IP Library Granted Patent US 10,191,916
Granted Patent B1
US 10,191,916 · App. 15/185,236 · Granted Jan 29, 2019

Storage system comprising cluster file system storage nodes and software-defined storage pool in cloud infrastructure

Inventors: Sorin Faibish (Newton, MA); Dennis Ting (Groton, MA); Percy Tzelnic (Concord, MA); James M. Pedone, Jr. (West Boylston, MA); Boyd Wilson (Clemson, SC)
Assignee: EMC IP Holding Company LLC
G06F17/302G06F17/30235H04L67/1097
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,191,916
App. No.
15/185,236
Granted
Jan 29, 2019
Kind
B1
Abstract

An apparatus in one embodiment comprises a multi-tier storage system having at least a front-end storage tier and a back-end storage tier. The multi-tier storage system is implemented at least in part utilizing a plurality of virtual machines of cloud infrastructure. The front-end storage tier comprises a plurality of storage nodes of a cluster file system, with the storage nodes being implemented on respective ones of the virtual machines. The front-end storage tier further comprises a software-defined storage pool accessible to the storage nodes and implemented utilizing local disk resources of respective ones of the virtual machines. The back-end storage tier of the multi-tier storage system comprises at least one object store. At least a subset of the virtual machines may further comprise respective compute nodes configured to access the multi-tier storage system. Other illustrative embodiments include systems, methods and processor-readable storage media.

Claims (41)

1. An apparatus comprising:

a multi-tier storage system comprising at least a front-end storage tier and a back-end storage tier;

the multi-tier storage system being implemented at least in part utilizing a plurality of virtual machines of cloud infrastructure;

the front-end storage tier comprising:

a plurality of storage nodes of a cluster file system with the storage nodes being implemented on respective ones of the virtual machines; and

a software-defined storage pool accessible to the storage nodes and implemented utilizing local disk resources of respective ones of the virtual machines;

the back-end storage tier being separate from the software-defined storage pool and comprising at least one object store;

wherein the multi-tier storage system is configured to recover from a failure in the local disk resources of a given one of the virtual machines by obtaining corresponding data from the local disk resources of one or more other ones of the virtual machines via the software-defined storage pool;

wherein a capacity of the software-defined storage pool is automatically adjustable by adjusting sizes of at least a subset of the virtual machines; and

wherein the cloud infrastructure is implemented by a processing platform comprising a plurality of processing devices.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least a subset of the virtual machines further comprise respective compute nodes that are configured to access the multi-tier storage system.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein at least one of the virtual machines implements a storage node but not a compute node.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the object store is configured to store data in the form of objects having respective object identifiers and wherein a specified set of the objects is made accessible to an application running on a given one of the compute nodes via a corresponding dynamically loadable namespace identifier.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the storage nodes comprises a file system client and a file system server.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of the storage nodes implements at least one of a metadata server and a data server with a given such server being stored in the software-defined storage pool.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the cluster file system comprises at least one of a parallel file system and a distributed file system.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a software-defined storage controller configured to implement the software-defined storage pool utilizing the local disk resources of the respective ones of the virtual machines.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the software-defined storage controller is implemented in a distributed manner over the respective ones of the virtual machines.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the software-defined storage controller is configured to mirror an entire virtual disk of a given one of the virtual machines such that access to the entire virtual disk of the given virtual machine can be provided to another virtual machine responsive to a failure in the given virtual machine.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the storage nodes are implemented on respective ones of the virtual machines at least in part utilizing at least one of flash memories and dynamic random access memories of those virtual machines.

12. An information processing system comprising the apparatus of claim 1 .

13. A method comprising:

providing a plurality of virtual machines of cloud infrastructure for implementing at least portions of a multi-tier storage system;

configuring a front-end storage tier of the multi-tier storage system to include:

a plurality of storage nodes of a cluster file system with the storage nodes being implemented on respective ones of the virtual machines; and

a software-defined storage pool accessible to the storage nodes and comprising local disk resources of respective ones of the virtual machines;

configuring a back-end storage tier of the multi-tier storage system to include at least one object store, the back-end storage tier being separate from the software-defined storage pool; and

recovering from a failure in the local disk resources of a given one of the virtual machines by obtaining corresponding data from the local disk resources of one or more other ones of the virtual machines via the software-defined storage pool;

wherein a capacity of the software-defined storage pool is automatically adjustable by adjusting sizes of at least a subset of the virtual machines; and

wherein the method is performed by a processing platform comprising a plurality of processing devices.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein at least a subset of the virtual machines further comprise respective compute nodes that access the multi-tier storage system.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein configuring the front-end storage tier to include a software-defined storage pool further comprises controlling the software-defined storage pool utilizing a software-defined storage controller implemented in a distributed manner over the respective ones of the virtual machines.

16. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by a processing platform comprising a plurality of processing devices causes said processing platform:

to provide a plurality of virtual machines of cloud infrastructure for implementing at least portions of a multi-tier storage system;

to configure a front-end storage tier of the multi-tier storage system to include:

a plurality of storage nodes of a cluster file system with the storage nodes being implemented on respective ones of the virtual machines; and

a software-defined storage pool accessible to the storage nodes and comprising local disk resources of respective ones of the virtual machines;

to configure a back-end storage tier of the multi-tier storage system to include at least one object store, the back-end storage tier being separate from the software-defined storage pool;

wherein the multi-tier storage system is further configured to recover from a failure in the local disk resources of a given one of the virtual machines by obtaining corresponding data from the local disk resources of one or more other ones of the virtual machines via the software-defined storage pool; and

wherein a capacity of the software-defined storage pool is automatically adjustable by adjusting sizes of at least a subset of the virtual machines.

17. The processor-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein configuring the front-end storage tier to include a software-defined storage pool further comprises controlling the software-defined storage pool using a software-defined storage controller implemented in a distributed manner over the respective ones of the virtual machines.

Assignments (6)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL/FRAME (053546/0001) Recorded Jun 23, 2022
From: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A., AS NOTES COLLATERAL AGENT
To: DELL MARKETING L.P. (ON BEHALF OF ITSELF AND AS SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.); DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; DELL MARKETING CORPORATION (SUCCESSOR-IN-INTEREST TO FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC. AND WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.); EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 071642/0001 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 22, 2020
From: CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES INC.; DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL MARKETING L.P.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A.
Reel/Frame 053546/0001 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Mar 21, 2019
From: CREDANT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; DELL INTERNATIONAL L.L.C.; DELL MARKETING L.P.; DELL PRODUCTS L.P.; DELL USA L.P.; EMC CORPORATION; FORCE10 NETWORKS, INC.; WYSE TECHNOLOGY L.L.C.; EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
To: THE BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST COMPANY, N.A.
Reel/Frame 049452/0223 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 3, 2017
From: EMC CORPORATION
To: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Reel/Frame 041872/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 26, 2016
From: FAIBISH, SORIN; TING, DENNIS; TZELNIC, PERCY; PEDONE, JAMES M., JR.
To: EMC CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 040138/0058 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 26, 2016
From: WILSON, BOYD
To: EMC CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 040139/0087 →