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 first virtualized file server configured to receive a request to access a storage item located at a second virtualized file server, determine that the storage item is designated as being accessible by other virtualized file servers, identify an FSVM of the second virtualized file server at which the storage item is located, and forward the request to the FSVM of the second virtualized file server. The storage item may be designated as being accessible by other virtualized file servers when the storage item is associated with a predetermined tag value indicating that the storage item is shared among virtualized file servers. The predetermined tag value may be stored in a sharding map in association with the storage item.

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 for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines, and a backup system configured to, in response to a request to access a data item, determine an access frequency for the data item. The backup system is further configured to, in response a request to store a data item, determine a storage tier at which the data item is to be stored in a cloud storage service, wherein the tier is determined based on the access frequency associated with the data item, and store the data item at the determined tier of the cloud storage service.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing communication connections in a virtualization environment includes a plurality of host machines implementing a virtualization environment, wherein each of the host machines includes a hypervisor, at least one user virtual machine (user VM), and a distributed file server that includes file server virtual machines (FSVMs) and associated local storage devices. Each FSVM and associated local storage device are local to a corresponding one of the host machines, and the FSVMs conduct I/O transactions with their associated local storage devices based on I/O requests received from the user VMs. Each of the user VMs on each host machine sends each of its respective I/O requests to an FSVM that is selected by one or more of the FSVMs for each I/O request based on a lookup table that maps a storage item referenced by the I/O request to the selected one of the FSVMs.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines and conducts I/O transactions with the one or more virtual disks, and a virtualized file server backup system configured to back up data stored in a VFS located a cluster of host machines to an object store, and retrieve the backed-up data as needed to restore the data in the VFS. The object store may be located in a public cloud. The object store may include a low-cost storage medium within the cluster. An FSVM of the VFS may provide an object store interface to low-cost storage media.

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 virtualized file server backup system configured to identify backup data, wherein the backup data comprises data stored on the virtual disks and VFS configuration information, and the first data is identified in accordance with a backup policy, send the backup data to one or more remote sites for storage, and, in response to detection of changes in the backup data, send the changes to the remote sites in accordance with a replication policy. The backup data may be identified based on a protection domain associated with the backup policy. The data stored on the VFS may include one or more storage objects. The storage objects may include shares, groups of shares, files, or directories.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment comprises a plurality of host machines, one or more virtual disks comprising a plurality of storage devices, a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is running on one of the host machines and conducts I/O transactions with the one or more virtual disks, and a virtualized file server self-healing system configured to identify one or more corrupt units of stored data at one or more levels of a storage hierarchy associated with the storage devices, wherein the levels comprise one or more of file level, filesystem level, and storage level, and when data corruption is detected, cause each FSVM on which at least a portion of the unit of stored data is located to recover the unit of stored data.