Methods and apparatus for providing hypervisor level data services for server virtualization

• US 9,710,294 B2
• Filed: 07/04/2011
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Zerto Ltd (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Kuszpet, Yair, Kedem, Ziv, Levonai, Gil, Burshan, Chen Yehezkel
• Primary Examiner(s): SHAW, PELING ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US13/175,898
• Publication Number:
  US 20110264786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,206 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, including a plurality of cloud hypervisors that cooperatively provide cloud-based services to multiple enterprises, each hypervisor including a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server being associated with an enterprise, at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the at least one virtual server, each cloud virtual disk being associated with an enterprise, and a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services, and multiple data services managers, one data services manager per respective enterprise, each of which coordinates the respective virtual data services appliances for those cloud hypervisors that service its corresponding enterprise.

Claims

1. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a plurality of cloud hypervisors that provide cloud-based services to a plurality of enterprises, each of the plurality of cloud hypervisors comprising;

a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server associated with at least one enterprise of the plurality of enterprises;

at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers, the at least one cloud virtual disk associated with at least one enterprise of the plurality of enterprises; and

a virtual data services appliance, which provides cloud-based data services;

a rights manager that restricts access of a first enterprise of the plurality of enterprises to at least one cloud hypervisor associated with the first enterprise based on a restriction policy between the first enterprise and the plurality of cloud hypervisors; and

multiple data services managers, each data services manager of the multiple data services managers associated with at least one enterprise of the plurality of enterprises, wherein each data service manager coordinates a respective virtual data services appliance for at least one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors, each data services manager in communication with each of the multiple data services managers to communicate a state of the respective virtual data services appliance.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each enterprise of the plurality of enterprises comprises one or more virtual servers, wherein each of said data services managers of the multiple data services managers designates a group of one or more cloud virtual servers of the plurality of cloud virtual servers as a target virtual protection group for the one or more virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise, and wherein the virtual data services appliance of each of the plurality of cloud hypervisors that comprises at least one cloud virtual data server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers belonging to the target virtual protection group of at least one enterprise, receives copies of write requests issued from the one or more of the virtual servers of at least one enterprise.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the virtual data services appliance of each of the plurality of cloud hypervisors that comprises at least one cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of at least one enterprise, periodically applies the copies of write requests to one or more cloud virtual disks.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise comprises at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers from one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise comprises at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers from more than one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein at least one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors comprises at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a first target virtual protection group for a second enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a virtual protection group for a third enterprise.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the one or more virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise to the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise.

8. The system of claim 2, comprising:

a tapping driver in communication with the plurality of cloud virtual servers, wherein said tapping driver intercepts I/O requests made by any of the plurality of cloud virtual servers to the at least one cloud virtual disk, and wherein the virtual data services appliance receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise to the one or more virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise.

10. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a plurality of cloud hypervisors that provide cloud-based services to a plurality of enterprises, each of the plurality of cloud hypervisors comprising;

a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server associated with at least one enterprise of the plurality of enterprises;

at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of virtual servers, the at least one cloud virtual disk associated with at least one enterprise of the plurality of enterprises; and

at least one virtual data services appliance, each virtual data services appliance associated with a first enterprise serviced by at least one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors, wherein the at least one virtual data services appliance provides cloud-based data services to the first enterprise;

a rights manager that restricts access of a second enterprise of the plurality of enterprises to at least one cloud hypervisor associated with the second enterprise based on a restriction policy between the second enterprise and the plurality of cloud hypervisors; and

multiple data services managers, each data services manager associated with a third enterprise, wherein each data service manager coordinates virtual data services appliances that service the third enterprise, each data services manager configured for communication with each of the multiple data services managers to communicate a state of the virtual data services appliances that service the third enterprise.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein each enterprise of the plurality of enterprises comprises one or more virtual servers, wherein each of said data services managers of the multiple data services managers designates a group of one or more cloud virtual servers of the plurality of cloud virtual servers as a target virtual protection group for the one or more virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise, and wherein at least one virtual data services appliance for at least one enterprise, that resides within at least one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors that comprises a cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise, receives copies of write requests issued from the one or more of the virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the at least one virtual data services appliance for the at least one enterprise, that resides within the at least one cloud hypervisor that comprises the cloud virtual data server belonging to the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise, periodically applies the copies of write requests to the at least one cloud virtual disk in the at least one cloud hypervisor that is associated with the at least one enterprise.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise comprises at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers from one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise comprises at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers from more than one of the plurality of cloud hypervisors.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein at least one cloud hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors comprises at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a first target virtual protection group for a fourth enterprise, and at least one cloud virtual server that belongs to a virtual protection group for a fifth enterprise.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the one or more virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise to the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein each of the plurality of cloud hypervisors further comprises a tapping driver that intercepts I/O requests made by any of the one or more virtual servers to the at least one virtual disk, and wherein the virtual data services appliance receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein each of said data services managers enables data recovery from the target virtual protection group of the at least one enterprise to the one or more virtual servers of the corresponding enterprise.

19. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a plurality of cloud hypervisors that provide cloud based services to a plurality of enterprises, each enterprise of the plurality of enterprises located in a first corresponding jurisdiction, and each hypervisor of the plurality of cloud hypervisors associated with a second corresponding jurisdiction, wherein each cloud hypervisor comprises;

a plurality of cloud virtual servers, each cloud virtual server associated with at least one enterprise of the plurality of enterprises; and

at least one cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by at least one cloud virtual server of the plurality of cloud virtual servers;

a rights manager that restricts access of a first enterprise of the plurality of enterprises to at least one cloud hypervisor associated with the first enterprise based on a restriction to export data between the first corresponding jurisdiction associated with the first enterprise and the second corresponding jurisdiction; and

multiple data services managers, each data services manager associated with a second enterprise, wherein each data service manager coordinates virtual data services appliances that service the second enterprise, each data services manager in communication with each of the multiple data services managers to communicate a state of at least one of the virtual data services appliances.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising a user interface for specifying pairs of jurisdictions that are restricted from transferring data there between, and wherein said rights manager restricts access based on the pairs of jurisdictions specified via said user interface.

21. A system for cloud-based data services for multiple enterprises, comprising:

a cloud hypervisor that provides cloud-based services to an enterprise associated with a first location, the cloud hypervisor associated with a second location and comprising;

a cloud virtual server associated with the enterprise,

a cloud virtual disk that is read from and written to by the cloud virtual server, the cloud virtual disk associated with the enterprise,

a virtual data services appliance that provides the cloud-based data services to the enterprise;

a rights manager that restricts access of the cloud hypervisor to the enterprise based on a restriction policy between the first location associated with the enterprise and the second location associated with the cloud hypervisor; and

a first data services manager associated with the enterprise that coordinates the virtual data services appliance and is in communication with a second data services manager to communicate a state of the virtual data services appliance.