managed using file system commands of the dedicated file system.

9. A host machine, comprising:

a processing device;

a memory communicably coupled to the processing device; and

a hypervisor to execute a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) from the memory that share use of the processing device, the hypervisor to, for each VM of the plurality of VMs;

allocate a logical volume from a logical volume group of a shared storage pool to the VM, the allocated logical volume solely assigned to the VM;

mount a file system dedicated to the VM on the allocated logical volume assigned to the VM, the dedicated file system to manage information of the VM stored in the allocated logical volume and does not manage information of other allocated logical volumes assigned to other VMs of the plurality of VMs, wherein the information of the VM assigned to the allocated logical volume comprises virtual disks, snapshots, data, and metadata of the VM; and

file the virtual disks, the snapshots, the data, and the metadata of the VM inside the dedicated file system of the VM on the allocated logical volume assigned to the VM, wherein the filed virtual disks, snapshots, data and metadata are each treated as files in the dedicated file system, and wherein the virtual disks are separate from the allocated logical volume.

10. The host machine of claim 9, wherein the shared storage pool comprises a plurality of disparate physical storage disks.

11. The host machine of claim 9, wherein a VM of the plurality of VMs is accessed and executed from the shared storage by mounting the file system dedicated to the VM on the host machine.

12. The host machine of claim 9, wherein any of a plurality of other host machines access and execute a VM of the plurality of VMs from the shared storage by mounting the file system dedicated to the VM on the any other host machine.

13. The host machine of claim 9, wherein one or more snapshots created as part of running a VM of the plurality of VMs on the host machine are filed into the file system dedicated to the VM.

14. The host machine of claim 9, wherein creating the dedicated file system comprises executing a make file system command from the hypervisor.

15. The host machine of claim 9, wherein the files and metadata of a VM of the plurality of VMs are managed using file system commands of the dedicated file system.

16. A non-transitory a machine-readable storage medium including instructions that, when accessed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

initialize, by the processing device of a host machine, creation of a plurality of virtual machines (VMs); and

for each VM of the plurality of VMs;

allocate, by the hypervisor, a logical volume from a logical volume group of a shared storage pool to the VM, the allocated logical volume solely assigned to the VM;

mount, by the hypervisor, a file system dedicated to the VM on the allocated logical volume assigned to the VM, the dedicated file system to manage information of the VM stored in the allocated logical volume and does not manage information of other allocated logical volumes assigned to other VMs of the plurality of VMs, wherein the information of the VM assigned to the allocated logical volume comprises virtual disks, snapshots, data, and metadata of the VM; and

file, by the hypervisor, the virtual disks, the snapshots, the data, and the metadata of the VM inside the dedicated file system of the VM on the allocated logical volume assigned to the VM, wherein the filed virtual disks, snapshots, data and metadata are each treated as files in the dedicated file system, and wherein the virtual disks are separate from the allocated logical volume.

17. The non-transitory a machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the shared storage pool comprises a plurality of disparate physical storage disks.

18. The non-transitory a machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein a VM of the plurality of VMs is accessed and executed from the shared storage by mounting the file system dedicated to the VM on the host machine.

19. The non-transitory a machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein any of a plurality of other host machines access and execute a VM of the plurality of VMs from the shared storage by mounting the file system dedicated to the VM on the any other host machine.

20. The non-transitory a machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein one or more snapshots created as part of running a VM of the plurality of VMs on the host machine are filed into the file system dedicated to the VM.