Persistent volume at an offset of a virtual block device of a storage server

• US 9,098,325 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2012
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2012
• 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: Reddin, Timothy, Kelleher, Liam Noel, Coles, Alistair, Edwards, Aled
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Tuan
• Application Number:
  US13/407,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20130227552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,253 Days
• Field of Search: 711/100, 711/113, 711/114, 711/154, 711/200
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory

Abstract

Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to a persistent volume at an offset of a virtual block device of a storage server. Example embodiments include requesting that a persistent volume be dissociated from a virtual block device in response to the termination of a virtual machine.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor of a management server, the storage medium comprising:

instructions to schedule a first virtual machine on a first host server;

instructions to request that a first storage server present to the first host server a first persistent volume, the first persistent volume to store information for the first virtual machine regardless of the state of the first virtual machine;

instructions to provide, to the first host server, an offset of a first virtual block device of the first storage server at which the first persistent volume is accessible to the first virtual machine via an input/output (I/O) operation of the first host server based on the offset; and

instructions to request that the first storage server dissociate the first persistent volume from the first virtual block device in response to termination of the first virtual machine.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

instructions to request that the first storage server unmap the first persistent volume from the first virtual block device in response to a request to detach the first persistent volume from the first virtual machine, if the first persistent volume is not attached to any other virtual machine hosted by the host server at the time of the request to detach.

3. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to request that the first storage server dissociate the first persistent volume comprise instructions to request that the first storage server unmap the first persistent volume from the first virtual block device, in response to an indication that the first virtual machine has terminated, if the first persistent volume is not attached to any other virtual machine hosted by the host server at the time of the termination indication.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to request that the first storage server dissociate the first persistent volume comprise instructions to request, in response to the termination, that the first storage server dissociate from the first virtual block device each persistent volume managed by the first storage server, attached to the first virtual machine prior to the termination, and not attached to any other virtual machine hosted at the host server at the time of an indication of the termination.

5. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein:

the instructions to request that the first storage server present the first persistent volume comprise instructions to request that a second storage server present to the first host server a second persistent volume associated with the first virtual machine;

the instructions to provide comprise instructions to provide, to the first host server, an offset at which the second persistent volume is mapped to a second virtual block device of the second storage server, and

the instructions to request that the first storage server dissociate the first persistent volume comprise instructions to request that the second storage server dissociate the second persistent volume from the second virtual block device in response to the termination of the first virtual machine.

6. The storage medium of claim 5, wherein:

the instructions to schedule comprise instructions to schedule a second virtual machine on a second host server;

the instructions to request that the first storage server present the first persistent volume comprise instructions to request that the second storage server present to the second host server a third persistent volume associated with the second virtual machine;

the instructions to provide comprise instructions to provide, to the second host server, an offset at which the third persistent volume is mapped to a third virtual block device of the second storage server; and

the instructions to request that the first storage server dissociate the first persistent volume comprise instructions to request that the second storage server dissociate the third persistent volume from the third virtual block device in response to termination of the second virtual machine.

7. A system comprising:

a system manager to;

select a first host server among a plurality of host servers to host a first virtual machine associated with a first persistent volume managed by a storage server;

request that a storage manager of the storage server make the first persistent volume available to the selected first host server for input/output (I/O) operations;

receive, from the storage manager, offset information associated with a mapped offset of a first virtual block device of the first storage server at which the first persistent volume is accessible to the first virtual machine via an I/O operation of the first host server; and

request that the storage manager unmap the first persistent volume from the first virtual block device such that the first persistent volume is unavailable for I/O operations by the first host server, in response to an indication that the first virtual machine has terminated.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the system manager is further to:

generate a first security key in response to a determination to make available the first persistent volume to the selected first host server, if no virtual block device of the storage server is attached at the selected first host server;

provide the first security key to the storage manager of the storage server and a host manager of the selected first host server; and

discard the first security key if the first security key has been provided to the storage server and the selected first host server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the system manager is further to:

generate a second security key, different than the first security key, in response to a determination to make available a second persistent volume managed by the storage server to a second host server of the plurality of host servers, if no virtual block device of the storage server is attached at the second host server;

provide the second security key to the storage server with a request to generate a second virtual block device; and

provide the second security key to the second host server;

wherein the first and second security keys are provided via a first communication protocol different than a second communication protocol used by the host server to request an I/O operation at a target offset of the first virtual block device.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

the storage server, wherein the storage manager is to;

create the first virtual block device; and

associate the first virtual block device with a security key;

wherein the system manager is implemented at least in part on the storage server.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

the first host server, comprising a host manager to;

attach the first virtual block device, associated with the security key, by at least providing the security key to the storage manager; and

request an I/O operation at a target offset of the first virtual block device to request an I/O operation at the first persistent volume, wherein the target offset is based on the mapped offset,

wherein the system manager is implemented in part on the host server.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the host manager is further to generate the first security key;

the storage server is to manage a plurality of persistent volumes, including the first persistent volume; and

any of the plurality of persistent volumes not mapped to an offset of the first virtual block device is inaccessible to the first host server.

13. A method comprising:

scheduling, at a host server, a first virtual machine associated with a first persistent volume to store information for the first virtual machine regardless of whether the first virtual machine is running;

providing, to a storage manager of the storage server, a request to create a virtual block device, associated with security information, at the storage server after scheduling the first virtual machine;

providing, to a host manager of the host server, the security information and a first offset at which the persistent volume is mapped to the virtual block device; and

providing, to the storage manager, a request to unmap the first persistent volume from the virtual block device to render the first persistent volume unavailable for I/O operations by the first host server, in response to an indication that the first virtual machine has terminated.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

attaching the virtual block device at the first host server with the security information; and

requesting that the storage server discard the security information associated with the virtual block device after a restart of the host server;

wherein the first offset is provided to the host manager by the storage manager without providing the first offset to a system manager.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing encrypted first information on the first persistent volume with the first virtual machine; and

storing encrypted second information on a second persistent volume mapped to a second offset of the virtual block device with a second virtual machine hosted by the host server, wherein the first information is encrypted differently than the second information.