Storage Volume Lease Metadata for Host Operation Status
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Solution Overview
Problem
In shared storage environments, determining the status of host operations without accessing the host is challenging, especially when operations are interrupted by unforeseen circumstances like outages, and existing methods consume resources or require host access.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves using metadata associated with volumes to indicate the status of host operations by acquiring and managing leases on storage domains, where a bit flag and offset in metadata structures indicate the validity and completeness of operations, allowing second hosts to determine the status without direct host access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If host operations are monitored by accessing the host directly, then operation status can be determined, but host availability is required and resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces storage domain metadata as an intermediary that stores operation status information independently of the host. Instead of directly accessing the host to determine operation status, the system queries the storage domain's metadata which contains lease information and operation indicators. This intermediary approach allows status determination without requiring host availability or consuming host resources.
2Loss of information
If host resources are consumed to track operation status, then accurate status information is available, but system efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The storage domain metadata structure automatically maintains operation status information through leases and metadata updates without requiring continuous host resource consumption. When operations occur, the metadata is updated to reflect the new status, and this information persists independently. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for continuous host resource allocation to track operation status, reducing overall system resource consumption while maintaining accurate information.
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations of the disclosure provides for determining status of a host operation without accessing the host in a shared storage environment. A method of the disclosure includes acquiring, by a processing device, a lease on a storage volume associated with a storage domain. The lease grants the processing device exclusive access to the storage volume. Responsive to acquiring the lease, a data structure associated with the storage volume is modified to indicate that data of the storage volume is invalid. An update operation is initiated with respect to the storage volume. Upon completion of the update operation, the data structure is updated to indicate that the data valid and the lease on the storage volume is released.