Determining multiple virtual host ports on a same physical host port

• US 10,970,233 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2018
• Issued: 04/06/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Crowley, Owen, Smith, Erik P., Rowlands, Scott, Don, Arieh
• Primary Examiner(s): Yimer, Getente A
• Application Number:
  US16/176,428
• Publication Number:
  US 20200133895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/1605 based on arbitration arbitration in handling access to a common bus or bus system G06F13/36
• 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 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0008 High speed serial bus, e.g. Fiber channel
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Multiple virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port may be determined by or on behalf of a storage system, for example, in response to logging the one or more virtual host ports into the storage system. For one or more virtual host ports, it may be determined whether the virtual host port is connected to a same fabric port as another virtual host port, where a fabric port is a port of a fabric configured to connect to a virtual host port. If two virtual host ports are determined to be connected to a same fabric port, it may be concluded that the two virtual host ports correspond to (e.g., share) a same physical host port. One or more actions may be taken on a storage network based at least in part on a determination that two virtual host ports are sharing a same physical host port.

Claims

1. A method of determining that at least two virtual host ports correspond to a same physical host port of a host system, comprising:

determining a plurality of virtual host ports connected to a storage system by a switch;

determining that the at least two of the plurality of virtual host ports are connected to a same fabric port of the switch, including;

the storage system issuing one or more queries to the switch, wherein the one or more queries include a first host port ID of a first of the at least two virtual host ports and a second host port ID of a second of the at least two virtual host ports,

receiving one or more responses to the one or more queries from the switch, the one or more responses including a first fabric port ID of a first fabric port corresponding to the first virtual host port and a second fabric port ID of a second fabric port corresponding to the second virtual host port, and

comparing the first fabric port ID to the second fabric port ID to determine that the first fabric port ID is the same as the second fabric port ID, which indicates that the first fabric port and the second fabric port are the same fabric port; and

determining that the at least two virtual host ports correspond to the same physical host port based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports being connected to the same fabric port of the switch.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether there is a single point of failure between a storage device of the storage system and an application layer of a host system based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a workload corresponds to a first of the at least two ports based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

determining that a port on the storage system is not at fault for one or more communication failures between the storage system port and the at least two virtual host ports based at least in part on the at least two ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to determining that at least two of the plurality of virtual host ports are connected to a same fabric port of a switch, determining that the at least two ports are of a same host system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more queries is a GFPN_ID query in accordance with a Fibre Channel protocol.

7. A storage system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory comprising code stored thereon that, when executed, performs a method of determining that at least two virtual host ports correspond to a same physical host port of a host system, the method comprising;

determining a plurality of virtual host ports connected to a storage system by a switch;

determining that the at least two of the plurality of virtual host ports are connected to a same fabric port of the switch, including;

the storage system issuing one or more queries to the switch, wherein the one or more queries include a first host port ID of a first of the at least two virtual host ports and a second host port ID of a second of the at least two virtual host ports,

receiving one or more responses to the one or more queries from the switch, the one or more responses including a first fabric port ID of a first fabric port corresponding to the first virtual host port and a second fabric port ID of a second fabric port corresponding to the second virtual host port, and

comparing the first fabric port ID to the second fabric port ID to determine that the first fabric port ID is the same as the second fabric port ID, which indicates that the first fabric port and the second fabric port are the same fabric port; and

determining that the at least two virtual host ports correspond to the same physical host port based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports being connected to the same fabric port of the switch.

8. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether there is a single point of failure between a storage device of the storage system and an application layer of a host system based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

9. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

determining that a workload corresponds to a first of the at least two ports based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

10. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises;

determining that a port on the storage system is not at fault for one or more communication failures between the storage system port and the at least two virtual host ports based at least in part on the at least two ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

11. The storage system of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

prior to determining that at least two of the plurality of virtual host ports are connected to a same fabric port of a switch, determining that the at least two ports are of a same host system.

12. The storage system of claim 7, wherein each of the one or more queries is a GFPN_ID query in accordance with a Fibre Channel protocol.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media for a storage system, the computer-readable media having software stored thereon defining a method of determining that at least two virtual host ports correspond to a same physical host port of a host system, the software comprising:

executable code that determines a plurality of virtual host ports connected to a storage system by a switch;

executable code that determines that at least two of the plurality of virtual host ports are connected to a same fabric port of the switch, including;

the storage system issuing one or more queries to the switch, wherein the one or more queries include a first host port ID of a first of the at least two virtual host ports and a second host port ID of a second of the at least two virtual host ports,

receiving one or more responses to the one or more queries from the switch, the one or more responses including a first fabric port ID of a first fabric port corresponding to the first virtual host port and a second fabric port ID of a second fabric port corresponding to the second virtual host port, and

comparing the first fabric port ID to the second fabric port ID to determine that the first fabric port ID is the same as the second fabric port ID, which indicates that the first fabric port and the second fabric port are the same fabric port; and

executable code that determines that the at least two virtual host ports correspond to the same physical host port based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports being connected to the same fabric port of the switch.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the software further comprises:

executable code that determines whether there is a single point of failure between a storage device of the storage system and an application layer of a host system based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the software further comprises:

executable code that determines that a workload corresponds to a first of the at least two ports based at least in part on the at least two virtual host ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the software further comprises;

executable code that determines that a port on the storage system is not at fault for one or more communication failures between the storage system port and the at least two virtual host ports based at least in part on the at least two ports corresponding to a same physical host port.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the software further comprises:

executable code that, prior to determining that at least two of the plurality of virtual host ports are connected to a same fabric port of a switch, determines that the at least two ports are of a same host system.