Cavium, Inc.

Brian Folsom

Richard Eugene Kessler

Muhammad Raghib Hussain

Faisal Masood

Manojkumar Panicker

Vishal Murgai

Wilson Parkhurst Snyder, Ii

Joseph B Tompkins

Ethan Frederick Robbins

Andrew J Jones

Edwin Langevin

Krupa Sagar O S Mylavarapu

Mahesh Dorai

Nagaraj G Shirali

Ranjith Kumar V Hallur

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support hot plugging and/or unplugging one or more of remote storage devices virtualized as extensible/flexible storages and NVMe namespace(s) via an NVMe controller during operation. First, the NVMe controller virtualizes and presents a set of remote storage devices to one or more VMs running on a host attached to the NVMe controller as logical volumes in the NVMe namespace(s) so that each of the VMs running on the host can access these remote storage devices to perform read/write operations as if they were local storage devices. When the one or more remote storage devices are added to or removed from the set of remote storage devices based on storage space needs of the VMs, the NVMe controller updates the logical volumes in the NVMe namespace(s) accordingly and enables these remote storage devices to be hot plugged or unplugged from the plurality of remote storage devices at runtime without requiring shutting down and restarting any of the VMs, the host, and/or the NVMe controller. The VMs may then perform read/write operations on the NVMe namespace(s) updated to reflect the changes in the configuration of the set of remote storage devices dynamically without any interruption.

Systems and methods for supporting hot plugging of remote storage devices accessed over a network via NVME controller

A circuit operates to manage transmittal of packets in a network packet processor. The circuit includes a packet descriptor manager (PDM), a packet scheduling engine (PSE), and a packet engines and buffering module (PEB). The PDM generates a metapacket and a descriptor from a command signal, where the command signal identifies a packet to be transmitted by the circuit. The PSE determines an order in which to transmit the packet among a number of packets, where the PSE determines the order based on information indicated in the metapacket. Once the packet is scheduled for transmission, the PEB performs processing operations on the packet to produce a processed packet based on instructions indicated in the descriptor. The PEB then causes the processed packet to be transmitted toward the destination.

Packet output processing

A circuit operates to manage transmittal of packets in a network packet processor. The circuit includes a packet descriptor manager (PDM), a packet scheduling engine (PSE), and a packet engines and buffering module (PEB). The PDM generates a metapacket and a descriptor from a command signal, where the command signal identifies a packet to be transmitted by the circuit. The PSE compares a packet transmission rate associated with the packet against at least one of a peak rate and a committed rate associated with the packet, and determines an order in which to transmit the packet among a number of packets based on the comparison. Once the packet is scheduled for transmission, the PEB performs processing operations on the packet to produce a processed packet based on instructions indicated in the descriptor. The PEB then causes the processed packet to be transmitted toward the destination.

Packet shaping in a network processor

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support elastic (extensible/flexible) storage access in real time by mapping a plurality of remote storage devices that are accessible over a network fabric as logical namespace(s) via a logical storage controller using a multitude of access mechanisms and storage network protocols. The logical storage controller exports and presents the remote storage devices to one or more VMs running on a host of the logical storage controller as the logical namespace(s), wherein these remote storage devices appear virtually as one or more logical volumes of a collection of logical blocks in the logical namespace(s) to the VMs. As a result, each of the VMs running on the host can access these remote storage devices to perform read/write operations as if they were local storage devices via the logical namespace(s).

Systems and methods for enabling access to extensible remote storage over a network as local storage via a logical storage controller

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to virtualize a physical NVMe controller associated with a computing device or host so that every virtual machine running on the host can have its own dedicated virtual NVMe controller. First, a plurality of virtual NVMe controllers are created on a single physical NVMe controller, which is associated with one or more storage devices. Once created, the plurality of virtual NVMe controllers are provided to VMs running on the host in place of the single physical NVMe controller attached to the host, and each of the virtual NVMe controllers organizes the storage units to be accessed by its corresponding VM as a logical volume. As a result, each of the VMs running on the host has its own namespace(s) and can access its storage devices directly through its own virtual NVMe controller.

Systems and methods for NVMe controller virtualization to support multiple virtual machines running on a host

A new approach is proposed virtual machines (VMs) accessing remote storage devices over a network via non-volatile memory express (NVMe) controllers to migrate live from a current host to a destination host. A first virtual NVMe controller running on a first physical NVMe controller enables a first VM running on the current host to perform storage operations to logical volumes mapped to the remote storage devices over the network as if they were local storage volumes. During VM migration, the current host puts the first virtual NVMe controller into quiesce state and saves an image of its states. A second virtual NVMe controller is created on a second physical NVMe controller using the saved image, which is configured to serve a second VM on the destination host. The second virtual NVMe controller resumes the storage operations to the remote storage devices without being interrupted by the VM migration.

Systems and methods for supporting migration of virtual machines accessing remote storage devices over network via NVMe controllers

A circuit operates to manage transmittal of packets in a network packet processor. The circuit includes a packet descriptor manager (PDM), a packet scheduling engine (PSE), and a packet engines and buffering module (PEB). The PDM generates a metapacket and a descriptor from a command signal, where the command signal identifies a packet to be transmitted by the circuit. The PSE models the packet through a model of the network topology, determining an order in which to transmit the packet among a number of packets based on the modeling. Once the packet is scheduled for transmission, the PEB performs processing operations on the packet to produce a processed packet based on instructions indicated in the descriptor. The PEB then causes the processed packet to be transmitted toward the destination.

Packet scheduling in a network processor

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support extensible/flexible storage access in real time by virtualizing a plurality of remote storage devices as NVMe namespace(s) via an NVMe controller using a storage network protocol. The NVMe controller exports and presents the remote storage devices to one or more VMs running on a host attached to the NVMe controller as the NVMe namespace(s), wherein these remote storage devices appear virtually as one or more logical volumes of a collection of logical blocks in the NVMe namespace(s) to the VMs. As a result, each of the VMs running on the host can access these remote storage devices to perform read/write operations as if they were local storage devices via the NVMe namespace(s).

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Northborough, MA, United States of America

Brian Folsom