International Business Machines Corporation

Stefan Amann

Gerhard Banzhaf

Ralph Friedrich

Joseph M Gdaniec

Muthumanikandan Nambi

Parakh P Verma

Harry M Yudenfriend

Angel Nunez Mencias

Kenneth Wayne Boyd

Jeffrey William Palm

Kishorekumar G Pillai

Eric A Weinmann

Jerry Wayne Stevens

Kenneth Fairclough Day, Iii

George Kuch

Raymond Michael Higgs

Christine Axnix

Helmut H Weber

Ingo Adlung

Friedemann Baitinger

James M Jenks

Viktor Mihajlovski

Carl Mayer

Friedrich Michael Welter

Juliane Aulbach

Juergen Leopold

John R Flanagan

Daniel Francis Casper

Bruce H Ratcliff

Jeffrey Alan Frey

Jaya Srikrishnan

Walter Niklaus

Holger Smolinski

Robert Breker

Linda-Marie Weber

Kishore Kumar G Pillai

Matthias Lukas Chavanne

Jeff A Frey

A data processing system includes one or more computer systems, each executing at least one hypervisor. Host bus adapters on the computer system are connectable to storage resources in at least one storage area network. The at least one hypervisor provides virtual instances of the host bus adapters as virtual host bus adapters, and a world-wide unique port number and a logical unit number are used to access a storage volume. A globally unique identifier is used to identify the storage volume. The system includes a management server comprising a management instance for evaluating a possibility of attaching storage resources to virtual machine instances generated by the hypervisor.

Attaching storage resources to virtual machine instances

A method for managing access of virtual machines executed by a host computer system to storage area networks, the storage area networks connecting the host computer system with storage systems via switches, where the host computer system includes one or more host ports to connect with a switch each, and where one or more port names are assigned to each virtual machine. The method includes, for each storage area network connected with the host computer system, sending the port names of a virtual machine and a target port name as part of a validate access command to the respective switch; and when receiving the validate access command by the switch, the switch returning success information to the sending host computer system in case all received virtual machine port names have access to a target port assigned to the received target port name, otherwise returning a fail information.

Access of virtual machines to storage area networks

Virtual machines in a computer system cluster, or cloud environment, require access to their assigned storage resources connected to the virtual machines via storage area networks (SAN). Such virtual machines may be independent from associated physical servers in the computer system cluster on which they are deployed. These virtual machines may dynamically migrate among assigned physical servers while maintaining access to their connected storage resources both from the source physical server and the target physical server during the migration.

Flexible deployment and migration of virtual machines

Managing virtual network ports on a physical server to provide a virtual server access to a group of storage resources through a network. A storage access group representing a group of storage resources is generated. A virtual server is generated on a hypervisor executed on the physical server. Access to the network is activated for the virtual server. A management console is provided for creating and managing the storage access group providing access to the group of storage resources for the virtual server from one or more physical servers. The management console includes a virtual server management facility and a storage access group facility. The virtual server management facility allows for managing virtual server definitions and activating, deactivating, and migrating virtual servers. The storage access group facility allows for managing virtual network port descriptions, administrating network port names, and creating, activating and deactivating virtual network ports.

Managing virtual network ports

Assigning a set of port names to storage access paths of virtual machines accessing storage resources via storage area networks is provided. A first computing system cluster that is associated with a set of computing system identifiers is created. A first computing system identifier associated with a first computing system is added to the set of computing system identifiers. The first computing system is disassociated from the first computing system identifier. The first computing system is added to the first computing system cluster.

Cluster reconfiguration management

A computer-implemented method, carried out by one or more processors, for managing resources in a server environment. The method includes determining, by one or more processors, to shut down a first resource consumer, wherein the first resource consumer is assigned a first virtual resource with a first set of one or more host resources. It is determined, by one or more processors, whether a second virtual resource assigned to a second resource consumer requires the first set of one or more host resources. If the second virtual resource assigned to the second resource consumer does not require the first set of one or more host resources, it is determined, by one or more processors, not to deactivate the one or more host resources assigned to the first virtual resource.

Anticipatory resource allocation/activation and lazy de-allocation/deactivation

Validating access consistency to a set of accessed resources over a set of virtual ports, including determining a number of virtual ports to provision, allocating each physical port and each virtual port among two or more buckets, and validating access to the set of accessed resources via each virtual port over each physical port that is allocated to the same bucket. At least one virtual port in the set of virtual ports shares no bucket with at least one physical port in the set of physical ports, and each virtual port is only validated over each physical port with which the virtual port shares a bucket.

Efficient validation of resource access consistency for a set of virtual devices

Growing community of inventors

Boeblingen, Germany

Stefan Amann