Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a file server splitting system configured to split an existing virtualized file server (VFS) into a set of new virtualized file servers (VFSs), the splitting system configured to select one or more existing file server virtual machines (FSVMs) to be removed from the existing VFS. For each existing FSVM, the splitting system is configured to identify an available FSVM that is separate from the existing VFS, provide resources of the existing FSVM to the available FSVM, incorporate the available FSVM into one of the new VFSs, and remove the existing FSVM from the existing VFS. The splitting system may be further configured to re-direct requests to access storage items served by the existing FSVM to the available FSVM.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system includes host machines that form elements of the virtualization environment, and that include a hypervisor, a user virtual machine (UVM), a connection agent, and an I/O controller. The system further includes a virtual disk comprising a plurality of storage devices, the virtual disk being accessible by all of the I/O controllers. At least one of host machines receives a request associated with one of the elements using an application programming interface (API), and including a context-specific identifier. The host machine determines, using reflection, a type of the context-specific identifier and processes the request based on a mapping, according to the determined type, from the context-specific identifier to a unique identifier associated with the element.

Abstract: Examples described herein may include remote boot operations based on failed cluster checks. An example method includes retrieving a boot image and configuration parameters from local storage of a computing node of a computing node cluster, and performing a cluster check at the computing node based on the boot image and the configuration parameters. The method further includes, in response to failing the cluster check, retrieving a remote boot image and remote configuration parameters from a remote computing node via a network and performing boot operations at the computing node using the remote boot image and the remote configuration parameters.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is a method including receiving, by a controller virtual machine (CVM) and from a hypervisor, a request to clone a virtual machine (VM) state. The VM state includes a parent state and a snapshot. The method further includes cloning, by the CVM, the parent state and the snapshot to generate a cloned parent state and a cloned snapshot, respectively, and sending, by the CVM and to the hypervisor, data indicating successful cloning of the parent state and the snapshot.

Abstract: Systems for rule-based data protection of virtualized computing entities. A method embodiment commences upon receiving specification parameters that correspond to one or more data protection schemes or data protection configurations such as schemes for making backups or snapshots. Based on the specification parameters and the data protection configurations, one or more resource entities associated with the data protection configurations are identified. Each of the resource entities are accessed and one or more applicable data protection administration rules that correspond to the respective resource entities are applied. The resource entities might be organized hierarchically. Determination of which data protection administration rules are applicable to the resource entities is based on the type of resource entity being considered. The combination of the resource entity type and respective applicable rules is used to generate entity-specific data protection commands.

Abstract: A method commences upon accessing a set of data items that describe computing nodes to be organized into failure-tolerant configuration. The failure-tolerant configuration is characterized by system availability characteristics such as a replication factor and such as a hierarchical distribution of computing nodes. Characteristics of the topology include boundaries that define two or more hierarchically-related availability domain levels. Computing nodes are situated within these boundaries. Instances of a target hierarchical availability domain level are sorted, and instances of a hierarchically lower availability domain level are also sorted to form a multi-level sort order of computing nodes. Computing entities are mapped onto the computing nodes by observing the multi-level sort order.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a processor having programmed instructions to determine a container number of container instances to be deployed in a cluster based on compute resources and determine a node number of virtual nodes to be deployed in the cluster based on storage resources. The node number of virtual nodes includes a key-value store. Each of the node number of virtual nodes owns a corresponding key range of the key-value store. The processor has programmed instructions to distribute the node number of virtual nodes equally across the container number of container instances and deploy the container number of container instances.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to update a versioned object by appending a latest version of the versioned object to a data structure, read a predetermined version identifier corresponding to the latest version from a pointer entry, and look up the latest version of the versioned object, in the data structure, using the predetermined version identifier corresponding to the latest version of the versioned object.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to map a plurality of objects to a region and map the region to a plurality of vdisks. The plurality of objects are stored in the plurality of vdisks. The processor has programmed instructions to, responsive to mapping the plurality of objects to the region, identify a policy associated with the region. The policy specifies a policy action in response to satisfying a predetermined condition. The processor has programmed instructions to, responsive to satisfying the predetermined condition, access the plurality of vdisks and perform the policy action on the plurality of objects.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is an apparatus including a processor having programmed instructions to send an application programming interface (API) write request to a first virtual machine (VM) on a first node to write an object, receive a response to the API write request including a physical disk location of a physical disk to which the object is written, wherein the physical disk is located on a second node, and using the physical disk location, send an API read request to a second VM on the second node to read the object.

