Vmware, Inc.

Prashant Dhamdhere

Mark Sterin

Andrew Joseph Stone

Ritesh H Shukla

Govindan Thirumal Thiruvengada

Tushar Thole

Sandeep Srinivasa Rao Pissay

Miao Luo

Prashima Sharma

Shivanshu Goswami

Techniques are disclosed for providing a distributed file storage system that permits containerized applications running in distinct container hosts to read/write to the same storage volume. In one embodiment, a file sharing volume service is configured to use a container orchestrator to start a respective file server for each shared storage volume mounted for use by user-level containerized application(s). The file sharing volume service further manages the file server by creating and updating a metadata entry that specifies (1) a count of a number of times the shared storage volume has been mounted for use, and (2) a port number exposed for use in mounting path(s) to access the shared storage volume. Upon receiving a request to run a containerized application with the shared storage volume, the file sharing volume service updates the metadata entry to increase the count, and retrieves and uses the port number to mount path(s) for accessing the shared storage volume.

Distributed file storage system supporting accesses from multiple container hosts

Techniques are disclosed that permit storage and availability operations, such as backup and restore, snapshot and cloning, application disaster recovery, and reporting and analytics, to be performed for stateful containerized applications. In one embodiment, a container cluster service is configured to create application instance objects that capture metadata associated with containerized applications and that (optionally) specify scripts to be run before and/or after taking an application consistent snapshot and/or an order in which to take snapshots. Application instances having the configurations specified in the application instance object may then be deployed. In addition, the container cluster service may use an application instance object to create a snapshot of a deployed application instance that includes a point-in-time copy of configuration information specified by the application instance object and reference(s) to snapshot volume(s) created from volume(s) associated with the application instance as part of the snapshot operation.

Containerized application snapshots

A computer system has a virtualization software that supports execution of a virtual machine in which a container is run. A method of provisioning a data volume for the container in this computer system includes the steps of monitoring a designated virtual socket, detecting, based on the monitoring, a request from a plug-in of the container to create a data volume, and upon detecting the request, communicating the request to the virtualization software to cause the virtualization software to create the data volume.

Provisioning data volumes for containers running in virtual machines

A computer system has a virtualization software that supports execution of a virtual machine in which a container is run. A method of managing allocation of storage resources to the container includes the steps of monitoring a virtual socket, detecting, based on the monitoring, a request from a plug-in of the container to create a data volume, upon detecting the request, retrieving a storage resource limit that has been set for the first virtual machine and determining if creation of the data volume causes the storage resource limit to be exceeded, and communicating the request to the virtualization software to cause the virtualization software to create the data volume if the limit is determined to be not exceeded and returning an error if the limit is determined to be exceeded.

Enforcing limits on a self-serve model for provisioning data volumes for containers running in virtual machines

A computer system has a virtualization software that supports execution of a virtual machine in which a container is run. A method of provisioning first and second data volumes for the container, wherein the first data volume is backed by storage device of a first type and the second data volume is backed by storage device of a second type, includes monitoring a designated virtual socket, detecting, based on monitoring, a first request from a plug-in of the container to create a first data volume having first storage requirements, upon detecting the first request, communicating the request to the virtualization software to create the first data volume, detecting, based on monitoring, a second request from a plug-in of the container to create a second data volume having second storage requirements, and upon detecting the second request, communicating the request to the virtualization software to create the second data volume.

Provisioning data volumes for containers running in virtual machines in which storage for the virtual machines are backed by heterogeneous storage devices

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Prashant Dhamdhere