Techniques for migration paths

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016335108-A1
Application number	US-201514870095-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	May 14, 2015
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments described herein relate to a destination path for use with multiple different types of VMs, and techniques for using the destination path to convert, copy, or move data objects stored in one type of VM to another type of VM. The destination path represents a standardized (canonical) way to refer to VM objects from a proprietary VM. A destination location may be specified using the canonical destination path, and the location may be converted into a hypervisor-specific destination location. A source data object may be copied or moved to the destination location using a hypervisor-agnostic path.

First claim

1 . A system comprising:
a computer readable storage medium to store instructions to migrate data from a source virtual machine (VM) managed by a first type of hypervisor to a destination VM managed by a second type of hypervisor different from the first type; and a processor configured to execute the instructions to provide:
a command interface module to receive an identification of the destination virtual machine and a destination path, the destination path provided to the command interface module in a format that is independent of a path format of the first type of hypervisor and independent of a path format of the second type of hypervisor; and
a conversion module to migrate the data from the source VM to a location managed by the destination VM's hypervisor, the location corresponding to the received destination path.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the conversion module is configured to migrate the data by issuing a hypervisor-agnostic conversion command.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the conversion module is configured to migrate the data via a hypervisor-agnostic data object.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the data is stored in a hypervisor-agnostic format and exposed to a client according to a hypervisor-specific format.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide a storage mapping module, the storage mapping module configured to retrieve a destination-side storage mapping that translates the destination path into a location path according to a format of the destination VM's hypervisor.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide a location identification module, the location identification module configured to use the storage mapping and the identification of the destination virtual machine to identify a destination-VM-hypervisor-side storage location.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide an object identification module, the object identification module configured to identify a hypervisor-agnostic data object corresponding to the data to be migrated.

8 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
receive a command to convert one or more data objects from management by a first type of virtual machine (VM) hypervisor to management by a second type of VM hypervisor distinct from the first type; receive an identification of a location associated with the second type of VM hypervisor, the identification being provided in a hypervisor-agnostic format; convert the identification from the hypervisor-agnostic format into a format compatible with the second type of VM hypervisor; and convert the one or more data objects to management by the second type of hypervisor, the one or more data objects being stored at a destination-VM-hypervisor-side location corresponding to the identified location.

9 . The medium of claim 8 , wherein the converting comprises issuing a hypervisor-independent conversion command.

10 . The medium of claim 8 , wherein the converting comprises migrating the one or more data objects via one or more hypervisor-independent data objects.

12 . The medium of claim 8 , wherein the data is stored in a hypervisor-agnostic format and exposed to a client according to a hypervisor-specific format.

13 . The medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to retrieve a destination-side storage mapping that translates the identified location into a location path according to a format of the second type of VM hypervisor.

14 . The medium of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to use the storage mapping and an identity of the second type of virtual machine hypervisor to identify a destination-VM-hypervisor-side storage location.

15 . The medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to identify one or more hypervisor-agnostic data objects corresponding to the one or more data objects to be converted.

16 . A method, comprising:
receiving, using a processor of a computing device, an identification of a destination virtual machine (VM) and a destination path, the destination path provided to the command interface module in a storage operating system (OS) format compatible with a storage operating system that manages data on behalf of a source VM and the destination VM; and migrating the data from the source VM to a location managed by a hypervisor of the destination VM, the location corresponding to the received destination path.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the migrating comprises one or both of issuing a hypervisor-independent conversion command, or migrating the data via one or more hypervisor-independent data objects.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the data is stored in a hypervisor-agnostic format and exposed to a client according to a hypervisor-specific format.

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide a storage mapping module, the storage mapping module configured to retrieve a destination-side storage mapping that translates the destination path into a location path according to a format of the hypervisor of the destination VM.

20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide a location identification module, the location identification module configured to use the storage mapping and the identification of the destination virtual machine to identify a destination-VM-hypervisor-side storage location.

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Ryu Sung
• Behere Shweta
• Teehan Jeffrey

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title