Method and system for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment

• US 9,575,784 B1
• Filed: 01/18/2013
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nutanix Incorporated
• Inventors: Aron, Mohit, Pandey, Dheeraj, Singh, Ajeet
• Primary Examiner(s): Swift, Charles
• Application Number:
  US13/744,693
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1873 Versioning file systems, temporal file systems, e.g. file system supporting different historic versions of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming 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 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/48 Program initiating; Program switching, e.g. by interrupt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4806 Task transfer initiation or dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 : resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 : Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 : Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 : to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 : the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 : the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5022 : Mechanisms to release resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 : the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 : Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 : Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 : Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 : Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 : involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/356 : for storage area networks

Abstract

A method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, including receiving an I/O request for a virtual disk, determining that a service virtual machine which implements a storage controller is not registered as owner of the virtual disk, obtaining ownership of the virtual disk by the service virtual machine, the service virtual machine handling the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the virtual disk.

Claims

1. A method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, comprising:

receiving an I/O request for an unshared virtual disk owned by a first service virtual machine, wherein a second service virtual machine receives the I/O request;

determining that the second service virtual machine which implements a storage controller is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk, wherein only a service virtual machine registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk is permitted to access the unshared virtual disk to implement the I/O request, and wherein the act of determining occurs in response to the second service virtual machine receiving the I/O request for the unshared virtual disk owned by the first service virtual machine;

transferring ownership of the unshared virtual disk from the first service virtual machine to the second service virtual machine; and

the second service virtual machine implementing the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the unshared virtual disk.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the unshared virtual disk is accessed by at most one user virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the unshared virtual disk is implemented in a shared-nothing architecture.

4. The method of claim 1, in which ownership of the unshared virtual disk is transferred by contacting the first service virtual machine to request that ownership be relinquished.

5. The method of claim 4, in which a distributed configuration database module is employed to contact the first service virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1, in which the second service virtual machine is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk due to a recent migration of an associated user virtual machine from a first node to a second node.

7. The method of claim 6, in which the second service virtual machine is on the second node.

8. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, the method comprising:

receiving an I/O request for an unshared virtual disk owned by a first service virtual machine, wherein a second service virtual machine receives the I/O request;

determining that the second service virtual machine which implements a storage controller is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk, wherein only a service virtual machine registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk is permitted to access the unshared virtual disk to implement the I/O request, and wherein the act of determining occurs in response to the second service virtual machine receiving the I/O request for the unshared virtual disk owned by the first service virtual machine;

transferring ownership of the unshared virtual disk from the first service virtual machine to the second service virtual machine; and

implementing the I/O request by the second service virtual machine after obtaining ownership of the unshared virtual disk.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, in which the unshared virtual disk is accessed by at most one user virtual machine.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, in which the unshared virtual disk is implemented in a shared-nothing architecture.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, in which ownership of the unshared virtual disk is transferred by contacting the first service virtual machine to request that ownership be relinquished.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, in which a distributed configuration database module is employed to contact the first service virtual machine.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, in which the second service virtual machine is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk due to a recent migration of an associated user virtual machine from a first node to a second node.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, in which the second service virtual machine is on the second node.

15. A computer-based system for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, comprising:

a computer processor to execute a set of program code instructions;

a memory to hold the set of program code instructions, in which the set of program code instructions comprises program code for receiving an I/O request for an unshared virtual disk owned by a first service virtual machine, wherein a second service virtual machine receives the I/O request;

determining that the second service virtual machine which implements a storage controller is not registered as owner of the virtual disk, wherein only a service virtual machine registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk is permitted to access the unshared virtual disk to implement the I/O request, and wherein the act of determining occurs in response to the second service virtual machine receiving the I/O request for the unshared virtual disk owned by the first service virtual machine;

transferring ownership of the unshared virtual disk from the first service virtual machine to the second service virtual machine; and

implementing the I/O request by the second service virtual machine after obtaining ownership of the unshared virtual disk.

16. The system of claim 15, in which the unshared virtual disk is accessed by at most one user virtual machine.

17. The system of claim 15, in which the unshared virtual disk is implemented in a shared-nothing architecture.

18. The system of claim 15, in which ownership of the unshared virtual disk is transferred by contacting the first service virtual machine to request that ownership be relinquished.

