Interconnect path failover

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9715435-B2
Application number	US-201615164971-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 26, 2016
Priority date	Apr 25, 2014
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for interconnect failover between a primary storage controller and a secondary storage controller. The secondary storage controller may be configured as a backup or failover storage controller for the primary storage controller in the event the primary storage controller fails. Data and/or metadata describing the data (e.g., data and/or metadata stored within a write cache) may be mirrored from the primary storage controller to the secondary storage controller over one or more interconnect paths. Responsive to identifying a failover trigger for a failed interconnect path, the secondary storage controller is instructed to fence (e.g., block) I/O operations from the failed interconnect path. Streams of data and/or metadata that were affected by the failure may be instructed to transmit such data and/or metadata over one or more non-failed interconnect paths to the secondary storage controller during failover of the failed interconnect path.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
identifying a failover trigger associated with a first interconnect path between a first storage controller and a second storage controller;
sending a fence instruction to the second storage controller, the fence instruction instructing the second storage controller to fence I/O operations from the first interconnect path;
receiving a fence acknowledgement message from the second storage controller; and
performing interconnect failover for the first interconnect path utilizing a second interconnect path to transmit storage information from the first storage controller to the second storage controller, wherein the performing interconnect failover comprises:
performing a data transmission to send data, associated with the storage information, over the second interconnect path; and
performing a metadata transmission of metadata, describing the data, after the data transmission is complete, wherein the metadata transmission is restricted from being performed until completion of the data transmission.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first interconnect path is between a first nonvolatile memory of the first storage controller and a second nonvolatile memory of the second storage controller for data mirroring.

3. The method of claim 1 , the identifying a failover trigger comprising:
determining that a polling interval has expired; and
polling the second storage controller to determine whether an I/O operation has completed.

4. The method of claim 1 , the fence acknowledgement message indicating that the second storage controller will not accept I/O operations from the first interconnect path during interconnect failover for the first interconnect path.

5. The method of claim 1 , the storage information comprising cached data stored by the first storage controller within a first nonvolatile memory and metadata describing the cached data.

6. The method of claim 1 , the performing interconnect failover comprising:
identifying a first stream corresponding to a first logical unit of the storage information based upon the first stream corresponding to first in-flight I/O associated with the first interconnect path; and
facilitating transmission of the first stream to the second storage controller over the second interconnect path.

7. The method of claim 6 , the facilitating transmission of the first stream comprising:
facilitating a second data transmission of second data, associated with the first stream, over the second interconnect path.

8. The method of claim 7 , comprising:
determining that the second data transmission has completed; and
facilitating a second metadata transmission of second metadata over the second interconnect path, the second metadata describing the second data.

9. The method of claim 7 , the facilitating a second data transmission of second data comprising:
identifying a complete set of data associated with the first stream; and
performing a single transmission of the complete set of data as the second data transmission.

10. The method of claim 1 , the storage information stored within a second nonvolatile memory of the second storage controller as a data mirror of a first nonvolatile memory of the first storage controller.

11. The method of claim 6 , the performing interconnect failover comprising:
identifying a second stream corresponding to a second logical unit of the storage information based upon the second stream corresponding to second in-flight I/O associated with the first interconnect path; and
facilitating transmission of the second stream to the second storage controller over the second interconnect path.

12. The method of claim 6 , the performing interconnect failover comprising:
identifying a stream as an unaffected stream; and
facilitating continued operation of the stream.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second interconnect path corresponds to a remote direct memory access stream.

14. A computing device, comprising:
memory comprising machine executable code having stored thereon instructions for performing a method; and
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the machine executable code to cause the processor to:
identify a failover trigger associated with a first interconnect path between a first storage controller and a second storage controller;
send a fence instruction to the second storage controller over a second interconnect path, the fence instruction instructing the second storage controller to fence I/O operations from the first interconnect path;
receive a fence acknowledgement message from the second storage controller; and
perform interconnect failover for the first interconnect path utilizing the second interconnect path to transmit storage information from the first storage controller to the second storage controller, wherein the performing interconnect failover comprises:
performing a data transmission to send data, associated with the storage information, over the second interconnect path; and
performing a metadata transmission of metadata, describing the data, after the data transmission is complete, wherein the metadata transmission is restricted from being performed until completion of the data transmission.

15. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the machine executable code causes the processor to:
identify a first stream corresponding to a first logical unit of the storage information based upon the first stream corresponding to first in-flight I/O associated with the first interconnect path; and
facilitate transmission of the first stream to the second storage controller over the second interconnect path.

16. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the machine executable code causes the processor to:
facilitate a second data transmission of second data, associated with the first stream, over the second interconnect path.

17. The computing device of claim 16 , wherein the machine executable code causes the processor to:
determine that the second data transmission has completed; and
facilitate a second metadata transmission of second metadata over the second interconnect path, the second metadata describing the second data.

18. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the machine executable code causes the processor to:
identify a stream as an unaffected stream; and
facilitate continued operation of the stream.

19. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions, for performing a method, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to:
identify a failover trigger associated with a first interconnect path between a first storage controller and a second storage controller;
send a fence instruction to the second storage controller over a second interconnect path, the fence instruction instructing the second storage controller to fence I/O operations from the first interconnect path;
receive a fence acknowledgement message from the second storage controller; and
perform interconnect failover for the first interconnect path utilizing the second interconnect path to transmit storage information from the first storage controller to the second storage controller, wherein the performing interconnect failover comprises:
performing a data transmission to send data, associated with the storage information, over the second interconnect path; and
performing a metadata transmission of metadata, describing the data, after the data transmission is complete, wherein the metadata transmission is restricted from being

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Ramasubramaniam Vaiapuri
• Mittal Rishabh
• Jolad Amarnath
• Keremane Hrishikesh
• Kadayam Harihara

Classifications

• G06F11/2221

  to test input/output devices or peripheral units · CPC title

• G06F11/2005 Primary

  using redundant communication controllers · CPC title

• G06F11/2092

  Techniques of failing over between control units · CPC title

• G06F11/3051

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs (verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247) · CPC title

• G06F11/201

  between storage system components · CPC title