Architecture for implementing service level management for a virtualization environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020036602-A1
Application number	US-201514704958-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 5, 2015
Priority date	May 5, 2014
Publication date	Jan 30, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed is an improved approach to implement a management environment for the storage infrastructure of a virtualization system. The invention provides the ability at a granular basis to allow a user/administrator to configure and control the service levels for virtualization objects in a virtualization system, particularly for storage-related components.

First claim

1 . A method, comprising:
configuring a service level parameter for storing, in a storage pool, virtual machine data of a virtual machine on a computer in a distributed environment that includes multiple computers,
the service level parameter corresponding to a first storage policy for managing storage for the virtual machine,
the storage pool managed by multiple controller virtual machines and comprising multiple local storage devices in the distributed environment, and
a controller virtual machine of the multiple controller virtual machines configured to store the virtual machine data on any of the multiple local storage devices based at least in part upon the service level parameter;
changing the first storage policy to a second storage policy for the virtual machine at least by modifying the service level parameter; and generating, by the controller virtual machine on one computer of the multiple computers, a storage object in the storage pool for storing the virtual machine data based at least in part upon the second storage policy, the controller virtual machine executing as a virtual machine on the one computer above a hypervisor on the one computer of the multiple computers.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first storage policy or the second storage policy corresponds to an SLA (service level agreement) policy assigned to the storage object.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a service-level management communication for changing the first storage policy to the second storage policy, wherein the service-level management communication comprises instructions for changing an SLA policy for the virtual machine by transferring the virtual machine from a different storage object to the storage object, the storage object and the different storage object being assigned different SLA policies.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating, at least by the controller virtual machine, a plurality of storage objects based at least in part upon a plurality of storage policies, the plurality of storage policies respectively corresponding to the plurality of storage objects for different storage properties of different levels of storage services.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating the virtual machine by the hypervisor running on the computer; and associating the virtual machine with the storage object by the controller virtual machine executing on the computer above the hypervisor.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage object comprises a virtual disk and corresponds to a protection domain, the protection domain comprising a plurality of virtual machines.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising executing a virtual desktop management application that invokes the controller virtual machine that manages the storage for the plurality of virtual machines in the protection domain as a single entity.

8 . A system, comprising:
a computer processor to execute a set of program code instructions; a memory to hold the set of program code instructions, in which the set of program code instructions comprises program code to perform: configuring a service level parameter for storing, in a storage pool virtual machine data of a virtual machine on a computer in a distributed environment that includes multiple computers,
the service level parameter corresponding to a first storage policy for managing storage for the virtual machine,
the storage pool managed by multiple controller virtual machines and comprising multiple local storage devices in the distributed environment, and
a controller virtual machine of the multiple controller virtual machines configured to store the virtual machine data on any of the multiple local storage devices based at least in part upon the service level parameter;
changing the first storage policy to a second storage policy for the virtual machine at least by modifying the service level parameter; and generating, by the controller virtual machine, a storage object in the storage pool for storing the virtual machine data based at least in part upon the second storage policy, the controller virtual machine executing above a hypervisor on the one computer of the multiple computers.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the first storage policy or the second storage policy corresponds to an SLA (service level agreement) policy assigned to the storage object.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the set of program code instructions further comprises the program code to receive a service-level management communication for changing the first storage policy to the second storage policy, wherein the service-level management communication comprises instructions for changing an SLA policy for the virtual machine by transferring the virtual machine from different storage object to the storage object, the storage object and the different storage object being assigned different SLA policies.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the set of program code instructions comprises program code to perform:
creating, at least by the controller virtual machine, a plurality of storage objects based at least in part upon a plurality of storage policies, the plurality of storage policies respectively corresponding to the plurality of storage objects for different storage properties of different levels of storage services.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the set of program code instructions comprises program code to perform:
creating the virtual machine by the hypervisor; and associating the virtual machine with the storage object by the controller virtual machine.

13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the storage object comprises a virtual disk and corresponds to a protection domain, the protection domain comprising a plurality of virtual machines.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the set of program code instructions comprises program code to perform: executing a virtual desktop management application that invokes at least the controller virtual machine that manages the storage for the plurality of virtual machines in the protection domain as a single entity.

15 . A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a set of acts, the set of acts comprising:
configuring a service level parameter for storing, in a storage pool, virtual machine data of a virtual machine on a computer in a distributed environment that includes multiple computers,
the service level parameter corresponding to a first storage policy for managing storage for the virtual machine,
the storage pool managed by multiple controller virtual machines and comprising multiple local storage devices in the distributed environment, and
a controller virtual machine of the multiple controller virtual machines configured to store the virtual machine data on any of the multiple local storage devices based at least in part upon the service level parameter;
changing the first storage policy to a second storage policy for the virtual machine at least by modifying the service level parameter; and generating, by the controller virtual machine on one computer of the multiple computers, a storage object in the storage pool for storing the virtual machine data based at least in part upon the second storage policy, the controller virtual machine executing above a hypervisor on the one computer of the multiple computers.

16 . The computer program product o

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• Leibovici Andre
• Gill Binny Sher

Classifications

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• H04L41/5022 Primary

  by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service · CPC title

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• H04L41/5006

  Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties · CPC title

• G06F3/0685 Primary

  Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays · CPC title