US 12,748,664 B2Granted

High availability using virtual storage controllers in a scale out storage cluster

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsPratapa Reddy Vaka, Jaspal Kohli, Hari Krishna Mudaliar, Shwetashree Virajamangala, Raju Kurunkad Vasudevan

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Abstract

Examples are provided for a method of providing access to data of a data center. In one aspect, the method comprises storing a unit of data to each of a plurality of data nodes of a data center, designating a first node of the data center as a primary access node for the unit of data, the primary access node being configured to service access requests to the unit of data using one or more of the plurality of data nodes, determining that the first node is not available, and performing a failover process by reconfiguring a second node of the data center as the primary access node for the unit of data.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method of providing access to data of a data center, the method comprising:

storing a unit of data to each of a plurality of data nodes of a data center;
designating a first node of the data center as a primary access node for the unit of data, the primary access node being configured to service access requests to the unit of data using one or more of the plurality of data nodes;
designating a second node of the data center as a secondary access node for the unit of data, wherein the secondary access node acts as a backup access node in case the primary access node is unavailable;
after designating the second node of the data center as the secondary access node, determining that the first node is not available;
performing a failover process by reconfiguring the second node of the data center as the primary access node for the unit of data, wherein the reconfigured second node can service access requests without relocating data;
before a failure of the second node, designating a third node as the secondary access node;
performing a second failover process;
and
before a failure of the third node, designating the first node of the data center as the secondary access node.

6 more elements

A storage system for providing access to data of a data center, the storage system comprising:

a plurality of data processing units;
and
a plurality of nodes, each node associated with a respective data processing unit of the plurality of data processing units, wherein the storage system is configured to:
store a unit of data to one or more storage devices of one or more data nodes, wherein the one or more data nodes are nodes within the plurality of nodes;
designate a first access node as a primary access node for the unit of data, wherein the first access node is a node within the plurality of nodes different from the one or more data nodes, and wherein the primary access node is configured to service access requests to the unit of data using the one or more data nodes;
designate a second access node of the plurality of nodes as a secondary access node for the unit of data, wherein the secondary access node acts as a backup access node in case the primary access node is unavailable;
after designating the second access node of the plurality of nodes as the secondary access node, determine that the primary access node is not available;
perform a failover process by reconfiguring the second access node as the primary access node for the unit of data, wherein the second access node is a node within the plurality of nodes different from the first access node and the one or more data nodes, wherein the reconfigured second node can service access requests without relocating data;
before a failure of the second access node, designate a third access node as the secondary access node;
perform a second failover process;
and
before a failure of the third access node, designate the first access node as the secondary access node.

9 more elements

A method for providing access to data of a data center, the method comprising:

storing a unit of data to each of a plurality of data nodes of a data center;
designating a first node of the data center as a primary access node for the unit of data, the primary access node being configured to service access requests to the unit of data using one or more of the plurality of data nodes;
designating a second node of the data center as a secondary access node for the unit of data, wherein the secondary access node acts as a backup access node in case the primary access node is unavailable;
after designating the second node of the data center as the secondary access node, determining that the primary access node is not available;
performing a failover process by:
reconfiguring the second node of the data center as the primary access node for the unit of data, wherein the reconfigured second node can service access requests without relocating data, and wherein reconfiguring the second node comprises:
removing connections from the first node to the unit of data;
establishing connections from the second node to the unit of data;
and
before a failure of the second node, designating a third node as the secondary access node;
performing a second failover process;
and
before a failure of the third node, designating the first node of the data center as the secondary access node.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.