Consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics in a clustered storage system

• US 9,256,377 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2014
• Issued: 02/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Patnaik, Pranab, Tan, Kai, Venkatesan, Vivek
• Primary Examiner(s): SCHNEE, HAL W
• Application Number:
  US14/289,296
• Publication Number:
  US 20140281065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 622 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0646 Configuration or reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• 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 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 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]

Abstract

Consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics, in a clustered storage system are disclosed. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes a mechanism to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, comprising:

instructions to implement a storage operating system on a computing device, wherein the instructions implement the storage operating system as a node in a clustered storage system;

instructions to implement a protocol target instance that interacts with at least a peer protocol target instance on a peer cluster node of the clustered storage system to implement a distributed logical unit that performs data storage protocol processing for a host, the distributed logical unit being a distributed object that includes a set of target sub-devices hosted on one or more nodes in the clustered storage system, wherein the protocol target instance presents the distributed logical unit as a single target device to the host, the distributed logical unit being a representation of a physical data storage or an abstraction of physical data storage on which data in the clustered storage system is stored;

instructions to implement a target sub-device having at least a logical sub-unit therein, the logical sub-unit being part of the distributed logical unit;

instructions to implement a logical target port to provide routing for a command or task management function from the host to an appropriate logical sub-unit in the distributed logical unit, wherein the logical target port references a physical port of the computing device;

instructions to process, at the logical sub-unit, the command or the task management function to thereby modify context information of the distributed logical unit, the context information comprising data storage or data state information of the logical sub-unit;

instructions to, in response to processing the command or the task management function, notify a peer logical sub-unit implemented by the peer protocol target instance that the context information is modified;

instructions to implement an instance of a global task set for the logical subunit to queue the command or the task management function from the host that modifies the context information; and

instructions to coordinate entry of a first command or function into the instance of the global task set such that the instance of the global task set is consistent with a peer instance of the global task set implemented on the peer logical sub-unit.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the context information further includes data access or data storage configuration information.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to share the context information further comprises:

instructions to associate the logical sub-unit with a host-visible identifier of the distributed logical unit at the logical target port such that the host is capable of accessing either the logical sub-unit or the peer logical unit when referencing the host-visible identifier and such that the logical sub-unit and the peer logical sub-unit are not visible to the host as entities separate from the distributed logical unit.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to coordinate entry of the first command or function includes instructions to coordinate the first command or function from the host to at least the peer cluster node to ensure consistency of the context information in the logical sub-unit and the peer logical sub-unit.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the context information includes logical unit state information, logical unit configuration information, logical unit metadata, or any combination thereof.

6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the context information includes information to indicate whether the distributed logical unit supports Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) or not.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions further comprises:

instructions to detect corruption of the context information associated with the logical sub-unit; and

instructions to quarantine the logical sub-unit by suspending communication to the logical sub-unit until the logical sub-unit recovers from the corruption.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions further comprises:

instructions to implement multiple logical target ports, wherein at least one of the logical target ports is associated with a physical port of the computing device; and

instructions to present the multiple logical target ports to the host.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the target sub-device is multi-protocol capable.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the host is a SCSI initiator host.

11. A storage server node in a clustered storage system comprising:

an interface to detachably couple with an interconnect to enable communication amongst multiple storage server nodes of the clustered storage system;

a management module to enable management operations to be performed on the storage server node;

a data module to provide data storage services for the storage server node; and

a protocol module to allow a host to access the clustered storage system, the protocol module configured to implement a logical sub-unit of a distributed logical unit and to associate the logical sub-unit with an identifier of the distributed logical unit so that the host can perform a block-level access to the logical sub-unit of the distributed logical unit, such that the logical sub-unit is not visible to the host as a separate entity from the distributed logical unit; and

wherein the protocol module suspends communication from the host to the logical sub-unit to quarantine the logical sub-unit when the logical subunit is corrupted, and

wherein the protocol module is further configured to (a) maintain context information that is consistent with corresponding context information of another logical sub-unit implemented in another storage server node in the clustered storage system;

(b) maintain context information that is consistent with corresponding context information of another logical sub-unit implemented in another storage server node in the clustered storage system;

(c) implement a first instance, on the storage server node, of a global task set for the distributed logical unit to queue one or more commands that modify the context information; and

(d) coordinate entry of a first command into both the first instance and at least a second instance of the global task set implemented on the other storage server node to ensure the context information is consistent with the corresponding context information in the other storage server node after the first command is processed.

12. The storage server node of claim 11, wherein the protocol module is further configured to generate a map that associates each logical sub-unit that collectively make up the distributed logical unit with a set of storage objects, wherein the distributed logical unit is divided into a number of fixed size logical blocks and wherein the block-level access enables the host to access at a granularity of a logical block.

13. The storage server node of claim 11, wherein, to maintain the context information that is consistent with the another logical sub-unit, the protocol module is further configured to:

process a command from the instance of the global task set; and

update the context information for the logical sub-unit to reflect the processing of the command.