High Availability Storage Access Using Quality Of Service Based Path Selection In A Storage Area Network Environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019102093-A1
Application number	US-201815923445-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 16, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Apr 4, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, a computing device, and a non-transitory machine-readable medium for performing a multipath selection based on a determined quality of service for the paths. An example method includes a host computing device periodically polling a storage system for path information including an indication of a recommended storage controller. The host computing device periodically determines a quality of service information corresponding to a plurality of paths between the host computing device and a storage volume of the storage system, where at least one of the plurality of paths including the recommended storage controller. The host computing device identifies a fault corresponding to a path of the plurality of paths that routes I/O from the host computing device to the storage volume. The host computing device re-routes the I/O from the path to a different path of the plurality of paths, where the different path is selected for the re-routing based on the quality of service information and the path information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
periodically polling, by a host computing device, a storage system for path information including an indication of a recommended storage controller; periodically determining, by the host computing device, quality of service information corresponding to a plurality of paths between the host computing device and a storage volume of the storage system, at least one of the plurality of paths including the recommended storage controller; identifying, by the host computing device, a fault corresponding to a path of the plurality of paths that routes input/output (I/O) between the host computing device and the storage volume; and re-routing, by the host computing device, the I/O of the host computing device from the path to a different path of the plurality of paths, wherein the different path is selected for the re-routing based on the quality of service information and the path information.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality of service information comprises a response time measurement corresponding to communications between the host computing device and the storage system.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality of service information comprises a throughput measurement corresponding to communications between the host computing device and the storage system.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a manner of selecting the recommended storage controller is specified by a user when provisioning the storage volume on the storage system.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the recommended storage controller is assigned ownership of the storage volume by the storage system.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the recommended storage controller is assigned ownership of the storage volume based on host connectivity information that is determined by the storage system.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the recommended storage controller is assigned ownership of the storage volume based on the storage system determining that there are at least a threshold number of paths between the host computing device and the recommended storage controller.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the storage system, that the I/O has been routed through one or more non-owning storage controllers for more than a threshold duration of time; and assigning, by the storage system, ownership of the storage volume to a non-owning storage controller that received a plurality of the I/O that was routed through the one or more non-owning storage controllers.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
ranking the plurality of paths based on the path information and the quality of service information.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage volume comprises a namespace, and
wherein the host computing device communicates the I/O with the storage volume via a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) protocol.

11 . A computing device comprising:
a memory containing machine-readable medium comprising machine executable code having stored thereon instructions for performing a multipath selection method; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the machine executable code to cause the processor to:
periodically poll a storage system for path information including an indication of a recommended storage controller;
periodically determine quality of service information corresponding to a plurality of paths between a host computing device and a storage volume of the storage system, at least one of the plurality of paths including the recommended storage controller;
identify a fault corresponding to a path of the plurality of paths that routes input/output (I/O) between the host computing device and the storage volume; and
re-route the I/O of the host computing device from the path to a different path of the plurality of paths, wherein the different path is selected for the re-routing based on the quality of service information and the path information.

12 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the quality of service information comprises at least one of a response time measurement or a throughput measurement.

13 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the recommended storage controller is assigned ownership of the storage volume by the storage system.

14 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the storage system performs operations comprising:
determining that the I/O has been routed through one or more non-owning storage controllers for more than a threshold duration of time; and assigning ownership of the storage volume to a non-owning storage controller that received a plurality of the I/O that was routed through the one or more non-owning storage controllers.

15 . The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the storage volume comprises a namespace, and
wherein the host computing device communicates the I/O with the storage volume via a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) protocol.

16 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing a method comprising machine executable code that when executed by at least one machine, causes the machine to:
periodically poll a storage system for path information including an indication of a recommended storage controller; periodically determine quality of service information corresponding to a plurality of paths between a host computing device and a storage volume of the storage system, at least one of the plurality of paths including the recommended storage controller; identify a fault corresponding to a path of the plurality of paths that routes input/output (I/O) between the host computing device and the storage volume; and re-route the I/O of the host computing device from the path to a different path of the plurality of paths, wherein the different path is selected for the re-routing based on the quality of service information and the path information.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the quality of service information comprises at least one of a response time measurement or a throughput measurement.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the recommended storage controller is assigned ownership of the storage volume by the storage system.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the storage system performs operations comprising:
determining that the I/O has been routed through one or more non-owning storage controllers for more than a threshold duration of time; and assigning ownership of the storage volume to a non-owning storage controller that received a plurality of the I/O that was routed through the one or more non-owning storage controllers.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the storage system includes a plurality of storage volumes,
wherein one or more of the storage volumes of the plurality of storage volumes each comprise a namespace, and wherein the host computing device communicates the I/O with the storage volume of the plurality of storage volumes via a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) protocol.

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Parnell Joey
• Schremmer Steven
• Thompson Brandon
• Jibbe Mahmoud K

Classifications

• G06F11/20

  using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements · CPC title

• G06F11/2092

  Techniques of failing over between control units · CPC title

• G06F3/0611

  in relation to response time · CPC title

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title