Unified datapath architecture

A data storage apparatus, comprising:

• a storage processor including control circuitry, memory accessible by the control circuitry, and multiple hardware interfaces arranged to connect to a set of hosts to enable the set of hosts to access host data stored on the data storage apparatus,
• wherein the memory stores instructions which, when carried out by the control circuitry, cause the control circuitry to:
• allocate a set of slices of a storage pool to a set of file systems of the data storage apparatus;
• store a first file in the set of slices, the first file provided as a file in the set of file systems and providing a file representation of a LUN (logical unit number) storing block-based host data, wherein the block-based host data stored in the first file is accessible to the set of hosts using a block-based protocol;
• store a second file in the set of slices, the second file provided as a file in the set of file systems and providing a file representation of a host file system storing file-based host data, wherein the file-based host data stored in the second file is accessible to the set of hosts using a file-based protocol;
• deallocate a slice of the set of slices from the set of file systems in response to the slice storing block-based host data of the first file and then becoming empty;
• reallocate the slice to the set of file systems in response to the host file system stored in the second file requiring additional storage space;
• and
• while the first file is stored to provide the LUN, store portions of the second file on the reallocated slice, to thereby allow the slice previously used for storing portions of the LUN to be reused for storing portions of the host file system,
• wherein the instructions, when carried out by the control circuitry, further cause the control circuitry to process IO requests received from the set of hosts via an IO stack, the IO stack having a front end and a back end, the front end including multiple protocol end points, for communicating with hosts using block and file protocols, a storage pool manager, and a cache manager, the back end including a RAID Manager for managing RAID groups used to provide slices from the storage pool.

A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions which, when executed by control circuitry of a data storage apparatus, cause the control circuitry to perform a method of managing host data of a set of hosts in a data storage apparatus, the method comprising:

• allocating a set of slices of a storage pool to a set of file systems of the data storage apparatus;
• storing a first file in the set of slices, the first file provided as a file in the set of file systems and providing a file representation of a LUN (logical unit number) storing block-based host data, wherein the block-based host data stored in the first file is accessible to the set of hosts using a block-based protocol;
• storing a second file in the set of slices, the second file provided as a file in the set of file systems and providing a file representation of a host file system storing file-based host data, wherein the file-based host data stored in the second file is accessible to the set of hosts using a file-based protocol;
• deallocating a slice of the set of slices from the set of file systems in response to the slice storing block-based host data of the first file and then becoming empty;
• reallocating the slice to the set of file systems in response to the host file system stored in the second file requiring additional storage space;
• and
• while the first file is providing the LUN, storing portions of the second file on the reallocated slice, thereby allowing the slice previously used for storing portions of the LUN to be reused for storing portions of the host file system,
• wherein the method further comprises:
• storing in a configuration database of the data storage apparatus, a set of records defining at least one virtualized storage processor, the set of records identifying multiple file systems of each virtualized storage processor;
• storing the file systems of each virtualized storage processor as respective files in the set of slices, each of the respective files provided as a file in the set of file systems and providing a file representation of a file system of the respective virtualized storage processor;
• instantiating a set of host interfaces for each of the virtualized storage processors;
• receiving, via the set of host interfaces for each of the virtualized storage processors, a respective set of read and write requests from the set of hosts;
• and
• for each virtualized storage processor, processing the respective set of read and write requests received via the respective set of host interfaces, to read data from and write data to at least one of the file systems of the virtualized storage processor.