System and method for caching virtual machine data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10248566-B2
Application number	US-201514722873-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 27, 2015
Priority date	Oct 31, 2011
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for caching data from a plurality of virtual machines may comprise detecting, using a computer processor executing cache management software, initiation of migration of a cached virtual machine from a first virtualization platform to a second virtualization platform, disabling caching for the virtual machine on the first virtualization platform, detecting completion of the migration of the virtual machine to the second virtualization platform, and enabling caching for the virtual machine on the second virtualization platform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for caching data from a plurality of virtual machines, the system comprising:
cache storage; and
a computer having a computer processor and non-transitory computer memory having stored thereon executable caching instructions configuring the computer to:
identify a first virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is operating;
allocate a portion of the cache storage to the first virtual machine;
perform caching of data to handle an input/output (I/O) request of the first virtual machine, wherein data written to the cache storage is written to a top of the cache storage and existing data in the cache storage is pushed down the cache storage;
identify a second virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is not operating based at least in part on a determination that second virtual machine data I/O does not appear in a register of the cache storage;
determine whether a number of virtual machines that use the cache storage exceeds a threshold number of virtual machines; and
responsive to the number of virtual machines that use the cache storage exceeding the threshold number of virtual machines;
move data cached by the second virtual machine in the cache storage to a bottom of the cache storage, and
invalidate a portion of the cache storage associated with the second virtual machine by writing over data at the bottom of the cache storage as data is added to the top of the cache storage.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer comprises a platform for a hypervisor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the cache storage comprises solid state device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the executable caching instructions further configure the computer to determine that first virtual machine data I/O is being received.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein identifying the first virtual machine is based at least in part on identifying first virtual machine data I/O received from the first virtual machine in the register of the cache storage.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the executable caching instructions further configure the computer to invalidate the portion of the cache storage associated with the second virtual machine while writing the received first virtual machine data I/O into the cache storage.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein a state of the second virtual machine is at least one of: shutdown and halted.

8. An article of manufacture for caching data from a plurality of virtual machines, the article of manufacture comprising:
means for identifying a first virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is operating;
means for allocating a portion of a cache storage to the first virtual machine;
means for performing caching of data to handle an input/output (I/O) request of the first virtual machine, wherein data written to the cache storage is written to a top of the cache storage and existing data in the cache is pushed down the cache;
means for identifying a second virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is not operating based at least in part on a determination that second virtual machine data I/O does not appear in a register of the cache storage;
means for determining whether a number of virtual machines that use the cache storage exceeds a threshold number of virtual machines; and
responsive to the number of virtual machines that use the cache storage exceeding the threshold number of virtual machines:
means for moving data cached by the second virtual machine in the cache storage to a bottom of the cache storage, and
means for invalidating a portion of the cache storage associated with the second virtual machine by writing over data at the bottom of the cache storage as data is added to the top of the cache storage.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein the cache storage comprises a solid state device.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , further comprising:
means for determining that first virtual machine data I/O is being received.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10 , further comprising:
means for writing the received first virtual machine data I/O into the cache storage while the portion of the cache storage associated with the second virtual machine is invalidated.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein the means for identifying the first virtual machine comprises means for identifying the first virtual machine, which is operating, based at least in part on determining that first virtual machine data I/O is being received.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , further comprising:
means for identifying the second virtual machine, which is not operating, based on a shutdown of the second virtual machine.

14. A method for caching data from a plurality of virtual machines, the method comprising:
identifying, using a cache management component, a first virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is operating;
allocating a portion of a cache storage to the first virtual machine;
performing caching of data to handle an input/output (I/O) request of the first virtual machine, wherein data written to the cache storage is written to a top of the cache storage and existing data in the cache storage is pushed down the cache storage;
identifying a second virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is not operating based at least in part on a determination that second virtual machine data I/O does not appear in a register of the cache storage;
determining whether a number of virtual machines that use the cache storage exceeds a threshold number of virtual machines; and
in response to determining that the number of virtual machines that use the cache storage exceeds the threshold number of virtual machines:
moving data cached by the second virtual machine in the cache storage to a bottom of the cache storage; and
invalidating a portion of the cache storage associated with the second virtual machine by writing over data at the bottom of the cache storage as data is added to the top of the cache storage.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the cache storage comprises a solid state device.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein identifying the first virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines, which is operating comprises determining that first virtual machine data I/O is being received.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein identifying the first virtual machine is based at least in part on identifying first virtual machine data I/O in the register of the cache storage.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the portion of the cache storage associated with the second virtual machine which is not operating is invalidated while writing the received first virtual machine data I/O into the cache storage.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the second virtual machine is identified as not operating due to a shutdown of the second virtual machine.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the second virtual machine is identified as not operating due to the second virtual machine being halted.

Assignees

• Hgst Tech Santa Ana Inc
• Western Digital Tech Inc

Inventors

• Agarwal Anurag
• Mitra Anand
• Joshi Prasad
• Rastogi Kanishk

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title

• G06F12/0866

  for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache · CPC title

• G06F12/0888

  using selective caching, e.g. bypass · CPC title

• G06F12/0871

  Allocation or management of cache space · CPC title