Decoupling Compute and Storage Resources in Cloud-Based HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020183720-A1
Application number	US-201816211047-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 5, 2018
Priority date	Dec 5, 2018
Publication date	Jun 11, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Techniques for decoupling compute and storage resources in a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) are provided. In one set of embodiments, a control plane of the HCI deployment can provision a host from a host platform of an infrastructure on which the HCI deployment is implemented and can provision one or more storage volumes from a storage platform of the infrastructure, where the storage platform runs on physical server resources in the infrastructure that are separate from the host platform. The control plane can then cause the one or more storage volumes to be network-attached to the host in a manner that enables a hypervisor of the host to make the one or more storage volumes available, as part of a virtual storage pool, to one or more virtual machines in the HCI deployment for data storage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for decoupling compute and storage resources in a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) deployment, the method comprising:
provisioning, by a control plane of the HCI deployment, a host from a host platform of an infrastructure on which the HCI deployment is implemented; provisioning, by the control plane, one or more storage volumes from a storage platform of the infrastructure, the storage platform running on physical server resources in the infrastructure that are separate from the host platform; and causing, by the control plane, the one or more storage volumes to be network-attached to the host, wherein a hypervisor of the host is configured to make the one or more storage volumes available, as part of a virtual storage pool, to one or more virtual machines in the HCI deployment for data storage.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the host is a diskless host that does not use any storage resources local to the host for storing data.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual storage pool also comprises storage volumes provisioned from the storage platform that are network-attached to other hosts in the HCI deployment.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more storage volumes appear as directly-attached storage devices to the hypervisor.

5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising, at a time the host is taken offline for maintenance or experiences a failure:
detaching the one or more storage volumes from the host;
provisioning a second host from the host platform of the infrastructure; and
attaching the one or more storage volumes to the second host.

6 . The method of claim 1 further comprising, when a timeout is detected with respect to a storage volume in the one or more storage volumes:
waiting for a period of greater than one hour before concluding that the storage volume has failed.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein the hypervisor is configured to avoid performing data deduplication with respect to data written to the one or more storage volumes.

8 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a control plane of a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) deployment, the program code embodying a method for decoupling compute and storage resources in the HCI deployment, the method comprising:
provisioning a host from a host platform of an infrastructure on which the HCI deployment is implemented; provisioning one or more storage volumes from a storage platform of the infrastructure, the storage platform running on physical server resources in the infrastructure that are separate from the host platform; and causing the one or more storage volumes to be network-attached to the host, wherein a hypervisor of the host is configured to make the one or more storage volumes available, as part of a virtual storage pool, to one or more virtual machines in the HCI deployment for data storage.

9 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the host is a diskless host that does not use any storage resources local to the host for storing data.

10 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the virtual storage pool also comprises storage volumes provisioned from the storage platform that are network-attached to other hosts in the HCI deployment.

11 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the one or more storage volumes appear as directly-attached storage devices to the hypervisor.

12 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the method further comprises, at a time the host is taken offline for maintenance or experiences a failure:
detaching the one or more storage volumes from the host;
provisioning a second host from the host platform of the infrastructure; and
attaching the one or more storage volumes to the second host.

13 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the method further comprises, when a timeout is detected with respect to a storage volume in the one or more storage volumes:
waiting for a period of greater than one hour before concluding that the storage volume has failed.

14 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the hypervisor is configured to avoid performing data deduplication with respect to data written to the one or more storage volumes.

15 . A computer system implemented as part of a control plane of a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) deployment, the HCI deployment, the computer system comprising:
a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program code that, when executed, causes the processor to:
provision a host from a host platform of an infrastructure on which the HCI deployment is implemented;
provision one or more storage volumes from a storage platform of the infrastructure, the storage platform running on physical server resources in the infrastructure that are separate from the host platform; and
cause the one or more storage volumes to be network-attached to the host,
wherein a hypervisor of the host is configured to make the one or more storage volumes available, as part of a virtual storage pool, to one or more virtual machines in the HCI deployment for data storage.

16 . The computer system of claim 15 wherein the host is a diskless host that does not use any storage resources local to the host for storing data.

17 . The computer system of claim 15 wherein the virtual storage pool also comprises storage volumes provisioned from the storage platform that are network-attached to other hosts in the HCI deployment.

18 . The computer system of claim 15 wherein the one or more storage volumes appear as directly-attached storage devices to the hypervisor.

19 . The computer system of claim 15 wherein the program code further comprises code that causes the processor to, at a time the host is taken offline for maintenance or experiences a failure:
detach the one or more storage volumes from the host;
provision a second host from the host platform of the infrastructure; and
attach the one or more storage volumes to the second host.

20 . The computer system of claim 15 wherein the program code further comprises code that causes the processor to, when a timeout is detected with respect to a storage volume in the one or more storage volumes:
wait for a period of greater than one hour before concluding that the storage volume has failed.

21 . The computer system of claim 15 wherein the hypervisor is configured to avoid performing data deduplication with respect to data written to the one or more storage volumes.

Assignees

• Vmware Inc

Inventors

• Dai Peng
• Amdur Matthew B
• Karamanolis Christos

Classifications

• G06F2009/45579

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

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/5072

  Grid computing · CPC title

• G06F3/067 Primary

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

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title