Method and system for handling ownership transfer in a virtualization environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9256475-B1
Application number	US-201313744668-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 18, 2013
Priority date	Aug 10, 2011
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A method for handling storage in a virtualization environment including identifying a situation in which a storage controller ownership change is to occur for a virtual disk, identifying a candidate replacement owner for the virtual disk and transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the candidate replacement owner.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for handling storage in a virtualization environment, comprising:
identifying a situation in which a storage controller ownership change is to occur for a virtual disk that is managed by a storage controller in a first node that hosts one or more virtual machines,
identifying a candidate replacement owner for the virtual disk by performing a leadership election among a plurality of volunteer storage controllers, wherein a volunteer storage controller of the plurality of volunteer storage controllers is elected as the candidate replacement owner, wherein the volunteer storage controller is a storage controller in a second node that hosts one or more virtual machines, wherein the second node is different from the first node; and
transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the candidate replacement owner, wherein after the transfer the virtual disk is managed by the storage controller in the second node.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the situation for the storage controller ownership change comprises a failure of a first storage controller in a virtualization environment, wherein the first storage controller is an owner of the virtual disk prior to transferring ownership.

3. The method of claim 2 in which a heartbeat check is performed to check for the failure.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the candidate replacement owner is a second storage controller in the virtualization environment.

5. The method of claim 4 in which the second storage controller is used to handle I/O requests for the virtual disk after transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the second storage controller.

6. The method of claim 2 in which the first storage controller comprises a service virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 1 in which ownership metadata is modified to change ownership of the virtual disk.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more virtual machines in the first node correspond to a first set of virtual machines, and wherein the one or more virtual machines in the second node corresponds to a second set of virtual machines, the second set of virtual machines being different from the first set of virtual machines.

9. The method of claim 1 , the virtual disk being exposed to virtual machines on at least the first node as a set of addressable storage units corresponding to a plurality of virtual disks structured from a global pool that comprises a local storage devices on the first node and the local storage device on the second node.

10. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor causes the processor to execute a method for handling storage in a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, the method comprising:
identifying a situation in which a storage controller ownership change is to occur for a virtual disk that is managed by a storage controller in a first node that hosts one or more virtual machines,
identifying a candidate replacement owner for the virtual disk by performing a leadership election among a plurality of volunteer storage controllers, wherein a volunteer storage controller of the plurality of volunteer storage controllers is elected as the candidate replacement owner, wherein the volunteer storage controller is a storage controller in a second node that hosts one or more virtual machines, wherein the second node is different from the first node; and
transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the candidate replacement owner, wherein after the transfer the virtual disk is managed by the storage controller in the second node.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 in which the situation for the storage controller ownership change comprises a failure of a first storage controller in a virtualization environment, wherein the first storage controller is an owner of the virtual disk prior to transferring ownership.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 in which a heartbeat check is performed to check for the failure.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the candidate replacement owner is a second storage controller in the virtualization environment.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 in which the second storage controller is used to handle I/O requests for the virtual disk after transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the second storage controller.

15. The computer program product of claim 11 in which the first storage controller comprises a service virtual machine.

16. The computer program product of claim 10 in which ownership metadata is modified to change ownership of the virtual disk.

17. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the one or more virtual machines in the first node correspond to a first set of virtual machines, and wherein the one or more virtual machines in the second node corresponds to a second set of virtual machines, the second set of virtual machines being different from the first set of virtual machines.

18. The computer program product of claim 10 , the virtual disk being exposed to virtual machines on at least the first node as a set of addressable storage units corresponding to a plurality of virtual disks structured from a global pool that comprises a local storage devices on the first node and the local storage device on the second node.

19. A computer-based system for handling storage in a virtualization environment, 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 for identifying a situation in which a storage controller ownership change is to occur for a virtual disk that is managed by a storage controller in a first node that hosts one or more virtual machines; identifying a candidate replacement owner for the virtual disk by performing a leadership election among a plurality of volunteer storage controllers, wherein a volunteer storage controller of the plurality of volunteer storage controllers is elected as the candidate replacement owner, wherein the volunteer storage controller is a storage controller in a second node that hosts one or more virtual machines, wherein the second node is different from the first node; and transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the candidate replacement owner, wherein after the transfer the virtual disk is managed by the storage controller in the second node.

20. The computer-based system of claim 19 in which the situation for the storage controller ownership change comprises a failure of a first storage controller in a virtualization environment, wherein the first storage controller is an owner of the virtual disk prior to transferring ownership.

21. The computer-based system of claim 20 in which a heartbeat check is performed to check for the failure.

22. The computer-based system of claim 20 wherein the candidate replacement owner is a second storage controller in the virtualization environment.

23. The computer-based system of claim 22 in which the second storage controller is used to handle I/O requests for the virtual disk after transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the second storage controller.

24. The computer-based system of claim 20 in which the first storage controller comprises a service

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• Aron Mohit
• Pandey Dheeraj
• Singh Ajeet

Classifications

• G06F9/5083

  Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

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

• G06F2009/4557

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

• G06F9/5005

  to service a request · CPC title

• G06F9/5088 Primary

  involving task migration · CPC title