Logical memory addressing for network devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11928367-B2
Application number	US-202217845740-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2022
Priority date	Jun 21, 2022
Publication date	Mar 12, 2024
Grant date	Mar 12, 2024

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for, at a network interface controller (NIC) of a computer, accessing data in a network. From the computer, the method receives a request to access data stored at a logical memory address. The method translates the logical memory address into a memory address of a particular network device storing the requested data. The method sends a data message to the particular network device to retrieve the requested data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for accessing data in a network, the method comprising:
at a network interface controller (NIC) of a computer:
receiving a first set of configuration data from a first network device for translating logical memory addresses into memory addresses of the first network device;
from the computer, receiving a request to access data stored at a logical memory address;
translating the logical memory address into a memory address of the first network device that stores the requested data;
sending a data message to the first network device to retrieve the requested data, wherein after the sending of the data message a second network device replaces the first network device in a storage network; and
receiving a second set of configuration data from a second network device for translating the logical memory addresses into memory addresses of the second network device for subsequent requests from the computer, wherein the first network device is shut down after a grace period that allows for the NIC and NICs of other computers to update configuration data for translating logical memory addresses.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is received from a client process executed by a processing unit of the computer.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein modifications to a location of the data in the network are transparent to the client process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is a first request and the logical memory address is a first logical memory address, the method further comprising:
from the computer, receiving a second request to access data stored at a second logical memory address;
translating the second logical memory address into a memory address of a local memory of the computer; and
reading the requested data from the local memory using the translated memory address.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein translating the logical memory address comprises determining a network address for the particular network device and a logical block address for reading data at a specific memory location of the particular network device.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the network address is used to send the data message to the particular network device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data message is a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) over fabric data message.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving a set of data messages from the particular network device conveying the requested data; and
providing the requested data to the computer.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving configuration data from a plurality of respective network devices for translating respective sets of logical memory addresses into memory addresses of the respective network devices.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing a program which when executed by at least one processing unit of a network interface controller (NIC) of a computer accesses data in a network, the program comprising sets of instructions for:
receiving a first set of configuration data from a first network device for translating logical memory addresses into memory addresses of the first network device;
from the computer, receiving a request to access data stored at a logical memory address;
translating the logical memory address into a memory address of the first network device that stores the requested data;
sending a data message to the first network device to retrieve the requested data, wherein after the sending of the data message a second network device replaces the first network device in a storage network; and
receiving a second set of configuration data from a second network device for translating the logical memory addresses into memory addresses of the second network device, wherein the first network device is shut down after a grace period that allows for the NIC and NICs of other computers to update configuration data for translating logical memory addresses.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the request is received from a client process executed by a processing unit of the computer, wherein modifications to a location of the data in the network are transparent to the client process.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the request is a first request and the logical memory address is a first logical memory address, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:
from the computer, receiving a second request to access data stored at a second logical memory address;
translating the second logical memory address into a memory address of a local memory of the computer; and
reading the requested data from the local memory using the translated memory address.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the set of instructions for translating the logical memory address comprises a set of instructions for determining a network address for the particular network device and a logical block address for reading data at a specific memory location of the particular network device.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the network address is used to send the data message to the particular network device.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:
receiving a set of data messages from the particular network device conveying the requested data; and
providing the requested data to the computer.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for receiving configuration data from a plurality of respective network devices for translating respective sets of logical memory addresses into memory addresses of the respective network devices.

Assignees

• VMware LLC

Inventors

• Markuze Alex
• Vargaftik Shay
• Golikov Igor
• Ben-Itzhak Yaniv
• Yanai Avishay

Classifications

• G06F3/067 Primary

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

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0655

  Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices · CPC title

• G06F3/061

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G06F3/0658

  Controller construction arrangements · CPC title