Architecture for managing i/o and storage for a virtualization environment using executable containers and virtual machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12074937-B2
Application number	US-202217807708-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 17, 2022
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Aug 27, 2024
Grant date	Aug 27, 2024

Abstract

Systems for high-performance computing. A storage control architecture is implemented by a plurality of nodes, where a node comprises combinations of executable containers that execute in cooperation with virtual machines running above a hypervisor. The containers run in a virtual machine above a hypervisor, and/or can be integrated directly into the operating system of a host node. Sensitive information such as credit card information may be isolated from the containers in a separate virtual machine that is configured to be threat resistant, and which can be accessed through a threat resistant interface module. One of the virtual machines of the node may be a node-specific control virtual machine that is configured to operate as a dedicated storage controller for a node. One of the virtual machines of the node may be a node-specific container service machine that is configured to provide storage-related and other support to a hosted executable container.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when execute a processor causes a set of acts comprising:
operating an executable container in a virtual machine on a node of a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes form a hyper-converged environment having a virtualized storage resource, and the virtualized storage resource comprises storage collected from at least two nodes of the plurality of nodes;
receiving a storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container in the virtual machine on the node of the plurality of nodes; and

wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container operating in the virtual machine on the node is processed to access data from the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the executable container was retrieved from a container repository and deployed by a second virtual machine.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container operating in the virtual machine on the node is processed by a controller that is separate from the second virtual machine.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the controller comprises a third virtual machine.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the storage access I/O command is sent from the node of the plurality of nodes to a second node of the plurality of nodes for further processing by the second node.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the storage access I/O command is formatted into a request to a virtual disk stored on the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment and the virtual disk stored on the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment is accessible to two or more nodes of the plurality of nodes.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container in the virtual machine on the node of the plurality of nodes is to a persistent storage volume.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the persistent storage volume is accessible by multiple executable containers.

9. A method comprising:
operating an executable container in a virtual machine on a node of a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes form a hyper-converged environment having a virtualized storage resource, and the virtualized storage resource comprises storage collected from at least two nodes of the plurality of nodes;
receiving a storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container in the virtual machine on the node of the plurality of nodes; and
wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container operating in the virtual machine on the node is processed to access data from the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the executable container was retrieved from a container repository and deployed by a second virtual machine.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container operating in the virtual machine on the node is processed by a controller that is separate from the second virtual machine.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the controller comprises a third virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the storage access I/O command is sent from the node of the plurality of nodes to a second node of the plurality of nodes for further processing by the second node.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the storage access I/O command is formatted into a request to a virtual disk stored on the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment and the virtual disk stored on the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment is accessible to two or more nodes of the plurality of nodes.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container in the virtual machine on the node of the plurality of nodes is to a persistent storage volume.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the persistent storage volume is accessible by multiple executable containers.

17. A system comprising:
a storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions; and
a processor that executes the sequence of instructions to perform a set of acts comprising:
operating an executable container in a virtual machine on a node of a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes form a hyper-converged environment having a virtualized storage resource, and the virtualized storage resource comprises storage collected from at least two nodes of the plurality of nodes;
receiving a storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container in the virtual machine on the node of the plurality of nodes; and
wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container operating in the virtual machine on the node is processed to access data from the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the executable container was retrieved from a container repository and deployed by a second virtual machine.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container operating in the virtual machine on the node is processed by a controller that is separate from the second virtual machine.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the controller comprises a third virtual machine.

21. The system of claim 17 , wherein the storage access I/O command is sent from the node of the plurality of nodes to a second node of the plurality of nodes for further processing by the second node.

22. The system of claim 17 , wherein the storage access I/O command is formatted into a request to a virtual disk stored on the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment and the virtual disk stored on the virtualized storage resource of the hyper-converged environment is accessible to two or more nodes of the plurality of nodes.

23. The system of claim 17 , wherein the storage access I/O command initiated by the executable container in the virtual machine on the node of the plurality of nodes is to a persistent storage volume.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the persistent storage volume is accessible by multiple executable containers.

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• Gill Binny Sher
• Gupta Karan
• Cui Miao

Classifications

• H04L61/2514

  between local and global IP addresses · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L61/2525

  Translation at a client · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title