Netapp, Inc.

Joshua Hanan Flank

Sungwook Ryu

Shweta Manohar Behere

Pradeep Thirunavukkarasu

Timothy J Thompson

Benjamin Swartzlander

Steven R Klinkner

Sung Ryu

Alan G Yoder

Techniques are disclosed herein for migrating virtual machines. In an embodiment, path configuration information for the source virtual machine is stored within storage allocated to a source virtual machine that is managed by a first hypervisor. A source virtual disk is allocated to the source virtual machine. The source virtual disk includes storage blocks that are accessible by a guest operating system of the source virtual machine. The source virtual disk further includes at least one source management block containing data utilized by the first hypervisor to manage the storage blocks. The guest operating system of the source virtual machine is migrated to a destination virtual machine managed by a second hypervisor. A destination virtual disk is generated that includes the storage blocks that are accessible by the migrated guest operating system. The destination virtual disk further includes at least one destination management block containing data utilized by the second hypervisor to manage the storage blocks.

Techniques for data migration

Techniques for managing the migration of data from one virtual machine to another using volume snapshotting and sub-file cloning are described. According to exemplary embodiments, data including a header and content is stored on a storage volume associated with a first virtual machine. The header is converted to be compatible with a second virtual machine, and the storage volume is snapshotted to provide a read-only representation of the storage volume at the time that the snapshot was created. New data is created using the converted header and a pointer to the location of the data inside the volume snapshot. Using the exemplary techniques described herein, data can be migrated from one virtual machine to another in constant time, and data access is more robust because the pointer refers to the volume snapshot.

Virtual disk migration

Exemplary embodiments provide techniques for managing VM migrations that use relatively simple and uncomplicated commands or APIs that can be executed through scripts or applications. Configuration and preparation for the conversion may be addressed by one set of command-lets or APIs, while the conversion itself is handled by a separate set of command-lets or APIs, which allows the conversion command-lets to be uncomplex and to require little input. Moreover, the architecture-specific commands can be largely abstracted away, so that the configuration and conversion processes can be carried out through straightforward general commands, which automatically cause an interface (e.g., at the conversion server) to call upon any necessary architecture-specific functionality. Still further, the information that must be entered by a user may be kept to a minimum, because the initial configuration information may be used by the system to automatically discover additional information that is needed to perform the conversion.

Managing virtual machine migration

Centralized role-based access control (RBAC) for storage servers can include operating multiple storage servers, each configured to provide a set of clients with access to stored data, and using a separate network server to provide centralized RBAC. The network server may include an API proxy to proxy requests to access individual APIs of a storage server by an application which is external to the network server and the storage server and may control access to the individual APIs of the storage servers on a per-API, per-user and per-object basis. The API proxy may filter responses to API calls based on the access privileges of the user of the application which sent the API call. In some embodiments, the network server may implement a Windows domain server, an LDAP server or the like to evaluate security credentials of administrative users on behalf of multiple storage servers.

Growing community of inventors

San Carlos, CA, United States of America

Joshua Hanan Flank