Burst buffer appliance comprising multiple virtual machines

• US 9,690,728 B1
• Filed: 05/28/2015
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Faibish, Sorin, Bent, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zaman, Faisal M
• Application Number:
  US14/724,165
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 710104, 712 E9048
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/1673 using buffers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/34 with priority control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/40 Bus structure for computer networks G06F15/163; for optical bus networks H04B10/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1858 Parallel file systems, i.e. file systems supporting multiple processors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7201 Logical to physical mapping or translation of blocks or pages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A burst buffer appliance is adapted for coupling between a computer system and a file system. The burst buffer appliance comprises a flash memory or other high-speed memory having a substantially lower access time than the file system, and is configured to include a plurality of virtual machines for processing respective different types of input-output operations that involve utilization of the high-speed memory, with each of the virtual machines providing a different performance level for its associated type of input-output operations. The performance levels provided by the plurality of virtual machines may comprise respective different quality of service (QoS) levels for the respective different types of input-output operations, specified in terms of parameters such as latency and throughput rate. A highest QoS level may be provided by a particular virtual machine for operations involving writing checkpoints from the computer system to the high-speed memory.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a burst buffer appliance adapted for coupling between a computer system and a file system;

the burst buffer appliance comprising a memory;

the burst buffer appliance being configured to include a plurality of virtual machines for processing respective different types of input-output operations that involve utilization of the memory;

wherein the plurality of virtual machines comprises;

a first virtual machine providing a first performance level for processing operations involving writing checkpoints from the computer system to the memory; and

at least a second virtual machine providing at least a second performance level different than the first performance level for processing at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory; and

wherein the first virtual machine is configured to include a first set of computational and storage resources to provide the first performance level and the second virtual machine is configured to include a second set of computational and storage resources different than the first set of computational and storage resources to provide the second performance level.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the computer system comprises a super computer having a plurality of compute nodes and the burst buffer appliance is adapted for coupling between at least one of the compute nodes and the file system.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the file system comprises a cluster file system comprising one of a parallel file system and a distributed file system.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the memory comprises a high-speed memory having a substantially lower access time than the file system.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the high-speed memory comprises a flash memory.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and at least second performance levels comprise respective different quality of service (QoS) levels.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the first performance level comprises a highest QoS level of a plurality of QoS levels.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and at least second performance levels are characterized by at least one of specified latencies and specified throughput rates for processing input-output operations that involve utilization of the memory.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory comprises operations involving writing sensor data from a sensor network to the memory.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory comprises operations involving writing or reading analytic engine data to or from the memory.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory comprises operations involving writing from the memory to the file system.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the second performance level is lower than the first performance level.

13. A processing platform that incorporates the apparatus of claim 1.

14. An information processing system comprising:

the computer system;

the file system; and

the burst buffer appliance of claim 1 coupled between the computer system and the file system.

21. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first set of computational and storage resources comprises a first number of processing cores and the second set of computational and storage resources comprises a second number of processing cores different than the first number of processing cores.

15. A method comprising:

configuring a burst buffer appliance adapted for coupling between a computer system and a file system to include a memory; and

configuring the burst buffer appliance to include a plurality of virtual machines for processing respective different types of input-output operations that involve utilization of the memory;

wherein the plurality of virtual machines comprises;

a first virtual machine providing a first performance level for processing operations involving writing checkpoints from the computer system to the memory; and

at least a second virtual machine providing at least a second performance level different than the first performance level for processing at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory; and

wherein the first virtual machine is configured to include a first set of computational and storage resources to provide the first performance level and the second virtual machine is configured to include a second set of computational and storage resources different than the first set of computational and storage resources to provide the second performance level.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the memory comprises a high-speed memory having a substantially lower access time than the file system.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein said at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory comprises operations involving writing sensor data from a sensor network to the memory.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein said at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory comprises operations involving writing or reading analytic engine data to or from the memory.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein said at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory comprises operations involving writing from the memory to the file system.

20. A computer program product comprising a processor-readable storage medium having encoded therein executable code of one or more software programs, wherein the one or more software programs when executed cause a processing device:

to configuring a burst buffer appliance adapted for coupling between a computer system and a file system to include a memory; and

to configure the burst buffer appliance to include a plurality of virtual machines for processing respective different types of input-output operations that involve utilization of the memory;

wherein the plurality of virtual machines comprises;

a first virtual machine providing a first performance level for processing operations involving writing checkpoints from the computer system to the memory; and

at least a second virtual machine providing at least a second performance level different than the first performance level for processing at least one other type of operations involving utilization of the memory; and

wherein the first virtual machine is configured to include a first set of computational and storage resources to provide the first performance level and the second virtual machine is configured to include a second set of computational and storage resources different than the first set of computational and storage resources to provide the second performance level.