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 system and method include classifying and assigning virtual disks accessed from compute only nodes. The method determines, by a management processor of a virtual computing system, characteristics for a plurality of virtual disks hosted on a plurality of hyper converged nodes in a cluster of nodes in the virtual computing system. The method further classifies, by the management processor, each of the plurality of virtual disks based on the determined characteristics and identifies, by the management processor, one of the plurality of virtual disks to host data for a virtual machine on a compute only node based on the classification to spread out input-output demand in the cluster, reducing probability of input-output bottlenecks and increasing cluster-wide storage throughput. The method also assigns, by the management processor, the identified virtual disk to host data for the virtual machine located on the compute only node.

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: Various embodiments set forth techniques for managing and/or accessing metadata associated with a vblock, systems implementing said techniques, and computer-readable media storing instructions for performing said techniques. In some embodiments, one or more computer-readable media store instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps including receiving a request for metadata associated with a vblock; accessing a merged metadata record associated with the vblock, where the merged metadata record comprises metadata corresponding to metadata in metadata records for all but a last snapshot or a live vblock having a metadata record, and a first identifier of the last snapshot or the live vblock having a metadata record; and returning the requested metadata based on the metadata in the merged metadata record and metadata in the metadata record identified by the first identifier.

Abstract: Various embodiments set forth techniques for managing metadata associated with a vblock, In some embodiments, one or more computer-readable media store instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps including receiving a request to write data to a live vblock, wherein the request to write data is a first write request for the live vblock; accessing a merged metadata record associated with the live vblock, wherein the merged metadata record comprises metadata corresponding to metadata in metadata records for all but a last snapshot included in a set of snapshots having a metadata record; adding metadata associated with the request to write data to a metadata record for the live vblock; merging a metadata record for the last snapshot into the merged metadata record; and updating a first identifier of the merged metadata record to identify the live vblock.

Abstract: Various embodiments set forth techniques for managing metadata associated with a vblock, In some embodiments, one or more computer-readable media store instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps including receiving a request to write data to a live vblock, wherein the request to write data is a first write request for the live vblock; accessing a merged metadata record associated with the live vblock, wherein the merged metadata record comprises metadata corresponding to metadata in metadata records for all but a last snapshot included in a set of snapshots having a metadata record; adding metadata associated with the request to write data to a metadata record for the live vblock; merging a metadata record for the last snapshot into the merged metadata record; and updating a first identifier of the merged metadata record to identify the live vblock.

Abstract: Various embodiments set forth techniques for managing and/or accessing metadata associated with a vblock, systems implementing said techniques, and computer-readable media storing instructions for performing said techniques. In some embodiments, one or more computer-readable media store instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps including receiving a request for metadata associated with a vblock; accessing a merged metadata record associated with the vblock, where the merged metadata record comprises metadata corresponding to metadata in metadata records for all but a last snapshot or a live vblock having a metadata record, and a first identifier of the last snapshot or the live vblock having a metadata record; and returning the requested metadata based on the metadata in the merged metadata record and metadata in the metadata record identified by the first identifier.

Abstract: A system and method include classifying and assigning virtual disks accessed from compute only nodes. The method determines, by a management processor of a virtual computing system, characteristics for a plurality of virtual disks hosted on a plurality of hyper converged nodes in a cluster of nodes in the virtual computing system. The method further classifies, by the management processor, each of the plurality of virtual disks based on the determined characteristics and identifies, by the management processor, one of the plurality of virtual disks to host data for a virtual machine on a compute only node based on the classification to spread out input-output demand in the cluster, reducing probability of input-output bottlenecks and increasing cluster-wide storage throughput. The method also assigns, by the management processor, the identified virtual disk to host data for the virtual machine located on the compute only node.

Abstract: A system and method include classifying and assigning virtual disks accessed from compute only nodes. The method determines, by a management processor of a virtual computing system, characteristics for a plurality of virtual disks hosted on a plurality of hyper converged nodes in a cluster of nodes in the virtual computing system. The method further classifies, by the management processor, each of the plurality of virtual disks based on the determined characteristics and identifies, by the management processor, one of the plurality of virtual disks to host data for a virtual machine on a compute only node based on the classification to spread out input-output demand in the cluster, reducing probability of input-output bottlenecks and increasing cluster-wide storage throughput. The method also assigns, by the management processor, the identified virtual disk to host data for the virtual machine located on the compute only node.

Abstract: Communication between VMs running in a clustered virtualization environment and a distributed storage system is managed. The distributed storage system consists of multiple storage/compute nodes. A hypervisor communicates with a controller in a local node on behalf of a VM. The controller will redirect a connection to a second controller on different node. The controller to which the connection is redirected is selected so as to distribute the load evenly across the cluster.

Abstract: A system and method include classifying and assigning virtual disks accessed from compute only nodes. The method determines, by a management processor of a virtual computing system, characteristics for a plurality of virtual disks hosted on a plurality of hyper converged nodes in a cluster of nodes in the virtual computing system. The method further classifies, by the management processor, each of the plurality of virtual disks based on the determined characteristics and identifies, by the management processor, one of the plurality of virtual disks to host data for a virtual machine on a compute only node based on the classification to spread out input-output demand in the cluster, reducing probability of input-output bottlenecks and increasing cluster-wide storage throughput. The method also assigns, by the management processor, the identified virtual disk to host data for the virtual machine located on the compute only node.

Abstract: Communication between VMs running in a clustered virtualization environment and a distributed storage system is managed. The distributed storage system consists of multiple storage/compute nodes. A hypervisor communicates with a controller in a local node on behalf of a VM. The controller will redirect a connection to a second controller on different node. The controller to which the connection is redirected is selected so as to distribute the load evenly across the cluster.

Abstract: Systems for memory management in virtual machines. A method embodiment forms a reconfigurable multi-level data structure by requesting reserved memory as well as loaned-out memory. The method configures the multi-level data structure to have a first area comprising reserved memory and having a second area comprising reconfigurable memory. The reserved memory portion of the data structure is populated with pointers that address one or more portions of the second area. During operation, the method receives a request to release some or all of the reconfigurable memory. Memory address pointers in the first portion of the multi-level data structure are modified to reflect the release of the reconfigurable memory. In a hypervisor-based virtual machine environment, the first area comprising reserved memory can be allocated via a hypervisor call. The second area comprising reconfigurable memory is allocated via a balloon memory driver call.