Providing virtual volume flexibility on a storage device cluster

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10936217-B2
Application number	US-201916369408-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2019
Priority date	Jun 15, 2018
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

A storage management technique involves: receiving a request for creating a virtual volume, the request at least indicating a size and a service level of the virtual volume; in response to the request, creating the virtual volume on a first storage device; storing metadata information of the virtual volume in a local database that is accessible to the first storage device, the metadata information at least comprising identification information of the virtual volume and identification information of the first storage device; and synchronizing the metadata information to at least one second storage device. Such a technique enables more flexible creation of virtual volumes on a cluster of storage device.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for storage management, comprising:
receiving a request for creating a virtual volume, the request at least indicating a size and a service level of the virtual volume;
in response to the request, creating the virtual volume on a first storage device;
storing metadata information of the virtual volume in a local database that is accessible to the first storage device, the metadata information at least comprising identification information of the virtual volume and identification information of the first storage device;
synchronizing the metadata information to at least one second storage device;
creating a protocol endpoint between the virtual volume and a management node which requests to create the virtual volume, the protocol endpoint acting as a proxy of the management node for communication with the virtual volume;
storing, as the metadata information, a correspondence among identification information of the virtual volume, identification information of the protocol endpoint and identification information of the first storage device to the local database; and
synchronizing the correspondence to the at least one second storage device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to a service level of the first storage device degrading below a required service level of the virtual volume, migrating the virtual volume to a third storage device that is capable of providing the required service level;
storing metadata information of the migrated virtual volume into a database of the third storage device, the metadata information of the migrated virtual volume at least indicating identification information of the virtual volume and identification information of the third storage device; and
synchronizing the metadata information of the migrated virtual volume to a fourth storage device.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving an access request for the virtual volume; and
in response to the virtual volume on the first storage device being migrated, creating an access path pointing to the migrated virtual volume based on the metadata information of the migrated virtual volume stored in the fourth storage device.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the fourth storage device is one of the at least one second storage device.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein creating the virtual volume comprises:
managing the virtual volume by a first virtual controller on the first storage device; and
in response to a first virtual controller stopping operation, migrating the metadata information of the virtual volume to a second virtual controller on the first storage device.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein synchronizing the metadata information to the at least one second storage device comprises:
activating a zero message queue circuit in the first storage device and the second storage device, to create a communication path between the first storage device and second storage device; and
transmitting the metadata information from the first storage device to the second storage device via the communication path.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
forming a virtual space that includes space capacity of the first storage device and the at least one second storage device, the virtual space being user side accessible.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
providing global visibility to the metadata information of the virtual volume for the virtual space that includes space capacity of the first storage device and the at least one second storage device.

9. An electronic device, comprising:
at least one processing circuit; and
at least one memory coupled to the at least one processing circuit and storing machine-executable instructions, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processing circuit, causing the electronic device to perform acts, the acts comprising:
receiving a request for creating a virtual volume, the request at least indicating a size and a service level of the virtual volume,
in response to the request, creating the virtual volume on a first storage device,
storing metadata information of the virtual volume in a local database that is accessible to the first storage device, the metadata information at least comprising identification information of the virtual volume and identification information of the first storage device,
synchronizing the metadata information to at least one second storage device,
creating a protocol endpoint between the virtual volume and a management node which requests to create the virtual volume, the protocol endpoint acting as a proxy of the management node for communication with the virtual volume,
storing as the metadata information, a correspondence among identification information of the virtual volume, identification information of the protocol endpoint and identification information of the first storage device to the local database, and
synchronizing the correspondence to the at least one second storage device.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein the acts further comprise:
in response to a service level of the first storage device degrading below a required service level of the virtual volume, migrating the virtual volume to a third storage device that is capable of providing the required service level;
storing metadata information of the migrated virtual volume into a database of the third storage device, the metadata information of the migrated virtual volume at least indicating identification information of the virtual volume and identification information of the third storage device; and
synchronizing the metadata information of the migrated virtual volume to a fourth storage device.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10 , wherein the acts further comprise:
receiving an access request for the virtual volume; and
in response to the virtual volume on the first storage device being migrated, creating an access path pointing to the migrated virtual volume, based on the metadata information of the migrated virtual volume stored in the fourth storage device.

12. The electronic device according to claim 11 , wherein the fourth storage device is one of the at least one the second storage device.

13. The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein creating the virtual volume comprises:
managing the virtual volume by a first virtual controller on the first storage device; and
in response to a first virtual controller stopping operation, migrating the metadata information of the virtual volume to a second virtual controller on the first storage device.

14. The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein synchronizing the metadata information to the at least one second storage device comprises:
activating a zero message queue circuit in the first storage device and the second storage device, to create a communication path between the first storage device and second storage device; and
transmitting the metadata information from the first storage device to the second storage device via the communication path.

15. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium which stores a set of instructions to perform storage management; the set of instructions, when carried out by computerized circuitry, causing the computerized circuitry to perform a method of:
receiving a request for creating a virtual volume, the request at least indicating a size and a service level of the virtual volume;
in response to the request, creating the virtua

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Yang Lifeng
• Gong Shaoqin
• Liu Yousheng
• Feng Changyu
• Jia Ruiyong
• Li Xiongcheng

Classifications

• G06F3/0631 Primary

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

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

• G06F3/0659

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title