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US 10,120,700 B1Granted
Using a control virtual disk for storage management
AssigneeTintri Inc.
InventorsRex R. Walters, Brandon W. Salmon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Storage management is disclosed, including: causing at least a control portion of a virtual disk to be created for a virtual machine; and using the at least control portion of the virtual disk as a communication channel between the virtual machine and a storage system.
Claims28
A storage management system, comprising:
- a processor configured to:
- send instructions to create a control portion of a virtual disk to a virtual machine, wherein the control portion of the virtual disk includes a plurality of offsets, and wherein each offset is associated with at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk including one or more of the following:
- a session sector, a write control sector, a write buffer, a read control sector, and a read buffer;
- create the control portion of the virtual disk based on the sent instructions;
- in response to creation of the control portion of the virtual disk, storing, by a storage system, metadata identifying valid offset ranges associated with the at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk;
- use the control portion of the virtual disk as a communication channel between a software running on the virtual machine and the storage system, wherein using the control portion of the virtual disk as the communication channel comprises:
- receiving a request, via the virtual machine, from a user with administrative privilege to perform a disk operation, the request containing specially formatted data that represents control disk traffic denoted by one or more of the following:
- a storage system offset, and an storage management task to be performed;
- detect, from a hypervisor, an indication that the disk operation has occurred with respect to the at least the control portion of the virtual disk;
- forward, by the hypervisor, the detected disk operation to the storage system, via a network protocol;
- compare, by the storage system, the storage system offset associated with the disk operation to the valid offset ranges of the metadata stored at the storage system;
- if the offset falls within the valid offset ranges, interpret the specially formatted data associated with the disk operation to determine the storage management task;
- perform an action associated with the storage management task using the control disk traffic, based at least in part on the interpreted specially formatted data and one of the at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk;
- and
- upon completion of the performed action, transfer response data associated with the performed action, by the storage system, back to the virtual machine via the control portion of the virtual disk;
- and
- a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide instructions to the processor.
14 more elements
A method, comprising:
- sending, by a processor, instructions to create a control portion of a virtual disk to a virtual machine, wherein the control portion of the virtual disk includes a plurality of offsets, and wherein each offset is associated with at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk including one or more of the following:
- a session sector, a write control sector, a write buffer, a read control sector, and a read buffer;
- creating the control portion of the virtual disk based on the sent instructions;
- in response to creation of the control portion of the virtual disk, storing, by a storage system, metadata identifying valid offset ranges associated with the at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk;
- using, by a processor, the control portion of the virtual disk as a communication channel between a software running on the virtual machine and the storage system, wherein using the control portion of the virtual disk as the communication channel comprises:
- receiving a request, via the virtual machine, from a user with administrative privilege to perform a disk operation, the request containing specially formatted data that represents control disk traffic denoted by one or more of the following:
- a storage system offset, and an storage management task to be performed;
- detecting, from a hypervisor, an indication that the disk operation has occurred with respect to the at least the control portion of the virtual disk;
- forwarding, by the hypervisor, the detected disk operation to the storage system, via a network protocol;
- comparing, by the storage system, the storage system offset associated with the disk operation to the valid offset ranges of the metadata stored at the storage system;
- and
- if the offset falls within the valid offset ranges, interpreting the specially formatted data associated with the disk operation to determine the storage management task;
- performing an action associated with the storage management task using the control disk traffic, based at least in part on the interpreted specially formatted data and one of the at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk;
- and
- upon completion of the performed action, transferring response data associated with the performed action, by the storage system, back to the virtual machine via the control portion of the virtual disk.
12 more elements
A computer program product, wherein the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
- sending instructions to create a control portion of a virtual disk to a virtual machine, wherein the control portion of the virtual disk includes a plurality of offsets, and wherein each offset is associated with at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk including one or more of the following:
- a session sector, a write control sector, a write buffer, a read control sector, and a read buffer;
- creating the control portion of the virtual disk based on the sent instructions;
- in response to creation of the control portion of the virtual disk, storing, by a storage system, metadata identifying valid offset ranges associated with the at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk;
- using the control portion of the virtual disk as a communication channel between a software running on the virtual machine and the storage system, wherein using the control portion of the virtual disk as the communication channel comprises receiving a request, via the virtual machine, from a user with administrative privilege to perform a disk operation, the request containing specially formatted data that represents control disk traffic denoted by one or more of the following:
- a storage system offset, and an storage management task to be performed;
- detecting, from a hypervisor, an indication that the disk operation has occurred with respect to the at least the control portion of the virtual disk;
- forwarding, by the hypervisor, the detected disk operation to the storage system, via a network protocol;
- comparing, by the storage system, the storage system offset associated with the disk operation to the valid offset ranges of the metadata stored at the storage system;
- and
- the offset falls within the valid offset ranges, interpreting the specially formatted data associated with the disk operation to determine the storage management task;
- performing an action associated with the storage management task using the control disk traffic, based at least in part on the interpreted specially formatted data and one of the at least one location of the control portion of the virtual disk;
- and
- upon completion of the performed action, transferring response data associated with the performed action, by the storage system, back to the virtual machine via the control portion of the virtual disk.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.