MECHANISM FOR EFFICIENT DELAYED REPLICATION

• US 20120136830A1
• Filed: 11/30/2010
• Published: 05/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Patocka, Mikulas
• Application Number:
  US12/956,944
• Publication Number:
  US 20120136830A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/637
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2074 Asynchronous techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/855 Details of asynchronous mirroring using a journal to transfer not-yet-mirrored changes

Abstract

A mechanism for efficient delayed replication is described. A method of embodiments of the invention includes detecting input/output (I/O) requests issued by a software program running on a computer system, and sorting the I/O requests into I/O batches according to flight overlapping of the I/O requests. An I/O batch includes a set of flight-overlapped I/O requests of the I/O requests. The set of flight overlapped I/O requests includes two or more I/O requests that are issued, at least partially, in parallel. The method further includes replicating the I/O requests to a storage medium coupled to the computer system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting input/output (I/O) requests issued by a software program running on a computer system;

sorting the I/O requests into I/O batches according to flight overlapping of the I/O requests, wherein an I/O batch includes a set of flight-overlapped I/O requests of the I/O requests, wherein the set of flight overlapped I/O requests includes two or more I/O requests that are issued, at least partially, in parallel; and

replicating the I/O requests to a storage medium coupled to the computer system.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein replicating comprises replicating each I/O request without receiving, from the storage medium, a confirmation response for a previously-replicated I/O request.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein replicating further comprises replicating each I/O request of an I/O batch without receiving, from the storage medium, a confirmation response for a previously-replicated I/O request of the I/O batch.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising registering the I/O requests in a replication log, wherein registering includes assigning a barrier between consecutive I/O batches to distinguish each I/O batch from another according to the sorting of the I/O requests.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising inserting a barrier request between each two consecutive I/O batches, and wherein replicating further comprises replicating I/O requests of the two consecutive I/O batches with inserted barrier requests to be identified by the storage medium.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising assigning an ordered tag to a first I/O request or a last I/O request of each I/O batch, and wherein replicating further comprises replicating the I/O requests with assigned ordered tags to be identified by the storage medium.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the storage medium comprises a remote storage device including a storage area network (SAN) device, a network-attached storage (NAS) device, or an Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI).

8. A system comprising:

a host computing device having a memory to store instructions for delayed replication, and a processing device to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processing device to;

detect input/output (I/O) requests issued by a software program running on a computer system;

sort the I/O requests into I/O batches according to flight overlapping of the I/O requests, wherein an I/O batch includes a set of flight-overlapped I/O requests of the I/O requests, wherein the set of flight overlapped I/O requests includes two or more I/O requests that are issued, at least partially, in parallel; and

replicate the I/O requests to a storage medium coupled to the computer system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein replicating comprises replicating each I/O request without receiving, from the storage medium, a confirmation response for a previously-replicated I/O request.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein replicating further comprises replicating each I/O request of an I/O batch without receiving, from the storage medium, a confirmation response for a previously-replicated I/O request of the I/O batch.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing device is further to register the I/O requests in a replication log, wherein registering includes assigning a barrier between consecutive I/O batches to distinguish each I/O batch from another according to the sorting of the I/O requests.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing device is further to insert a barrier request between each two consecutive I/O batches, and wherein replicating further comprises replicating I/O requests of the two consecutive I/O batches with inserted barrier requests to be identified by the storage medium.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the processing device is further to assign an ordered tag to a first I/O request or a last I/O request of each I/O batch, and wherein replicating further comprises replicating the I/O requests with assigned ordered tags to be identified by the storage medium.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the storage medium comprises a remote storage device including a storage area network (SAN) device, a network-attached storage (NAS) device, or an Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI).

15. A machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

detecting input/output (I/O) requests issued by a software program running on a computer system;

sorting the I/O requests into I/O batches according to flight overlapping of the I/O requests, wherein an I/O batch includes a set of flight-overlapped I/O requests of the I/O requests, wherein the set of flight overlapped I/O requests includes two or more I/O requests that are issued, at least partially, in parallel; and

replicating the I/O requests to a storage medium coupled to the computer system.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein replicating comprises replicating each I/O request without receiving, from the storage medium, a confirmation response for a previously-replicated I/O request.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein replicating further comprises replicating each I/O request of an I/O batch without receiving, from the storage medium, a confirmation response for a previously-replicated I/O request of the I/O batch.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises registering the I/O requests in a replication log, wherein registering includes assigning a barrier between consecutive I/O batches to distinguish each I/O batch from another according to the sorting of the I/O requests.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises inserting a barrier request between each two consecutive I/O batches, and wherein replicating further comprises replicating I/O requests of the two consecutive I/O batches with inserted barrier requests to be identified by the storage medium.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises assigning an ordered tag to a first I/O request or a last I/O request of each I/O batch, and wherein replicating further comprises replicating the I/O requests with assigned ordered tags to be identified by the storage medium.