Abstract:
Techniques for utilizing flash storage as an extension of hard disk (HDD) storage are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system stores a subset of blocks of a logical file in a first physical file, associated with a first data structure that represents a filesystem object, on flash storage and a subset of blocks, associated with a second data structure that represents a filesystem object comprising tiering configuration information that includes an identifier of the first physical file, in a second physical file on HDD storage. The computer system processes an I/O request directed to the logical file by directing it to either the physical file on the flash storage or the HDD storage by verifying that the tiering configuration information exists in the data structure and determining whether the one or more blocks are part of the first subset of blocks or the second subset of blocks.
Abstract:
System and method for checking and characterizing metadata of snapshots utilize a snapshot metadata database to execute at least one of checking and characterizing operations on the metadata of snapshots. The snapshot metadata database includes information extracted from backing storage elements containing the metadata of snapshots.
Abstract:
User data of different snapshots for the same virtual disk are stored in the same storage object. Similarly, metadata of different snapshots for the same virtual disk are stored in the same storage object, and log data of different snapshots for the same virtual disk are stored in the same storage object. As a result, the number of different storage objects that are managed for snapshots do not increase proportionally with the number of snapshots taken. In addition, any one of the multitude of persistent storage back-ends can be selected as the storage back-end for the storage objects according to user preference, system requirement, snapshot policy, or any other criteria. Another advantage is that the storage location of the read data can be obtained with a single read of the metadata storage object, instead of traversing metadata files of multiple snapshots.
Abstract:
Multiple servers sharing a distributed file system are used to perform copies of regions of a source file in parallel from a source storage unit to corresponding temporary files at a destination storage unit. These temporary files are then merged or combined into a single file at the destination storage unit in a way that preserves the inode structure and attributes of the source file. A substantial speedup is obtained by copying regions of the file in parallel.
Abstract:
Techniques for utilizing flash storage as an extension of hard disk (HDD) storage are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system stores a subset of blocks of a logical file in a first physical file, associated with a first data structure that represents a filesystem object, on flash storage and a subset of blocks, associated with a second data structure that represents a filesystem object comprising tiering configuration information that includes an identifier of the first physical file, in a second physical file on HDD storage. The computer system processes an I/O request directed to the logical file by directing it to either the physical file on the flash storage or the HDD storage by verifying that the tiering configuration information exists in the data structure and determining whether the one or more blocks are part of the first subset of blocks or the second subset of blocks.
Abstract:
Techniques for utilizing flash storage as an extension of hard disk (HDD) storage are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system stores a subset of blocks of a logical file in a first physical file, associated with a first data structure that represents a filesystem object, on flash storage and a subset of blocks, associated with a second data structure that represents a filesystem object comprising tiering configuration information that includes an identifier of the first physical file, in a second physical file on HDD storage. The computer system processes an I/O request directed to the logical file by directing it to either the physical file on the flash storage or the HDD storage by verifying that the tiering configuration information exists in the data structure and determining whether the one or more blocks are part of the first subset of blocks or the second subset of blocks.
Abstract:
Techniques for using a cache to accelerate virtual machine (VM) I/O are provided. In one embodiment, a host system can intercept an I/O request from a VM running on the host system, where the I/O request is directed to a virtual disk residing on a shared storage device. The host system can then process the I/O request by accessing a cache that resides on one or more cache devices directly attached to the host system, where the accessing of the cache is transparent to the VM.
Abstract:
Techniques for using a cache to accelerate virtual machine (VM) I/O are provided. In one embodiment, a host system can intercept an I/O request from a VM running on the host system, where the I/O request is directed to a virtual disk residing on a shared storage device. The host system can then process the I/O request by accessing a cache that resides on one or more cache devices directly attached to the host system, where the accessing of the cache is transparent to the VM.
Abstract:
Techniques for surfacing host-side flash storage capacity to a plurality of VMs running on a host system are provided. In one embodiment, the host system creates, for each VM in the plurality of VMs, a flash storage space allocation in a flash storage device that is locally attached to the host system. The host system then causes the flash storage space allocation to be readable and writable by the VM as a virtual flash memory device.
Abstract:
Techniques for tuning the key space of an instance of a tree data structure are provided. In one embodiment, a computer system can receive a request to create the instance, where the request includes an expected key space value indicating an expected range of key values to be addressed by the instance. The computer system can further calculate a number of bits to allocate to each key of each node of the instance based on the expected key space value. The computer system can then, at a time of instantiating each node of the instance, allocate the keys for the node in accordance with the calculated number of bits.