Mechanism for performing rolling upgrades in a networked virtualization environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9740472-B1
Application number	US-201414584466-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 29, 2014
Priority date	May 15, 2014
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed is a mechanism for performing rolling updates in a networked virtualization environment for storage management. The approach is applicable to any resource in the system, including controller VMs, hypervisors, and storage devices. Integrated processing may be performed across multiple types of upgrades.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for performing rolling updates in a cluster of nodes, comprising:
performing a leadership election to elect any node from among the cluster of nodes as a master, the cluster of nodes comprising multiple storage controllers distributed across the cluster of nodes, the cluster of nodes being implemented as a networked virtualization environment, the multiple storage controllers being implemented as controller virtual machines to manage access by the cluster of nodes to a global storage pool comprising a plurality of storage devices distributed across the cluster of nodes, the global storage pool having a first local storage on a first node from amongst the cluster of nodes and a second local storage on a second node from amongst the cluster of nodes, wherein any storage controllers distributed across the cluster of nodes utilize controller virtual machines to read and write to the plurality of storage devices in the global storage pool;
acquiring update data by some or all of the cluster of nodes, wherein update data information is stored in any local storage on a node from amongst the cluster of nodes accessible by any storage controllers within the networked virtualization environment, including the master, to identify an existence of update data to all nodes;
determining whether an upgrade status at a node is acceptable by the master or by individual nodes in the cluster of nodes; and
granting approval to complete installation of the update data at the node by the master when the upgrade status at the node is acceptable.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the update data comprises a hypervisor upgrade.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the update data comprises an upgrade to a storage device from the plurality of storage devices distributed across the cluster of nodes.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the update data comprises an upgrade to one or more of the controller virtual machines.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the update data corresponds to multiple types of components in a networked virtualization environment to be upgraded, and coordinated management is performed for the installation of the update data for the multiple types of components.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein acquiring update data comprises:
receiving the update data at a first node from the cluster of nodes:
updating configuration data of the first node to indicate, to the cluster of nodes, existence of the update data;
recognizing, by one or more other nodes from the cluster of nodes, the existence of the update data, the one or more other nodes being different from the first node; and
acquiring the update data by the one or more other nodes.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a storage property is reviewed to determine that the upgrade status is acceptable.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the storage property corresponds to at least one of a replication status, failure domain, or storage type.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the master determines whether the storage property of the node is acceptable by checking metadata distributed across the cluster of nodes.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the replication status of the node is acceptable when a current replication factor for data at the node meets a desired replication factor or when failure of the node is supportable.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the global storage pool further comprises a plurality of local storage devices that are within or attached to their respective nodes from among the cluster of nodes such that the local storage devices are managed as part of the global storage pool and at least a networked storage device.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the individual nodes determine whether the upgrade status is acceptable by checking metadata distributed across the cluster of nodes.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein granting approval to complete installation of the update data at the node by the master comprises providing a token to the node for completing installation.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein multiple tokens are concurrently granted.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the multiple tokens are granted for different types of upgrades.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the multiple tokens are granted for same types of upgrades, and a storage property is checked to determine whether the multiple tokens are to be granted.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the multiple tokens are granted in consideration of failure domains.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein completing installation of the update data at a node at which the master resides causes another leadership election process to be performed.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein failure of the master causes another leadership election process to be performed.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein completing installation of the update data at the node requires data residing at the node to be unavailable for a period of time.

21. 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 method for performing rolling updates in a networked virtualization environment, comprising:
performing a leadership election to elect any node from among the cluster of nodes as a master, the cluster of nodes comprising multiple storage controllers distributed across the cluster of nodes, the cluster of nodes being implemented as a networked virtualization environment, the multiple storage controllers being implemented as controller virtual machines to manage access by the cluster of nodes to a global storage pool comprising a plurality of storage devices distributed across the cluster of nodes, the global storage pool having a first local storage on a first node from amongst the cluster of nodes and a second local storage on a second node from amongst the cluster of nodes, wherein any storage controllers distributed across the cluster of nodes utilize controller virtual machines to read and write to the plurality of storage devices in the global storage pool;
acquiring update data by some or all of the cluster of nodes, wherein update data information is stored in any local storage on a node from amongst the cluster of nodes accessible by any storage controllers within the networked virtualization environment, including the master, to identify an existence of update data to all nodes;
determining whether an upgrade status at a node is acceptable by the master or by individual nodes in the cluster of nodes; and
granting approval to complete installation of the update data at the node by the master when the upgrade status at the node is acceptable.

22. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the update data comprises a hypervisor upgrade.

23. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the update data comprises an upgrade to a storage device from the plurality of storage devices distributed across the cluster of nodes.

24. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the update data comprises an upgrade to one or more of the controller virtual machines.

25. The computer program product of claim 21 , wherein the update data corresponds to multiple types of components in a networked virtualization environment to be upgraded, and coordinated management is perfo

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• Sohi Aroosh
• Schwenz Robert William
• Cui Miao
• Khole Akshay

Classifications

• G06F15/173

  using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F9/455

  Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

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