Abstract: Examples of load balancing across multiple computing nodes of distributed computing systems is described herein. Examples include determining whether an application request is part of a first application request set or a second application request set, and routing the application request to a first computing node or a second computing node of a computing node cluster based on the determination. Other examples include determining whether a database operation request directed to a database is part of a first database operation set or a second database operation set, and routing the database operation request to a first server using a first instance of the database or a second server using a second instance of the database based on the determination. Routing the application and database operation requests based on criteria of the respective request may improve execution efficiency of the requests.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing communication connections in a virtualization environment includes (1) a first host machine implementing a virtualization environment based on a first platform, wherein the first host machine includes a first hypervisor, at least one virtual machine, and one or more virtual infrastructure elements and (2) a virtual disk including a plurality of storage devices. A management module for the system may perform steps to convert the first host machine to a second platform by installing (on the first host machine) a second hypervisor associated with the second platform, disabling the first hypervisor, capturing a configuration describing elements of a virtual infrastructure associated with the first hypervisor, registering the captured configuration with the second hypervisor, creating elements of the captured configuration in the context of the second platform and in association with the second hypervisor, and then enabling the second hypervisor.

Abstract: A method embodiment commences upon identifying an on-premises storage area such as a file or virtual disk that is composed of a set of data blocks. A history of data access patterns over the data blocks is determined by observing accesses to the data blocks over time. When offsite storage is demanded (e.g., such as to a cloud-based storage facility), one or more storage objects are formed such that the blocks in a first one of the one or more storage objects comprise the blocks that have been measured to have the highest access rates (e.g., most recently accessed or most frequently accessed). Metadata that serves as a map is stored with the storage objects. A process or thread can access the storage objects in expectation that the most recently accessed or most frequently accessed blocks will be available in the first ones of the one or more storage objects.

Abstract: Computing cluster system management. Embodiments implement fine-grained rule-based approaches to error recovery. A service dispatches tasks to components of the computing cluster. At the time of task dispatching, entries are made into a write-ahead log. The write-ahead log entries serve for recording task and component attributes. A monitor detects a failure event raised by one or more of the components of the computing cluster. Responses to the failure event include determining a set of conditions that are present in the computing cluster at the time of the detection, and then using the failure event and the determined conditions in combination with a set of fine-grained failure processing rules to determine one or more recovery actions to take. Recovery actions include redistributing the failed task to a different node or to different service. Certain conditions and rules initiate actions that rollback the state of a component to a previous success point.

Abstract: A method includes receiving, by a host server on a public cloud including one or more physical data centers associated with one or more logical zones, a pairing request by a client device associated with a private cloud, allocating, by the host server, access to resources on the one or more physical data centers to the client device, and pairing, by the host server, the private cloud to the public cloud based on receiving an identity provider token from an identity provider.

Abstract: Techniques for performing compression operations on persistently-stored data blocks during read/write commands. A method embodiment performs in-line data compression operations over data blocks referenced by a caller. The in-line data compression operations are performed during execution of a storage input-output (I/O) command, between the event of receipt of the storage I/O command and the event of returning status of the storage I/O command. The storage I/O operation is associated with at least one data group comprising one or more data blocks that are identified by the caller. Upon receipt of the storage I/O command, one or more compression rules are applied to the data blocks to determine one or more compression parameters, which compression parameters are used to form specific compression operations that are performed over at least a portion of the data group. The status pertaining to the execution of the storage I/O operation is returned to the caller.

Abstract: Examples of systems described herein may include virtualized computing environments having one or more upgrade management agents. An upgrade management agent may detect current versions of multiple components in a computing system, including at least one software component and at least one firmware component, obtain a group of updates based on the current versions of the multiple components, and schedule installation of the group of updates including grouping together installation of selected ones of the group of updates for a particular computing node of the computing system, wherein the selected ones each utilize a particular state change of the computing node during the installation. The schedule may also be selected to accommodate dependencies between multiple components which are resolved by the upgrade management agent to obtain the schedule.

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing communication between applications (e.g., apps) in a host computing environment. Apps are published to a globally-accessible site. Upon download of an app to a host computing environment, apps can register themselves with a communication gateway as being discoverable and permissive to inter-app communications. Message queues are created to facilitate asynchronous communications between apps. After registration, any of the apps can send and receive messages using the communication gateway. The messages can be directed to any other app that is registered with the communication gateway. Using the message queues, the communication gateway facilitates asynchronous app interactions such that any app can communicate with any other discoverable and permissive app. Aspects of operation, discoverability and other attributes can be codified in an application manifest that is processed by the communication gateway.

Abstract: A system and method include receiving, by a controller/service virtual machine, a first request associated with an element of a visualization environment using an application programming interface (API). The first request includes a context-specific identifier. The controller/service virtual machine resides on a host machine of the virtualization environment, and the element is operatively associated with the host machine. The system and method further include determining, by the controller/service virtual machine, a type of the context-specific identifier in the first request, and mapping, by the controller/service virtual machine, the context-specific identifier to a unique identifier associated with the element based upon the determined type.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides an improved approach to implement a management infrastructure for computing environments. The user interfaces for local management nodes are cached at a central management node. The cached copies of the local node UIs can then be executed as if the user was actually operating from the local node.