Abstract: Disclosed is an improved approach to implement I/O and storage device management in a virtualization environment. According to some approaches, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type of storage device, including directly attached storage in addition to networked and cloud storage. The Service VM implements the Storage Controller logic in the user space, and can be migrated as needed from one node to another. IP-based requests are used to send I/O request to the Service VMs. The Service VM can directly implement storage and I/O optimizations within the direct data access path, without the need for add-on products.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved approach to implement I/O and storage device management in a virtualization environment. According to some approaches, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type of storage device, including directly attached storage in addition to networked and cloud storage. The Service VM implements the Storage Controller logic in the user space, and can be migrated as needed from one node to another. IP-based requests are used to send I/O request to the Service VMs. The Service VM can directly implement storage and I/O optimizations within the direct data access path, without the need for add-on products.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved approach to implement I/O and storage device management in a virtualization environment. According to some approaches, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type of storage device, including directly attached storage in addition to networked and cloud storage. The Service VM implements the Storage Controller logic in the user space, and can be migrated as needed from one node to another. IP-based requests are used to send I/O request to the Service VMs. The Service VM can directly implement storage and I/O optimizations within the direct data access path, without the need for add-on products.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer program products for hibernating a computing cluster. An information lifecycle manager facility (ILM) is invoked to carry out movement of data from the hypervisor of a node of a computing cluster to a different storage location. Multiple nodes of the computing cluster can be hibernated until the entire computing cluster has been hibernated. The ILM observes a replication factor of the computing cluster to suppress saving multiple copies of data. A hibernation object comprising state information of a node is stored in a network-accessible storage location. The hibernation object is accessed in response to an instruction to initiate restoration of all or parts of the computing cluster. The hibernation object can be stored using first cloud computing storage infrastructure and later, can be restored to a different cloud computing infrastructure. Upon restoration, the hibernated cluster has the same state as of the time of hibernation.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved approach to implement I/O and storage device management in a virtualization environment. According to some approaches, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type of storage device, including directly attached storage in addition to networked and cloud storage. The Service VM implements the Storage Controller logic in the user space, and can be migrated as needed from one node to another. IP-based requests are used to send I/O request to the Service VMs. The Service VM can directly implement storage and I/O optimizations within the direct data access path, without the need for add-on products.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: An improved architecture is provided which enables significant convergence of the components of a system to implement virtualization. The infrastructure is VM-aware, and permits scaled out converged storage provisioning to allow storage on a per-VM basis, while identifying I/O coming from each VM. The current approach can scale out from a few nodes to a large number of nodes. In addition, the inventive approach has ground-up integration with all types of storage, including solid-state drives. The architecture of the invention provides high availability against any type of failure, including disk or node failures. In addition, the invention provides high performance by making I/O access local, leveraging solid-state drives and employing a series of patent-pending performance optimizations.

Abstract: A method and system for managing de-deduplication of data in a virtualization environment, including receiving a write request for an item of data from a virtual user machine, determining whether de-duplication is enabled, upon determination de-duplication is enabled and a copy of the item of data exists, referencing the de-duplication extent and not creating a new extent for storing the item of data in an extent group comprising a plurality of de-duplication extents.

Abstract: A system for managing storage devices, includes a plurality of nodes that implement a virtualization environment, each node of the plurality of nodes comprising a hypervisor, a service virtual machine that sits above the hypervisor, and one or more user virtual machines that sit above the hypervisor; a plurality of storage devices that are accessed by the user virtual machines via the service virtual machines, wherein a first node of the plurality of nodes comprises a first hypervisor, a first service virtual machine and a first set of one or more user virtual machines, wherein a second node of the plurality of nodes comprises a second hypervisor, a second service virtual machine and a second set of one or more user virtual machines, wherein the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor are of different types, and wherein the first virtual machine and the second service virtual machine are of the same type.

Abstract: A system for implementing storage for a virtualization environment, including a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes implements a virtualization environment, a plurality of storage devices that are accessed by virtual machines in the virtualization environment, and wherein the plurality of storage devices comprises a local storage device that is locally attached to one of the plurality of nodes, and in which the local storage device can be managed as part of a global storage space for the virtualization environment.

Abstract: A method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, including receiving an I/O request for a virtual disk, determining that a service virtual machine which implements a storage controller is not registered as owner of the virtual disk, obtaining ownership of the virtual disk by the service virtual machine, the service virtual machine handling the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the virtual disk.

Abstract: A method for handling storage in response to migration of a virtual machine in a virtualization environment, including receiving an I/O request for a virtual disk, determining that a service virtual machine which implements a storage controller is not registered as owner of the virtual disk, obtaining ownership of the virtual disk by the service virtual machine, the service virtual machine handling the I/O request after obtaining ownership of the virtual disk.

Abstract: A system for managing de-duplication of data in a virtualization environment, that includes a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes implements a virtualization environment, a plurality of primary storage devices that are accessed by virtual machines in the virtualization environment, and wherein data undergoes de-duplication in the virtualization environment such that an instruction to store a data item that is issued by a virtual machine is not duplicatively stored if the data item is already stored in the plurality of the primary storage devices.

Abstract: A method for handling storage in a virtualization environment including identifying a situation in which a storage controller ownership change is to occur for a virtual disk, identifying a candidate replacement owner for the virtual disk and transferring ownership of the virtual disk to the candidate replacement owner.