System and method for cache management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9507732-B1
Application number	US-201213630746-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 28, 2012
Priority date	Sep 28, 2012
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

A method, computer program product, and computing system for associating a tracking file with a multi-portion data file located on a data array. The tracking file is configured to monitor the status of each portion of the multi-portion data file. At least one portion of the multi-portion data file is modified via a virtual machine executed on a first physical machine. The tracking file is updated to reflect the modification of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
associating a tracking file with a multi-portion data file, wherein the multi-portion data file is a single data file with multiple portions located on a data array, wherein the tracking file is configured to monitor the status of each portion of the multi-portion data file;
modifying at least one portion of the multi-portion data file via a first virtual machine executed on a first physical machine of a plurality of physical machines;
updating the tracking file to reflect the modification of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file, wherein the tracking file includes which physical machine of the plurality of physical machines modified each portion of the multi-portion data file, and further includes an indication whether cache data associated with the first virtual machine was modified while the first virtual machine was migrated and executed on a second physical machine of the plurality of physical machines;
migrating the first virtual machine from the first physical machine to the second physical machine, and migrating the first virtual machine from the second physical machine back to the first physical machine; and
determining if at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine, wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file was not modified by a host other than the first physical machine indicated by the tracking file.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
updating a cache system associated with the second physical machine based, at least in part, upon the tracking file.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein updating a cache associated with the second physical machine includes:
invalidating one or more portions of the cache system.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the tracking file is stored on the data array.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the tracking file is locally cached on the first physical machine.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the data array includes a non-volatile, electro-mechanical memory system.

7. A computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
associating a tracking file with a multi-portion data file, wherein the multi-portion data file is a single data file with multiple portions located on a data array, wherein the tracking file is configured to monitor the status of each portion of the multi-portion data file;
modifying at least one portion of the multi-portion data file via a first virtual machine executed on a first physical machine of a plurality of physical machines;
updating the tracking the to reflect the modification of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file, wherein the tracking file includes which physical machine of the plurality of physical machines modified each portion of the multi-portion data file, and further includes an indication whether cache data associated with the first virtual machine was modified while the first virtual machine was migrated and executed on a second physical machine of the plurality of physical machines;
migrating the first virtual machine from the first physical machine to the second physical machine, and migrating the first virtual machine from the second physical machine back to the first physical machine; and
determining if at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine, wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file was not modified by a host other than the first physical machine indicated by the tracking file.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 further comprising instructions for:
updating a cache system associated with the second physical machine based, at least in part, upon the tracking file.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the instructions for updating a cache associated with the second physical machine include instructions for:
invalidating one or more portions of the cache system.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the tracking file is stored on the data array.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the tracking file is locally cached on the first physical machine.

12. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the data array includes a non-volatile, electro-mechanical memory system.

13. A computing system comprising:
at least one processor device; and
at least one memory architecture coupled with the at least one processor device;
wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to perform operations comprising;
associating a tracking file with a multi-portion data file, wherein the multi-portion data file is a single data file with multiple portions located on a data array, wherein the tracking file is configured to monitor the status of each portion of the multi-portion data file;
modifying at least one portion of the multi-portion data file via a first virtual machine executed on a first physical machine of a plurality of physical machines;
updating the tracking file to reflect the modification of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file, wherein the tracking file includes which physical machine of the plurality of physical machines modified each portion of the multi-portion data file, and further includes an indication whether cache data associated with the first virtual machine was modified while the first virtual machine was migrated and executed on a second physical machine of the plurality of physical machines;
migrating the first virtual machine from the first physical machine to the second physical machine, and migrating the first virtual machine from the second physical machine back to the first physical machine; and
determining if at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine, wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file was not modified by a host other than the first physical machine indicated by the tracking file.

14. The computing system of claim 13 further configured to perform operations comprising:
updating a cache system associated with the second physical machine based, at least in part, upon the tracking file.

15. The computing system of claim 14 wherein updating a cache associated with the second physical machine includes:
invalidating one or more portions of the cache system.

16. The computing system of claim 13 wherein the tracking file is stored on the data array.

17. The computing system of claim 13 wherein the tracking file is locally cached on the first physical machine.

18. The computing system of claim 13 wherein the data array includes a non-volatile, electro-mechanical memory system.

Assignees

• Emc Corp
• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Natanzon Assaf
• Derbeko Philip
• Eyal Anat

Classifications

• G06F2212/6024

  History based prefetching · CPC title

• G06F2212/262

  configured as RAID · CPC title

• G06F2212/313

  In storage device · CPC title

• G06F12/0897

  with two or more cache hierarchy levels (with multilevel cache hierarchies G06F12/0811) · CPC title

• G06F12/0815

  Cache consistency protocols · CPC title