Topological Map for Data Center Storage Safety Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data centers face challenges in informing tenants about the safety and protection status of their data due to the virtualized environment, where data storage locations are unclear, and the infrastructure is vulnerable to failures and natural disasters.
Innovation Solution
Creating a topological map of storage constructs within the data center, including logical and physical storage devices and hardware structures, to evaluate fault tolerance and apply rules for an overall assessment of data safety, with a recovery drill application simulating failures to assess data protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If virtual machines are used to provide data processing services, then load balancing and failover capability are improved, but the ability to know exact physical storage locations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a topological map as an intermediary structure that bridges the virtual storage layer and physical storage layer. This map contains storage path constructs that trace the complete data path from virtual disks through storage controllers to physical devices, enabling tenants to understand physical locations without disrupting virtual machine operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the storage infrastructure into distinct components (logical storage devices, physical storage devices, and hardware structures in between) represented as separate constructs in the topological map. This segmentation allows independent analysis of each component's fault tolerance while maintaining the overall virtualized storage abstraction.
2Adaptability or versatility
If virtualized storage infrastructure is used, then service flexibility and transportability are improved, but fault tolerance assessment capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the topological map is continuously updated with current storage path information, and fault tolerance assessments are performed on this map to provide feedback to tenants about their data safety status. This enables ongoing monitoring of fault tolerance in the virtualized environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary fault tolerance assessment by analyzing the topological map before actual failures occur. The system evaluates storage path constructs and applies rules to generate safety assessments in advance, allowing tenants to understand their data protection status before disasters or failures happen.
3Measurement precision
If detailed storage path mapping is implemented, then data safety assessment accuracy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by having the system automatically query data sources, construct topological maps, and generate fault tolerance assessments without requiring manual intervention. The administrative application performs these complex tasks autonomously, reducing the burden on users while maintaining high assessment accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The topological map serves multiple functions: it maps storage paths, enables fault tolerance assessment, provides safety reporting, and supports compliance verification. By consolidating these functions into a single data structure, the patent reduces overall system complexity while improving measurement precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique for verifying the safety of tenant data in a data center includes creating a topological map of storage constructs used for storing the tenant data within the data center. The topological map includes a logical storage device, a physical storage device, and a set of hardware structures disposed between the logical and physical storage devices. The constructs of the topological map are evaluated to generate an individual assessment of fault tolerance of each construct, and a set of rules are applied to generate an overall assessment of the safety of the tenant data. In an example, an administrator may operate this technique on a tenant application and generate a report for the tenant summarizing the results.