Cloning a virtual disk in a storage platform
First Claim
1. A method of cloning a virtual disk within a storage platform, said method comprising:
- storing data for said virtual disk onto computer nodes of said storage platform, said stored data stored as blocks of data wherein each block of data has an associated version number, said virtual disk having a plurality of first policies regarding how said blocks of data are stored on said storage platform;
issuing a clone command for said virtual disk having a current version without copying contents of said virtual disk, said clone command indicating a prior version of said virtual disk from which a clone virtual disk should be created and including at least one second policy;
provisioning said clone virtual disk within said storage platform using said at least one second policy of said clone virtual disk different from said first policies regarding how data of said clone virtual disk is stored on said storage platform;
writing first data from a software application on a computer server remote from said storage platform onto said clone virtual disk, said data being written onto storage disks of said storage platform using said at least one second policy; and
reading second data from said clone virtual disk by walking a version tree of said virtual disk from said prior version to a root to obtain version numbers for a read request, and then performing said read request to read said second data from said virtual disk using said version numbers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An administrator provisions a virtual disk in a remote storage platform and defines policies for that virtual disk. A virtual machine writes to and reads from the storage platform using any storage protocol. Virtual disk data within a failed storage pool is migrated to different storage pools while still respecting the policies of each virtual disk. Snapshot and revert commands are given for a virtual disk at a particular point in time and overhead is minimal. A virtual disk is cloned utilizing snapshot information and no data need be copied. Any number of Zookeeper clusters are executing in a coordinated fashion within the storage platform, thus increasing overall throughput. A timestamp is generated that guarantees a monotonically increasing counter, even upon a crash of a virtual machine. Any virtual disk has a “hybrid cloud aware” policy in which one replica of the virtual disk is stored in a public cloud.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. A method of cloning a virtual disk within a storage platform, said method comprising:
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storing data for said virtual disk onto computer nodes of said storage platform, said stored data stored as blocks of data wherein each block of data has an associated version number, said virtual disk having a plurality of first policies regarding how said blocks of data are stored on said storage platform; issuing a clone command for said virtual disk having a current version without copying contents of said virtual disk, said clone command indicating a prior version of said virtual disk from which a clone virtual disk should be created and including at least one second policy; provisioning said clone virtual disk within said storage platform using said at least one second policy of said clone virtual disk different from said first policies regarding how data of said clone virtual disk is stored on said storage platform; writing first data from a software application on a computer server remote from said storage platform onto said clone virtual disk, said data being written onto storage disks of said storage platform using said at least one second policy; and reading second data from said clone virtual disk by walking a version tree of said virtual disk from said prior version to a root to obtain version numbers for a read request, and then performing said read request to read said second data from said virtual disk using said version numbers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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Specification