Cloning virtualized file servers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11288239-B2
Application number	US-201715833255-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2017
Priority date	Dec 6, 2016
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

Examples described herein include virtualized file servers which may include cloned instances of the virtualized file server. Cloning a virtualized file server may allow for testing of new and/or revised features, disaster recovery plans, or other configurations while maintaining availability of the parent (e.g., source) virtualized file server.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of host machines configured to implement a virtualization environment, wherein each of the plurality of host machines comprises a hypervisor;
a virtualized file server comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (a plurality of FSVMs) and a storage pool, wherein the plurality of FSVMs are configured to conduct Input/Output (I/O) transactions with the storage pool, wherein each of the plurality of FSVMs is configured to run on one of the plurality of host machines such that the plurality of FSVMs are hosted on two or more of the plurality of host machines; and
a clone of the virtualized file server comprising clones of the plurality of FSVMs, wherein the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are configured to conduct I/O transactions with the storage pool, wherein the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are each configured to run on one of the plurality of host machines such that the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are hosted on two or more of the plurality of host machines.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage pool includes a plurality of volume groups, and wherein the clone of the virtualized file server includes clones of the plurality of volume groups.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising stored first metadata describing the virtualized file server and stored second metadata describing the clone of the virtualized file server.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the stored second metadata comprises the first metadata and updated IP addresses corresponding to the clones of the plurality of FSVMs.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the stored second metadata comprises the first metadata and an updated file server name and active directory details corresponding to the clones of the plurality of FSVMs.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the clone of the virtualized file server is based on a snapshot of the virtualized file server.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the snapshot comprises a read-write snapshot.

8. The system of claim 6 , further comprising stored data blocks representing diverged data between the virtualized file server and the clone of the virtualized file server and wherein the stored data blocks are stored in an exception table for the snapshot.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising stored data blocks representing diverged data between the virtualized file server and the clone of the virtualized file server.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the two or more of the plurality of host machines hosting the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are in a cloud computing environment.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage pool includes one or more cloud storage locations.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the two or more host machines hosting the plurality of FSVMs and the two or more host machines hosting the clones of the plurality of FSVMs comprise a local computing cluster.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein a first portion of the plurality of host machines are in a local computing cluster and a second portion of the plurality of host machines are in a cloud computing environment.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the clones of the plurality of FSVMs provide an object store interface.

15. A method comprising:
cloning a plurality of file server virtual machines (a plurality of FSVMs) hosted on two or more host machines and forming at least a portion of a virtualized file server to provide clones of the plurality of FSVMs, wherein the plurality of FSVMs are configured to conduct Input/Output (I/O) transactions with a plurality of volume groups of the virtualized file server, wherein the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are each configured to run on one of the plurality of host machines such that the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are hosted on two or more of the plurality of host machines;
cloning the plurality of volume groups associated with the plurality of FSVMs to form clones of the plurality of volume groups, wherein the clones of the plurality of FSVMs and the clones of the plurality of volume groups form at least a portion of a clone of the virtualized file server; and
updating metadata associated with the virtualized file server to refer to the clone of the virtualized file server.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising accessing a storage pool using both the virtualized file server and the clone of the virtualized file server.

17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising upgrading at least some of the clones of the plurality of FSVMs to run a second version of software, different from a first version of software run by the plurality of FSVMs.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising operating the clone of the virtualized file server running the second version of software at least in part simultaneously with the virtualized file server running the first version of software.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein updating the metadata comprises updating IP addresses corresponding to the clones of the plurality of FSVMs.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein updating the metadata comprises updating a file server name and active directory details corresponding to the clones of the plurality of FSVMs.

21. The method of claim 15 , wherein the clone of the virtualized file server is based on a snapshot of the virtualized file server.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the snapshot comprises a read-write snapshot.

23. The method of claim 15 , further comprising storing data blocks representing diverged data between the virtualized file server and the clone of the virtualized file server.

24. The method of claim 15 , wherein the two or more of the plurality of host machines hosting the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are in a cloud computing environment.

25. The method of claim 15 , wherein cloning the plurality of volume groups comprises storing the clones of the plurality of volume groups in cloud storage.

26. The method of claim 15 , wherein the two or more host machines hosting the plurality of FSVMs and the two or more host machines hosting the clones of the plurality of FSVMs comprise a local computing cluster.

27. The method of claim 15 , wherein a first portion of the two or more host machines are in a local computing cluster and a second portion of the two or more host machines are in a cloud computing environment.

28. The method of claim 15 , wherein cloning the plurality of FSVMs comprises providing the clones of the plurality of FSVMs with an object store interface.

29. One or more non-transitory computer readable media encoded with instructions which, when executed cause a computing node to:
clone a plurality of file server virtual machines (a plurality of FSVMs) hosted on two or more host machines forming at least a portion of a virtualized file server to provide clones of the plurality of FSVMs, wherein the plurality of FSVMs are configured to conduct Input/Output (I/O) transactions with a plurality of volume groups of the virtualized file server, wherein the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are each configured to run on one of the plurality of host machines such that the clones of the plurality of FSVMs are hosted on two or more of the plurality of host machines;
clone the plurality of volume groups associated with the plurality of FSVMs to form clones of the plurality of volume groups, wherein the

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• Bafna Kalpesh Ashok
• Venkatesh Anil Kumar Gopalapura
• Kanada Devyani Suryakant
• Tyagi Saurabh
• Bellubbi Vijaykumar
• Ranasingh Mausumi
• Sharma Rishabh

Classifications

• G06F3/0607 Primary

  by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device · CPC title

• G06F16/128

  Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations or in hardware G06F11/14, G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F3/0647

  Migration mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F16/188 Primary

  Virtual file systems · CPC title