System and methods for dynamically adjusting between asynchronous and synchronous data replication policies in a networked virtualization environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9817606-B1
Application number	US-201414270705-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 6, 2014
Priority date	Sep 16, 2013
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

A method for transitioning a data replication policy from an asynchronous data replication policy to a synchronous data replication policy for data replication between a source vDisk at a source networked virtualization environment and a destination vDisk at a destination networked virtualization environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for transitioning a data replication policy from an asynchronous data replication policy to a synchronous data replication policy for data replication between a source virtual disk (vDisk) at a source and a destination vDisk at a destination, wherein the source vDisk and the destination vDisk are at one or more networked virtualization environments, comprising:
taking a first snapshot of the source vDisk at a first point in time where the source vDisk has a same state as the destination vDisk prior to the data replication policy transitioning from the asynchronous data replication policy to the synchronous data replication policy;
taking a second snapshot of the source vDisk at a second point in time when a replication policy for data replication between the source vDisk and the destination vDisk transitions from the asynchronous data replication policy to the synchronous data replication policy;
providing metadata from the source to the destination at the second point in time;
generating, at the destination, a shell destination vDisk from the metadata received from the source;
synchronously replicating write operations performed on the source vDisk after the second point in time at the shell destination vDisk, wherein synchronously replicating write operations performed on the source vDisk after the second point in time at the shell destination vDisk begins without having to first place the shell destination vDisk into a same state as the source vDisk at the second point in time; and
populating the shell destination vDisk by lazily transmitting differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot to the destination, wherein lazily transmitting the differences occurs at a later point in time after the replication policy transitions to the synchronous data replication policy.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein storage management parameters for the source are different than storage management parameters at the destination.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a unit of storage at the source is different from a unit of storage at the destination.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein de-duplication policies at the source is different from de-duplication policies at the destination.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the destination is providing data replication to one or more other sources other than the source.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first point in time is a last point in time where the source vDisk and the destination vDisk have the same state prior to the replication policy transitioning from the asynchronous data replication policy to the synchronous data replication policy.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein changes made to the source vDisk after taking the first snapshot are not yet replicated at the destination vDisk at the second point in time.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata includes structural parameters for the source vDisk.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata does not identify content changes to the source vDisk that occurred between the first point in time and the second point in time.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shell destination vDisk is structurally equivalent to the source vDisk at the second point in time, but does include all content of the source vDisk at the second point in time.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein populating the shell destination vDisk by lazily transmitting differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot to the destination is performed by a background process at the source.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot are transmitted in a single operation.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot are transmitted in two or more operations.

14. 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 transitioning a data replication policy from an asynchronous data replication policy to a synchronous data replication policy for data replication between a source virtual disk (vDisk) at a source and a destination vDisk at a destination, wherein the source vDisk and the destination vDisk are at one or more networked virtualization environments, comprising:
taking a first snapshot of the source vDisk at a first point in time where the source vDisk has a same state as the destination vDisk prior to the data replication policy transitioning from the asynchronous data replication policy to the synchronous data replication policy;
taking a second snapshot of the source vDisk at a second point in time when a replication policy for data replication between the source vDisk and the destination vDisk transitions from the asynchronous data replication policy to the synchronous data replication policy;
providing metadata from the source to the destination at the second point in time;
generating, at the destination, a shell destination vDisk from the metadata received from the source;
synchronously replicating write operations performed on the source vDisk after the second point in time at the shell destination vDisk, wherein synchronously replicating write operations performed on the source vDisk after the second point in time at the shell destination vDisk begins without having to first place the shell destination vDisk into a same state as the source vDisk at the second point in time; and
populating the shell destination vDisk by lazily transmitting differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot to the destination, wherein lazily transmitting the differences occurs at a later point in time after the replication policy transitions to the synchronous data replication policy.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein storage management parameters for the source are different than storage management parameters at the destination.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein a unit of storage at the source is different from a unit of storage at the destination.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein de-duplication policies at the source is different from de-duplication policies at the destination.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the destination is providing data replication to one or more other sources other than the source.

19. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the first point in time is a last point in time where the source vDisk and the destination vDisk have the same state prior to the replication policy transitioning from the asynchronous data replication policy to the synchronous data replication policy.

20. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein changes made to the source vDisk after taking the first snapshot are not yet replicated at the destination vDisk at the second point in time.

21. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the metadata includes structural parameters for the source vDisk.

22. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the metadata does not identify content changes to the source vDisk that occurred between the first point in time and the second point in time.

23. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the shell destination vDisk is structurally equivalent to

Assignees

• Nutanix Inc

Inventors

• Byrne Brian
• Ramachandran Parthasarathy
• Gill Binny Sher

Classifications

• G06F3/0662

  Virtualisation aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/065 Primary

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/0683

  Plurality of storage devices · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0664

  at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system · CPC title