Virtual Disk Snapshot Migration to Hypervisor-Neutral Block Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Application users face challenges in efficiently moving data from proprietary virtual machine formats to hypervisor-neutral block storage without significant processor/network overhead and maintaining data coherency.
Innovation Solution
A data mobility proxy application takes a hypervisor-native snapshot of the virtual disk, generates a storage system snapshot, and uses hypervisor-native APIs to read and write data blocks to a hypervisor-neutral logical unit (LUN) without hypervisor-specific metadata, reducing overhead by deleting the hypervisor-native snapshot and maintaining data coherency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If data is moved from proprietary virtual machine formats to hypervisor-neutral block storage using traditional methods, then data mobility is achieved, but processor and network overhead increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a storage system snapshot as an intermediary mechanism between the source virtual disk and destination block storage. The snapshot captures the state of the storage system at a specific point in time, allowing data to be accessed and migrated without requiring active processing or network communication during the migration. This intermediary snapshot eliminates the need for continuous processor and network overhead while maintaining data integrity and enabling efficient data movement from proprietary virtual machine formats to hypervisor-neutral block storage.
2Adaptability or versatility
If data is migrated from proprietary formats to hypervisor-neutral formats, then storage options increase, but data coherency may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by creating a snapshot of the storage system before data migration begins. This snapshot captures the exact state of all data blocks at a specific point in time, ensuring that the source data remains consistent throughout the migration process. By preparing this preliminary snapshot, the system guarantees data coherency while enabling migration to multiple hypervisor-neutral formats, thus increasing storage options without compromising reliability.
3Ease of operation
If hypervisor-specific metadata is retained during data migration, then data access is simplified, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and separates the data content from its proprietary format-specific metadata during the migration process. The storage system snapshot mechanism allows direct access to raw data blocks without requiring the source hypervisor-specific metadata structures. This extraction approach simplifies data access at the destination by using universal block storage formats while eliminating the complexity of maintaining and translating hypervisor-specific metadata, thus reducing device complexity while preserving ease of operation through standardized interfaces.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique may include generating a snapshot from a proprietary format, generating a snapshot of a block-based backend storage system, where the snapshot of the block-based back in storage system references the snapshot from the proprietary format. APIs associated with the proprietary format may then be used to read out application data as blocks and to write those blocks to an independent logical unit.