Abstract: A technique utilizes grafting and differential based (diff-based) data seeding to hydrate a special virtual disk (vdisk) on a multi-node cluster with data changes (differences) between a reference vdisk stored on the cluster and a snapshot stored in an external repository to enable failover (including failback) recovery of an application workload in a disaster recovery environment. The application workload is stored as a workload vdisk on local storage of the cluster and snapshots of the workload vdisk are generated and organized as a vdisk chain on the cluster. One or more snapshots of the vdisk chain may be replicated to the external repository using a long-term snapshot service. Each replicated snapshot may be backed up from the cluster to the external repository at the granularity of a vdisk, referred to herein as an external datasource disk. The special vdisk is a thinly provisioned, datasource-backed vdisk that is grafted onto the vdisk chain, e.g., as a child vdisk of the reference vdisk.

Abstract: A technique monitors input/output (I/O) and Persistent Reservation (PR) activity patterns to detect degraded performance of a highly available and fault tolerant application executing in a multi-site disaster recovery (DR) environment. Multiple instances of the application execute in different virtual machines (VMs) of a compute layer within a guest clustering configuration that extends across clusters of the sites. A storage layer of the clusters provides shared storage to the multiple VMs across the multiple sites. One of the sites is configured as an active storage site configured to receive and service I/O requests from the compute layer. A single instance of the application is active at a time and configured as a “compute owner” of the shared storage to issue the I/O requests to the shared storage. The compute owner and active storage site may not be co-located on the same site, leading to excessive I/O and PR activity patterns indicative of degraded performance.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to determine a frequency rate for tracking changed data of a virtual machine (VM), track the changed data at the determined frequency rate, receive a request to generate a recovery point associated with a specified time, and, responsive to receiving the request to generate the recovery point associated with the specified time, generate the recovery point.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to determine a frequency rate for tracking changed data of a virtual machine (VM), track the changed data at the determined frequency rate, receive a request to generate a recovery point associated with a specified time, and, responsive to receiving the request to generate the recovery point associated with the specified time, generate the recovery point.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: A storage platform computing apparatus obtains a lifecycle management policy and configuration information for a cloud repository identified in the lifecycle management policy. The configuration information includes at least one access parameter for the cloud repository. The lifecycle management policy is applied to determine when an object is required to be replicated to the cloud repository in response to a received write request. A request to store the object in the cloud repository is generated, when the object is determined to be required to be stored in the cloud repository, wherein the request includes the access parameter. The request is sent to the cloud repository using a representational state transfer (REST) interface associated with the cloud repository.

Abstract: Method and system for detecting migration of a virtual machine are provided. The method detects that a first identifier for identifying a virtual machine and a second identifier identifying a source computing system hosting the virtual machine that accesses a storage space via a logical object have changed, when the virtual machine is migrated from the source computing system to a destination computing system. Thereafter, a storage device at the destination computing system is initialized to operate as a caching device for the migrated virtual machine.

Abstract: A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and storage platform computing apparatus that obtains a lifecycle management policy and configuration information for a cloud repository identified in the lifecycle management policy. The configuration information includes at least one access parameter for the cloud repository. The lifecycle management policy is applied to determine when an object is required to be replicated to the cloud repository in response to a received write request. A request to store the object in the cloud repository is generated, when the object is determined to be required to be stored in the cloud repository, wherein the request includes the access parameter. The request is sent to the cloud repository using a representational state transfer (REST) interface associated with the cloud repository.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: Consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics, in a clustered storage system are disclosed. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes a mechanism to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: A storage area network (SAN)-attached storage system architecture is disclosed. The storage system provides strongly consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes mechanisms to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: A system and method of emulating a shared storage device includes determining a storage unit identifier (SUID) associated with a first local storage device in a first node of a distributed computing system, updating a first path handler to intercept storage requests including the SUID and being made on the first node and forwarding the storage requests to drivers for an emulated shared storage device, associating a second local storage device in a second node of the distributed computing system with the SUID, updating a second path handler to intercept storage requests including the SUID and being made on the second node and forwarding the storage requests to the drivers for the emulated shared storage device, and intercepting storage requests including the SUID and being made on the second node and forwarding the storage requests to the drivers for the emulated shared storage device.

Abstract: A system and method of emulating a shared storage device includes determining a storage unit identifier (SUID) associated with a first local storage device in a first node of a distributed computing system, updating a first path handler to intercept storage requests including the SUID and being made on the first node and forwarding the storage requests to drivers for an emulated shared storage device, associating a second local storage device in a second node of the distributed computing system with the SUID, updating a second path handler to intercept storage requests including the SUID and being made on the second node and forwarding the storage requests to the drivers for the emulated shared storage device, and intercepting storage requests including the SUID and being made on the second node and forwarding the storage requests to the drivers for the emulated shared storage device.

Abstract: Method and system for detecting migration of a virtual machine are provided. The method detects that a first identifier for identifying a virtual machine and a second identifier identifying a source computing system hosting the virtual machine that accesses a storage space via a logical object have changed, when the virtual machine is migrated from the source computing system to a destination computing system. Thereafter, a storage device at the destination computing system is initialized to operate as a caching device for the migrated virtual machine.

Abstract: Consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics, in a clustered storage system are disclosed. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes a mechanism to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.

Abstract: Consistent distributed storage communication protocol semantics, such as SCSI target semantics, in a SAN-attached clustered storage system are disclosed. The system includes a mechanism for presenting a single distributed logical unit, comprising one or more logical sub-units, as a single logical unit of storage to a host system by associating each of the logical sub-units that make up the single distributed logical unit with a single host visible identifier that corresponds to the single distributed logical unit. The system further includes a mechanism to maintain consistent context information for each of the logical sub-units such that the logical sub-units are not visible to a host system as separate entities from the single distributed logical unit.