Vmware, Inc.

Antecea, Inc.

Tejasvi Aswathanarayana

Satyam B Vaghani

Ilia Sokolinski

Komal Desai

Sujay Shrikant Godbole

Chiao-Chuan Shih

Patrick William Penzias Dirks

Sanjay Vasudev Acharya

Jesse Pool

Derek Uluski

Hariharan Subramanian

Rajesh Bhat

Anurekh Saxena

Joseph Rafail

Interfaces to storage devices that employ storage space optimization technologies, such as thin provisioning, are configured to enable the benefits gained from such technologies to be sustained. Such an interface may be provided in a hypervisor of a virtualized computer system to enable the hypervisor to discover features of a logical unit number (LUN), such as whether or not the LUN is thinly provisioned, and also in a virtual machine (VM) of the virtualized computer system to enable the VM to discover features of a virtual disk, such as whether or not the virtual disk is thinly provisioned. The discovery of these features enables the hypervisor or the VM to instruct the underlying storage device to carry out certain operations such as an operation to deallocate blocks previously allocated to a logical block device, so that the storage device can continue to benefit from storage space optimization technologies implemented therein.

System software interfaces for space-optimized block devices

Interfaces to storage devices that employ storage space optimization technologies, such as thin provisioning, are configured to enable the benefits gained from such technologies to be sustained. Such an interface may be provided in a hypervisor of a virtualized computer system to enable the hypervisor to discover features of a logical unit number (LUN), such as whether or not the LUN is thinly provisioned, and also in a virtual machine (VM) of the virtualized computer system to enable the VM to discover features of a virtual disk, such as whether or not the virtual disk is thinly provisioned. The discovery of these features enables better management of the LUN during near full and out-of-space conditions.

Error handling methods for virtualized computer systems employing space-optimized block devices

A framework for converting between copy-on-write (COW) and redo-based technologies is disclosed. To take a virtual disk snapshot, disk descriptor files, which include metadata information about data stored in virtual volumes (vvols), are 'swizzled' such that the descriptor file for a latest redo log, to which IOs are currently performed, points to the base vvol of a COW-based vvol hierarchy. A disk descriptor file previously associated with the base vvol may also be updated to point to the vvol newly created by the snapshot operation. To revert to an earlier disk state, a snapshot may be taken before copying contents of a snapshot vvol of the COW-based vvol hierarchy to a base vvol of the hierarchy, thereby ensuring that the reversion can be rolled back if it is unsuccessful. Reference counting is performed to ensure that vvols in the vvol hierarchy are not orphaned in delete and revert use cases. Differences between vvols in the COW-based vvol hierarchy are used to clone the hierarchy and to migrate the hierarchy to a redo-based disk hierarchy.

Conversion of virtual disk snapshots between redo and copy-on-write technologies

A software-implemented method which allows the streaming of applications from a server or cluster of server to one or more clients, typically mobile devices. The invention also enables the sharing, through a social network cloud service, of applications located on connected computers or on the cloud. When applications are streamed to mobile devices, the user interface of the application may be modified to fit the native user interface of the device.

Server aggregated application streaming

The storage system exports logical storage volumes that are provisioned as storage objects. These storage objects are accessed on demand by connected computer systems using standard protocols, such as SCSI and NFS, through logical endpoints for the protocol traffic that are configured in the storage system. When traffic through a particular protocol endpoint is busy, the logical storage volume undergoes a rebind process pursuant to which the logical storage volume is bound to a new protocol endpoint, and the binding to the old protocol endpoint is removed upon completion of all pending input-output commands issued through the old protocol endpoint.

Method of balancing workloads in object storage system

The storage system exports logical storage volumes that are provisioned as storage objects. These storage objects are accessed on demand by connected computer systems using standard protocols, such as SCSI and NFS, through logical endpoints for the protocol traffic that are configured in the storage system. Prior to issuing input-output commands to a logical storage volume, the computer system sends a request to bind the logical storage volume to a protocol endpoint. In response a first identifier for the protocol endpoint and a second identifier for the logical storage volume is returned. Different second identifiers may be generated for different logical storage volumes even though the same protocol endpoint is being used. Therefore, a single protocol endpoint may serve as a gateway for multiple logical storage volumes.

Computer system accessing object storage system

The storage system exports logical storage volumes that are provisioned as storage objects. These storage objects are accessed on demand by connected computer systems using standard protocols, such as SCSI and NFS, through logical endpoints for the protocol traffic that are configured in the storage system. When a virtual machine is provisioned, logical storage volumes include a logical metadata storage volume and logical data storage volumes. The logical metadata storage volume stores metadata for the virtual machine such as configuration and log files, swap file, and disk descriptor files. Each disk descriptor file is provided for one logical data storage volume and stores metadata about the logical data storage volume such as size and unique identifying data.

Growing community of inventors

Malden, MA, United States of America

Tejasvi Aswathanarayana