System and method for emulating shared storage

A system for emulating a shared storage device, the system comprising:

• a distributed computing system comprising a first node and a second node;
• the first node comprising a first local storage device associated with a storage unit identifier (ID) and a first processor for executing first storage requests;
• a first path handler configured to intercept the first storage requests including the storage unit ID and being made by the first virtual machine and forward the first storage requests to drivers for an emulated shared storage device associated with the storage unit ID;
• a second node comprising a second local storage device associated with the storage unit ID and a second processor for executing second storage requests;
• and
• a second path handler configured to intercept the second storage requests including the storage unit ID and being made by the second virtual machine and forward the second storage requests to the drivers for the emulated shared storage device.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a first plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by processors associated with a cloud computing system cause the processors to perform a method comprising:

• creating an emulated shared storage unit;
• selecting a virtual machine (VM) being hosted on a source platform of the cloud computing system, the selected VM accessing a first local storage unit of the source platform, the first local storage unit being associated with a logical unit number (LUN);
• selecting a target platform of the cloud computing system;
• pausing the selected VM;
• migrating the selected VM from the source platform to the target platform by moving a CPU state and a memory state of the selected VM from the source platform to the target platform;
• resuming the selected VM on the target platform;
• and
• directing storage operations associated with the LUN and being made by the selected VM on the target platform to the emulated shared storage unit.