Virtualized file server
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 representative 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.
1 . A system comprising:
a virtualized file server (VFS) comprising a plurality of file server virtual machines (FSVMs), wherein each of the FSVMs is configured execute on one of a plurality of host machines;
a storage pool including local storage devices of the plurality of host machines, wherein each FSVM is configured to present a single namespace of storage items distributed across the storage pool; and
wherein the VFS is configured to:
determine an access frequency associated with a file of the storage items in the storage pool, the access frequency measured based on one or more accesses of the file associated with one or more of the FSVMs;
in response to a request to store the file, determine a storage tier from a plurality of storage tiers, wherein the storage tier is determined from the plurality of storage tiers based on the access frequency associated with the file, wherein each of the plurality of storage tiers is associated with a different tier access time; and
store the file at the determined storage tier.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage tier is provided by a cloud service.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of storage tiers include a first data tier for frequently-accessed data and a second data tier for less-frequently-accessed data.
4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the first data tier has a first access time, and the second data tier has a second access time, wherein the second access time is slower than the first access time.
5 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the first data tier is associated with a first storage device and the second data tier is associated with a second storage device, wherein a speed of the first storage device is faster than a speed of the second storage device.
6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the access frequency is determined based on usage statistics.