Port pooling

• US 9,338,046 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bose, Patrick Glen, Vong, Ky Tong, Vaidya, Shrikant Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Scheibel, Robert C
• Application Number:
  US13/934,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20130297719A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/557 Error correction, e.g. fault recovery or fault tolerance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• 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

In one embodiment, methods and systems for port pooling are described. An interface may communicate with at least one physical server. The at least one physical server may host a plurality of virtual servers and be connectable via a plurality of gateway ports to a storage area network (SAN). A virtual server manager configured to arrange the plurality of gateway ports in a plurality of port pools, define a virtual server group including a plurality of virtual servers, associate each virtual server with one or more port pools, the one or more port pools defining available gateway ports for access by the particular virtual server; and provide configuration instructions to allow the particular virtual server to communicate with the SAN through the available gateway ports.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a processor-implemented interface to communicate with a physical server, the physical server hosting a plurality of virtual servers and being connectable via a plurality of gateway ports to a data storage system, the plurality of gateway ports including ports located on two or more gateway devices; and

a virtual server manager, executed via the processor, configured to;

group the plurality of gateway ports into a plurality of port pools, each port pool of the plurality of port pools including gateway ports located on at least two of the two or more gateway devices;

associate each virtual server with one or more of the plurality of port pools, the plurality of port pools defining available gateway ports for access by one or more of the plurality of virtual servers;

detect a failure associated with a particular one of the plurality of gateway ports in a first one of the plurality of port pools available for access by the one or more of the plurality of virtual servers;

migrate one or more of the plurality of virtual servers associated with the particular gateway port to one or more additional gateways gateway ports in the first port pool; and

add one or more new ports to the first port pool and dynamically balance the load by migrating one or more virtual servers associated with the first port pool to the one or more new ports.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the virtual server manager is further configured to balance a load across the plurality of gateway ports in the plurality of port pools, the balancing based on available bandwidth.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the virtual server manager is further configured to detect a storage configuration error by determining that at least one of the plurality of virtual servers is able to access a target memory device in the data storage system via a first gateway port in the first port pool and that the at least one virtual server is unable to access the target memory device via a second gateway port in the first port pool.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the virtual server manager is further configured to determine that the storage configuration error is a zoning error.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the virtual server manager is further configured to detect that one or more new gateway ports have been added to a particular one of the port pools, and to dynamically migrate at least one of the plurality of virtual servers to the one or more new gateway ports.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the dynamic migration is performed to balance a load among the gateway ports in the particular port pool.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the dynamic migration is performed without waiting for the at least one virtual server to be reactivated.

8. A method comprising:

grouping a plurality of gateway ports into a plurality of port pools, the plurality of gateway ports including ports located on two or more gateway devices, each port pool of the plurality of port pools including gateway ports located on at least two of the two or more gateway devices, the plurality of gateway ports configured to connect a physical server to a data storage system;

grouping a plurality of virtual servers into a virtual server group, the virtual servers being hosted on the physical server;

associating each virtual server with one or more of the plurality of port pools, the plurality of port pools defining available gateway ports for access by one or more of the plurality of virtual servers;

detecting a failure associated with a particular one of the plurality of gateway ports in a first one of the plurality of port pools available for access by the one or more of the plurality of virtual servers;

migrating one or more of the plurality of virtual servers associated with the particular gateway port to one or more additional gateway ports in the first port pool; and

adding one or more new ports to the first port pool and dynamically balancing the load by migrating one or more virtual servers associated with the first port pool to the one or more new ports.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

balancing a load across the plurality of gateway ports in the plurality of port pools, the balancing based on available bandwidth.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

detecting a storage configuration error by determining that at least one of the plurality of virtual servers is able to access a target memory device in the data storage system via a first gateway port in the first port pool and that the at least one virtual server is unable to access the target memory device via a second gateway port in the first port pool.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the storage configuration error is a zoning error.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

detecting that one or more new gateway ports have been added to a particular one of the port pools, and dynamically migrating at least one of the plurality of virtual servers to the one or more new gateway ports.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the dynamic migration is performed to balance a load among the gateway ports in the particular port pool.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the dynamic migration is performed without waiting for the at least one virtual server to be reactivated.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

grouping a plurality of gateway ports into a plurality of port pools, the plurality of gateway ports including ports located on two or more gateway devices, each port pool of the plurality of port pools including gateway ports located on at least two of the two or more gateway devices, the plurality of gateway ports configured to connect a physical server to a data storage system;

grouping a plurality of virtual servers into a virtual server group, the virtual servers being hosted on the physical server;

associating each virtual server with one or more of the plurality of port pools, the plurality of port pools defining available gateway ports for access by one or more of the plurality of virtual servers;

detecting a failure associated with a particular one of the plurality of gateway ports in a first one of the plurality of port pools available for access by the one or more of the plurality of virtual servers; and

migrating one or more of the plurality of virtual servers associated with the particular gateway port to one or more additional gateway ports in the first port pool; and

adding one or more new ports to the first port pool and dynamically balancing the load by migrating one or more virtual servers associated with the first port pool to the one or more new ports.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

balancing a load across the plurality of gateway ports in the plurality of port pools, the balancing based on available bandwidth.

17. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting a storage configuration error by determining that at least one of the plurality of virtual servers is able to access a target memory device in the data storage system via a first gateway port in the first port pool and that the at least one virtual server is unable to access the target memory device via a second gateway port in the first port pool.

18. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting that one or more new gateway ports have been added to a particular one of the port pools, and dynamically migrating at least one of the plurality of virtual servers to the one or more new gateway ports.