Netapp, Inc.

Cisco Technology, Inc.

Shweta Manohar Behere

Sung Ryu

Sungwook Ryu

Joshua Hanan Flank

Sean Hagan

Song Lu

Dhanesh Joshi

Jeffrey Teehan

Jonathan S Gorlin

Sreenivasa Potakamuri

Pradeep Thirunavukkarasu

Steven Beam

Seema Kamat

Ben De Waal

Sunny Ratra

A flexible witness service system architecture is provided that comprises one or more cluster sites each having at least two storage/compute nodes; at least one local external device associated with at least one of the one or more cluster sites, the at least one local external device configured to run a local witness service. A central cloud management platform is in communication with the one or more cluster sites, the central cloud management platform being configured to run a cloud witness service. The local witness service and the cloud witness service perform identical arbitration services if a storage/compute node in one of the one or more cluster sites fails or communication between storage/compute nodes in a cluster fails.

Techniques to provide a flexible witness in a distributed system

Exemplary embodiments described herein relate to a destination path for use with multiple different types of VMs, and techniques for using the destination path to convert, copy, or move data objects stored in one type of VM to another type of VM. The destination path represents a standardized (canonical) way to refer to VM objects from a proprietary VM. A destination location may be specified using the canonical destination path, and the location may be converted into a hypervisor-specific destination location. A source data object may be copied or moved to the destination location using a hypervisor-agnostic path.

Techniques for migration paths

Migration of virtual machine data using native data paths

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

A virtual disk conversion system determines location ranges for data on a storage device that are found in files representing a virtual disk in a source format. An intermediate virtual disk data structure containing the location ranges for the data is generated, and the intermediate virtual disk data structure is used to associate data at the location ranges with a new file on the storage device that represents a virtual disk in a destination format.

Using an intermediate virtual disk format for virtual disk conversion

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

Growing community of inventors

Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Shweta Manohar Behere