Power management for a distributed storage system accessible by a cluster in a virtualized computing environment

1. A method to perform power management for a distributed storage system accessible by a cluster in a virtualized computing environment, wherein the cluster includes a first host and at least one second host, the first host includes both a first physical storage resource and a second physical storage resource, and the method comprises:

in response to detecting that a power-off requirement of the first host is satisfied, retrieving virtual machine data from the first physical storage resource of the first host;

before powering off one or more hardware components of the first host, storing the virtual machine data on the second physical storage resource of the first host, wherein the second physical storage resource is configured to be accessible by the second host when the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off; and

powering off the one or more hardware components of the first host, while maintaining access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource after the one or more hardware components are powered off.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting that access to the virtual machine data is required from the first host but the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off; and

providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource instead of the first physical storage resource.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource comprises:

providing access to the virtual machine data via a controller associated with the second physical storage resource, the controller and second physical storage resource being powered by a power source even when the first host is powered off.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

powering on the one or more hardware components of the first host;

detecting that further access to the virtual machine data is required and the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered on; and

providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource instead of the second physical storage resource.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:

the first physical storage resource comprises at least one capacity device and at least one cache device;

retrieving the virtual machine data from the first physical storage resource comprises retrieving the virtual machine data from the at least one capacity device; and

providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource comprises providing access to the at least one cache device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the method further comprises configuring the distributed storage system to include the first physical storage resource and second physical storage resource of the first host;

the cluster includes N+1 hosts, being the first host and N second hosts;

the virtual machine data is stored on the first physical storage resource according to a data placement policy;

the data placement policy defines a number of failures to tolerate (FTT) to be N and requires the cluster of N+1 hosts to, collectively, store N+1 copies of virtual machine data and N witness disk or disks; and

the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource is one of the N+1 copies of virtual machine data.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that includes a set of instructions which, in response to execution by a processor of a computing system, causes the processor to perform a method of power management of a distributed storage system accessible by a cluster in a virtualized computing environment, wherein the cluster includes a first host and at least one second host, the first host includes both a first physical storage resource and a second physical storage resource, and the method comprises:

in response to detecting that a power-off requirement of the first host from the cluster is satisfied, retrieving virtual machine data from the first physical storage resource of the first host;

before powering off one or more hardware components of the first host, storing the virtual machine data on the second physical storage resource of the first host, wherein the second physical storage resource is configured to be accessible by the second host when the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off; and

powering off the one or more hardware components of the first host, while maintaining access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource after the one or more hardware components are powered off.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises:

detecting that access to the virtual machine data is required from the first host but the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off; and

providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource instead of the first physical storage resource.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource comprises:

providing access to the virtual machine data via a controller associated with the second physical storage resource, the controller and second physical storage resource being powered by a power source even when one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:

powering on the one or more hardware components of the first host;

detecting that further access to the virtual machine data is required and the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered on; and

providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource instead of the second physical storage resource.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein:

the first physical storage resource comprises at least one capacity device and at least one cache device;

retrieving the virtual machine data from the first physical storage resource comprises retrieving the virtual machine data from the at least one capacity device; and

providing access to the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource comprises providing access to the at least one cache device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein:

the method further comprises configuring the distributed storage system to include the first physical storage resource and second physical storage resource of the first host;

the cluster includes N+1 hosts, being the first host and N second hosts;

the virtual machine data is stored on the first physical storage resource according to a data placement policy;

the data placement policy defines a number of failures to tolerate (FTT) to be N and requires the cluster of N+1 hosts to, collectively, store N+1 copies of virtual machine data and N witness disk or disks; and

the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource is one of the N+1 copies of virtual machine data.

13. A computing system configured to perform power management for a distributed storage system accessible by a cluster in a virtualized computing environment, wherein the cluster includes a first host and at least one second host, the first host includes both a first physical storage resource and a second physical storage resource, and the computing system comprises:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

in response to detecting that a power-off requirement of the first host from the cluster is satisfied, retrieve virtual machine data from the first physical storage resource;

before powering off one or more hardware components of the first host, store the virtual machine data on the second physical storage resource, wherein the second physical storage resource is configured to be accessible by the second host when the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off; and

power off one or more hardware components of the first host, while maintaining access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource after the one or more hardware components are powered off.

14. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

detect that access to the virtual machine data is required from the first host but the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off; and

provide access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource instead of the first physical storage resource.

15. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

provide access to the virtual machine data stored on the second physical storage resource via a controller associated with the second physical storage resource, the controller and second physical storage resource being powered by a power source even when the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered off.

16. The computing system of claim 14 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

power on the one or more hardware components of the first host;

detect that further access to the virtual machine data is required and the one or more hardware components of the first host are powered on; and

provide access to the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource instead of the second physical storage resource.

17. The computing system of claim 16 , wherein the first physical storage resource comprises at least one capacity device and at least one cache device and the instructions further cause the processor to:

retrieve the virtual machine data from at least one capacity device of the first physical storage resource; and

provide access to the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource via the at least one cache device.

18. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein:

the instructions further cause the processor to configure the distributed storage system to include the first physical storage resource and second physical storage resource of the first host;

the cluster includes N+1 hosts, being the first host and N second hosts;

the virtual machine data is stored on the first physical storage resource according to a data placement policy;

the data placement policy defines a number of failures to tolerate (FTT) to be N and requires the cluster of N+1 hosts to, collectively, store N+1 copies of virtual machine data and N witness disk or disks; and

the virtual machine data stored on the first physical storage resource is one of the N+1 copies of virtual machine data.