Centralized management center for managing storage services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9804929-B2
Application number	US-201514747357-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2015
Priority date	Dec 31, 2014
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for a storage system are provided. One method includes obtaining network interface information by a processor executable plugin executed by a computing device from a storage system node managing stored information; filtering logical interface information based on a protocol used by a processor executable application that uses the storage system node to store information; obtaining aliases for the logical interface information, when available; and storing the filtered logical interface information and associated aliases at a network identifier cache managed by the plugin; wherein the network identifier cache is used by the plugin to verify network interface information as associated with a data path for a data container stored at a storage device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A machine implemented method, comprising:
obtaining network interface information by a processor executable plugin executed by a computing device from a storage system node managing stored information;
filtering logical interface information based on a protocol used by a processor executable application that uses the storage system node to store information;
obtaining aliases for the logical interface information from a domain name server, when available; and
storing the filtered logical interface information and associated aliases at a network identifier cache managed by the plugin; wherein the network identifier cache is used by the plugin to verify network interface information as associated with a data path for a data container stored at a storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data path is provided to the plugin by a processor executable management layer executed by the computing device for providing storage services and the data path includes a file server identifier, a data container name and a logical share associated with the data container.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
using the network identifier cache by the plugin to find a storage system node associated with the file server identifier; and
obtaining alias information from the domain name server by the plugin, when the network identifier cache does not include an entry associated with the file server identifier;
wherein the domain name server manages network addresses and aliases for a plurality of storage system nodes within a cluster.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
generating a storage hierarchy for the data container by the plugin, where the storage hierarchy associates the data container with the logical share and the storage system node.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the storage hierarchy associates the data container with a data container group that includes other containers associated with the logical share and managed by the storage system node.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the storage hierarchy includes the data container, a file system, a logical unit number (LUN) and a virtual disk, when storage is presented in a virtual environment.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the logical share is a Server Message Block (SMB) share and the plugin is a file system plugin.

8. A non-transitory, machine readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for performing a method, comprising machine executable code which when executed by at least one machine, causes the machine to:
obtain network interface information by a processor executable plugin executed by a computing device from a storage system node managing stored information;
filter logical interface information based on a protocol used by a processor executable application that uses the storage system node to store information;
obtain aliases for the logical interface information from a domain name server, when available; and
store the filtered logical interface information and associated aliases at a network identifier cache managed by the plugin; wherein the network identifier cache is used by the plugin to verify network interface information as associated with a data path for a data container stored at a storage device.

9. The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the data path is provided to the plugin by a processor executable management layer executed by the computing device for providing storage services and the data path includes a file server identifier, a data container name and a logical share associated with the data container.

10. The storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the machine executable code, further causes the machine to:
use the network identifier cache by the plugin to find a storage system node associated with the file server identifier; and
obtain alias information from the domain name server by the plugin, when the network identifier cache does not include an entry associated with the file server identifier, wherein the domain name server manages network addresses and aliases for a plurality of storage system nodes.

11. The storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the machine executable code, further causes the machine to:
generate a storage hierarchy for the data container by the plugin, where the storage hierarchy associates the data container with the logical share and the storage system node.

12. The storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the storage hierarchy associates the data container with a data container group that includes other containers associated with the logical share and managed by the storage system node.

13. The storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the storage hierarchy includes the data container, a file system, a logical unit number (LUN) and a virtual disk, when storage is presented in a virtual environment.

14. The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the logical share is a Server Message Block (SMB) share and the plugin is a file system plugin.

15. A system, comprising:
a memory containing machine readable medium comprising machine executable code having stored thereon instructions; and a processor module coupled to the memory, configured to execute the machine executable code of a plugin to:
obtain network interface information from a storage system node managing stored information;
filter logical interface information based on a protocol used by a processor executable application that uses the storage system node to store information;
obtain aliases for the logical interface information from a domain name server, when available; and
store the filtered logical interface information and associated aliases at a network identifier cache managed by the plugin; wherein the network identifier cache is used by the plugin to verify network interface information as associated with a data path for a data container stored at a storage device.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the data path is provided to the plugin by a processor executable management layer executed by a computing device for providing storage services and the data path includes a file server identifier, a data container name and a logical share associated with the data container.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the machine executable code, further causes the machine to:
use the network identifier cache by the plugin to find a storage system node associated with the file server identifier; and
obtain alias information from the domain name server by the plugin, when the network identifier cache does not include an entry associated with the file server identifier; wherein the domain name server manages network addresses and aliases for a plurality of storage system nodes within a cluster.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the machine executable code, further causes the machine to:
generate a storage hierarchy for the data container by the plugin, where the storage hierarchy associates the data container with the logical share and the storage system node.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the storage hierarchy is used to associate the data container with a data container group that includes other containers associated with the logical share and managed by the storage system node.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the storage hierarchy includes the data container, a file system, a logical unit number (LUN) and a virtual disk, when storage is presented in a virtual environment.

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Karinta Vineeth
• Lolayekar Santosh C
• Gacos Alex Gareza
• Patil Hoshang Bajirao
• Rojo Martin
• Wu Grace Zhanglei
• Palaiah Balamurali

Classifications

• G06F2201/80

  Database-specific techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/185

  Hierarchical storage management [HSM] systems, e.g. file migration or policies thereof (details of archiving G06F16/11) · CPC title

• G06F2201/86

  Event-based monitoring · CPC title

• G06F16/188

  Virtual file systems · CPC title

• G06F11/1471

  involving logging of persistent data for recovery · CPC title