Virtual storage target offload techniques

• US 9,389,895 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Oshins, Jacob, Green, Dustin L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tiv, Backhean
• Application Number:
  US12/640,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20110154318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,399 Days
• Field of Search: 709/211, 709/212, 709/213
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A virtual machine storage service can be use a unique network identifier and a SR-IOV compliant device can be used to transport I/O between a virtual machine and the virtual machine storage service. The virtual machine storage service can be offloaded to a child partition or migrated to another physical machine along with the unique network identifier.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

circuitry for effectuating a migratable storage service, wherein the migratable storage service is configured to manage input/output requests for a child partition to a virtual hard disk, wherein the migratable storage service is assigned a unique network identifier for a network;

circuitry for migrating the migratable storage service to at least another partition without a need to migrate the virtual hard disk; and

circuitry for configuring the migratable storage service as a storage target in a network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the circuitry for migrating the migratable storage service to at least another partition comprises

circuitry for migrating the migratable storage service to a partition on a remote computer system.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for configuring an input/output memory management unit to translate guest physical addresses associated with the input/output requests for the child partition to system physical addresses.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for receiving an input/output job request from the child partition, wherein the child partition is attached to a virtual function that includes a second unique network identifier for the network.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for executing the migratable storage service in a first partition, executing a management service configured to manage virtual machines in a second partition, and wherein the child partition is a third partition.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for associating the migratable storage service with a virtual function of a network adapter that includes the unique network identifier and attaching the child partition to a second virtual function of the network adapter.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for sending a notification to a logical processor in response to receiving an input/output job request from the child partition and determining that the logical processor is executing the migratable storage service.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry for determining that input/output traffic is compliant with a security policy as the input/output traffic is transported between the unique network identifier and at least one other unique network identifier via a network adapter.

9. A computer method, comprising:

attaching a first unique network identifier for a network adapter to a storage service instantiated in a partition and configured to manage input/output requests for a child partition and an associated virtual hard disk; and

attaching a virtual function effectuated by the network adapter to the child partition, wherein the virtual function includes a second unique network identifier, the storage service being further configured to serve as a storage target in a network.

10. The computer method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending a request to configure a second virtual function to include the first unique network identifier to a remote computer system that includes a second network adapter.

11. The computer method of claim 9, further comprising:

migrating the storage service to a child partition and configuring a second virtual function assigned to the child partition to use the first unique network identifier.

12. The computer method of claim 9, further comprising:

translating, by an input/output memory management unit, guest physical addresses associated with the input/output requests from the child partition to system physical addresses.

13. The computer method of claim 9, further comprising:

configuring the network adapter to monitor security policy compliance of input/output traffic as the input/output traffic is transported between the unique network identifier and the second unique network identifier.

14. The computer method of claim 9, further comprising:

sending a request to a remote computer system to instantiate the storage service and assign the storage service the first unique network identifier in response to determining that an amount of input/output requests over a predetermined threshold have been received from the remote computer system.

15. A computer readable storage medium device having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution on a computing device, cause the computing device to at least:

execute a storage service in a child partition, wherein the storage service is configured to manage virtual hard drive disk input/output requests for a second child partition, wherein the storage service is assigned a unique network identifier in a network and is further configured to serve as a storage target in the network; and

migrate the storage service to another partition.

16. The computer readable storage medium device of claim 15, further having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution on the computing device, at least cause the computing device to:

send a request to a remote computer system to instantiate the storage service and assign the storage service the first unique network identifier in response to determining that an amount of input/output requests over a predetermined threshold have been received from the remote computer system.

17. The computer readable storage medium device of claim 15, wherein the instructions that, upon execution on the computing device, at least cause the computing device to migrate the storage service to another partition, cause the computing device to migrate the storage service to a hypervisor.

18. The computer readable storage medium device of claim 15, wherein the instructions that, upon execution on the computing device, at least cause the computing device to migrate the storage service to another partition, cause the computing device to migrate the storage service to a parent partition.

19. The computer readable storage medium device of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for assigning the second child partition a second virtual function associated with a second unique network identifier, wherein the second child partition and the child partition are assigned the first and second unique identifiers.

20. The computer readable storage medium device of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for configuring an input/output memory management unit to translate guest physical addresses associated with the input/output requests for the child partition to system physical addresses.