DEVICE, SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR ACCESSING MULTIPLE NVMe NAMESPACES

A system comprising:

• a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) switch to be communicatively coupled to a plurality of hosts, the PCIe switch comprising:
• a memory-mapped address space, the memory-mapped address space comprising a plurality of partitions;
• a first partition not coupled to one of the plurality of hosts, the first partition comprising a virtual root complex circuit and a downstream port, the downstream port coupled to a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) device, the NVMe device comprising at least one admin controller circuit, at least one I/O controller circuit, a non-volatile memory and a plurality of namespaces, the admin controller circuit to provide management capabilities and the I/O controller circuit to provide access to one or more of the plurality of namespaces in the non-volatile memory;
• a second partition coupled to one of the plurality of hosts, the second partition comprising at least one upstream port, at least one downstream port, and a first logical virtual function coupled to the at least one downstream port;
• a third partition coupled to one of the plurality of hosts, the third partition comprising at least one upstream port, at least one downstream port, and a second logical virtual function coupled to the at least one downstream port;
• a processor capable of loading and executing instructions;
• a non-transparent bridging circuit capable of routing transactions across the plurality of partitions;
• and
• a hypervisor namespace administrator, the hypervisor namespace administrator comprising a plurality of logical virtual functions, and an arbitrator, the hypervisor namespace administrator to receive transactions from at least one host and the NVMe device and to emulate virtual NVMe devices and to allow access to the plurality of namespaces based on configuration information and arbitration logic implemented by the arbitrator.

A method comprising:

• configuring a PCIe switch to include a plurality of partitions, and to include one partition per host, respective hosts to be communicatively coupled to respective partitions;
• configuring an additional partition, the additional partition to be communicatively coupled to an NVMe device, the NVMe device comprising a plurality of namespaces and the NVMe device not visible to any of the hosts;
• configuring, in a hypervisor namespace administrator, a logical virtual function in respective partitions;
• emulating a virtual NVMe device by the LVF to control access to one or more namespaces in the NVMe device;
• selecting an active host from the plurality of hosts by an arbitrator in the hypervisor namespace administrator;
• allowing, via the arbitrator, the active host to access the NVMe device;
• suspending temporarily, via the arbitrator, access from the non-active hosts to the NVMe device;
• processing, by the hypervisor namespace administrator, one or more transactions at the respective LVFs through operations comprising at least one of an emulation of data, a bridging of transactions, a monitoring of transactions, creation of transactions and an update of transactions, transactions comprising PCIe configuration transactions, NVMe admin transactions and NVMe I/O transactions;
• bridging, by the hypervisor namespace administrator, the NVMe transactions between hosts and the NVMe device to enable access to the NVMe device by one or more hosts;
• and
• arbitrating between the NVMe transactions in the hypervisor namespace administrator based on a predetermined condition.