Location management in a volume action service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11210120-B2
Application number	US-201514668180-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 30, 2014
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software described herein manage volumes and virtual machines using a location database gathered from a hypervisor management system. In one example, a method of operating a volume attachment service to manage volumes and virtual machines includes transferring a location request to a hypervisor management service to identify locations of one or more virtual machines. The method further provides, receiving the locations of the one or more virtual machines and storing the locations in a location database. The method also includes identifying a volume action request for a first virtual machine, and directing the volume action request to a hypervisor of the first virtual machine based on the locations in the location database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a volume action service to manage volumes and virtual machines, the method comprising:
at periodic intervals, transferring location requests to a hypervisor management service to identify locations of one or more virtual machines, wherein the one or more virtual machines execute across a plurality of hypervisors, and wherein the hypervisor management service obtains the locations of the one or more virtual machines in relation to the plurality of hypervisors managed by the hypervisor management service;
receiving, in response to the location requests, the locations of the one or more virtual machines and storing the locations in a location database of the volume action service, wherein the locations comprise one or more virtual machine identifiers associated with respective host and hypervisor identifiers for the one or more virtual machines;
receiving a volume action request to attach one or more volumes to a first virtual machine of the one or more virtual machines; and
in response to the volume action request for the first virtual machine, directing the volume action request from the volume action service to a hypervisor for the first virtual machine based on a virtual machine identifier associated with the first virtual machine and the location database without passing the volume action request to the hypervisor management service, wherein the request directs the hypervisor to attach the one or more volumes to the first virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the volume action request comprises a volume attach request to attach one or more volumes to the first virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more volumes comprise one or more application volumes containing at least one application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the volume action request comprises a volume detach request to detach one or more volumes from the first virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the one or more volumes comprise one or more application volumes containing at least one application.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a second volume action request for a second virtual machine; and
directing the second volume action request to a hypervisor for the second virtual machine based on a virtual machine identifier associated with the second virtual machine and the location database.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the hypervisor of the first virtual machine comprises a different hypervisor than the hypervisor of the second virtual machine.

8. An apparatus to manage volumes and virtual machines, the apparatus comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer readable media; and
processing instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable media that, when executed by processing circuitry, direct the processing circuitry to:
at periodic intervals, transfer location requests to a hypervisor management service to identify locations of one or more virtual machines, wherein the one or more virtual machines execute across a plurality of hypervisors, and wherein the hypervisor management service obtains the locations of the one or more virtual machines in relation to the plurality of hypervisors managed by the hypervisor management service;
receive, in response to the location requests, the locations of the one or more virtual machines and storing the locations in a location database of the volume action service, wherein the locations comprise one or more virtual machine identifiers associated with respective host and hypervisor identifiers for the one or more virtual machines;
receive a volume action request to attach one or more volumes to a first virtual machine of the one or more virtual machines; and
in response to the volume action request for the first virtual machine, direct the volume action request from the volume action service to a hypervisor for the first virtual machine based on a virtual machine identifier associated with the first virtual machine and the location database without passing the volume action request to the hypervisor management service, wherein the request directs the hypervisor to attach the one or more volumes to the first virtual machine.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising the processing circuitry.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the volume action request comprises a volume attach request to attach one or more volumes to the first virtual machine.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the one or more volumes comprise one or more application volumes containing at least one application.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the volume action request comprises a volume detach request to detach one or more volumes from the first virtual machine.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the one or more volumes comprise one or more application volumes containing at least one application.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing instructions further direct the processing circuitry to:
identify a second volume action request for a second virtual machine; and
direct the second volume action request to a hypervisor for the second virtual machine based on a virtual machine identifier associated with the second virtual machine and the location database.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the hypervisor of the first virtual machine comprises a different hypervisor than the hypervisor of the second virtual machine.

16. A system to manage a plurality of storage volumes and a plurality of virtual machines, the system comprising:
one or more host computing systems executing a plurality of hypervisors;
the plurality of virtual machines executing via the plurality of hypervisors; and
a volume action service with a processing system configured to:
at periodic intervals, transfer location requests to a hypervisor management service to identify locations of the plurality of virtual machines, and wherein the hypervisor management service obtains the locations of the plurality of virtual machines in relation to the plurality of hypervisors managed by the hypervisor management service;
receive, in response to the location requests, the locations of the plurality of virtual machines and store the locations in a location database of the volume action service, wherein the locations comprise a plurality of virtual machine identifiers associated with respective host and hypervisor identifier for the plurality of virtual machines;
receive a volume action request to attach one or more volumes to a first virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines; and
in response to the volume action request for the first virtual machine, direct the volume action request from the volume action service to a hypervisor of the plurality of hypervisors for the first virtual machine based on a virtual machine identifier associated with the first virtual machine and the location database without passing the volume action request to the hypervisor management service, wherein the request directs the hypervisor to attach the one or more volumes to the first virtual machine.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the volume action request for the first virtual machine comprises one of:
a volume attach request to attach one or more volumes to the first virtual machine; or
a volume detach request to detach one or more volumes from the first virtual machine.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Conover Matthew
• Lawson Steven
• Ulatoski Jeffrey Paul

Classifications

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title