19. The system of claim 18, in which a distributed configuration database module is employed to contact the first service virtual machine.

20. The system of claim 15, in which the second service virtual machine is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk due to a recent migration of an associated user virtual machine from a first node to a second node.

21. The system of claim 20, in which the second service virtual machine is on the second node.

22. A method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, comprising:

receiving an I/O request for an unshared virtual disk owned by a first service virtual machine, wherein a second service virtual machine that implements a storage controller receives the I/O request;

determining that the storage controller is not currently registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk, wherein only a service virtual machine registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk is permitted to access the unshared virtual disk to implement the I/O request, and wherein the act of determining occurs in response to the second service virtual machine receiving the I/O request for the unshared virtual disk owned by the first service virtual machine;

transferring ownership of the unshared virtual disk from the first service virtual machine to the second service virtual machine; and

the storage controller implementing the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the unshared virtual disk.

23. The method of claim 22, in which the unshared virtual disk is accessed by at most one user virtual machine.

24. The method of claim 22, in which the unshared virtual disk is implemented in a shared-nothing architecture.

25. The method of claim 22, in which ownership of the unshared virtual disk is obtained by contacting the first service virtual machine to request that ownership be relinquished.

26. The method of claim 25, in which a distributed configuration database module is employed to contact the first service virtual machine.

27. The method of claim 22, in which the second service virtual machine is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk due to a recent migration of an associated user virtual machine from a first node to a second node.

28. The method of claim 27, in which the second service virtual machine is on the second node.

29. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, the method comprising:

receiving an I/O request for an unshared virtual disk owned by a first service virtual machine, wherein a second service virtual machine that implements a storage controller receives the I/O request;

determining that the storage controller is not currently registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk, wherein only a service virtual machine registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk is permitted to access the unshared virtual disk to implement the I/O request, and wherein the act of determining occurs in response to the second service virtual machine receiving the I/O request for the unshared virtual disk owned by the first service virtual machine;

transferring ownership of the unshared virtual disk from the first service virtual machine to the second service virtual machine; and

the storage controller implementing the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the unshared virtual disk.

30. The computer program product of claim 29, in which the unshared virtual disk is accessed by at most one user virtual machine.

31. The computer program product of claim 29, in which the unshared virtual disk is implemented in a shared-nothing architecture.

32. The computer program product of claim 29, in which ownership of the unshared virtual disk is obtained by contacting the first service virtual machine to request that ownership be relinquished.

33. The computer program product of claim 32, in which a distributed configuration database module is employed to contact the first service virtual machine.

34. The computer program product of claim 29, in which the second service virtual machine is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk due to a recent migration of an associated user virtual machine from a first node to a second node.

35. The computer program product of claim 34, in which the second service virtual machine is on the second node.

36. A computer-based system for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, comprising:

a computer processor to execute a set of program code instructions;

a memory to hold the set of program code instructions, in which the set of program code instructions comprises program code for receiving an I/O request for an unshared virtual disk owned by a first service virtual machine, wherein a second service virtual machine that implements a storage controller receives the I/O request;

determining that the storage controller is not currently registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk, wherein only a service virtual machine registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk is permitted to access the unshared virtual disk to implement the I/O request, and wherein the act of determining occurs in response to the second service virtual machine receiving the I/O request for the unshared virtual disk owned by the first service virtual machine;

transferring ownership of the unshared virtual disk from the first service virtual machine to the second service virtual machine; and

having the storage controller implementing the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the unshared virtual disk.

37. The system of claim 36, in which the unshared virtual disk is accessed by at most one user virtual machine.

38. The system of claim 36, in which the unshared virtual disk is implemented in a shared-nothing architecture.

39. The system of claim 36, in which ownership of the unshared virtual disk is obtained by contacting the first service virtual machine to request that ownership be relinquished.

40. The system of claim 39, in which a distributed configuration database module is employed to contact the first service virtual machine.

41. The system of claim 36, in which the second service virtual machine is not registered as owner of the unshared virtual disk due to a recent migration of an associated user virtual machine from a first node to a second node.

42. The system of claim 41, in which the second service virtual machine is on the second node.