Methods and apparatus for providing hypervisor level data services for server virtualization

Abstract

A hypervisor virtual server system, including a plurality of virtual servers, a plurality of virtual disks that are read from and written to by the plurality of virtual servers, a physical disk, an I/O backend coupled with the physical disk and in communication with the plurality of virtual disks, which reads from and writes to the physical disk, a tapping driver in communication with the plurality of virtual servers, which intercepts I/O requests made by any one of said plurality of virtual servers to any one of said plurality of virtual disks, and a virtual data services appliance, in communication with the tapping driver, which receives the intercepted I/O write requests from the tapping driver, and that provides data services based thereon.

1 . A hypervisor virtual server system, comprising:
 a plurality of virtual servers;   a plurality of virtual disks that are read from and written to by said plurality of virtual servers;   a physical disk;   an I/O backend coupled with said physical disk and in communication with said plurality of virtual disks, which reads from and writes to said physical disk;   a tapping driver in communication with said plurality of virtual servers, which intercepts I/O requests made by any one of said plurality of virtual servers to any one of said plurality of virtual disks; and   a virtual data services appliance, in communication with said tapping driver, which receives the intercepted I/O requests from said tapping driver, and which provides data services based thereon.   
     
     
         2 . The hypervisor virtual server system of  claim 1 , further comprising a journal manager in communication with said virtual data services appliance, which stores intercepted I/O write requests as journal entries in a virtual disk. 
     
     
         3 . The hypervisor virtual server system of  claim 2 , further comprising a hash generator in communication with said virtual data services appliance and with said journal manager, for generating hash values of the intercepted I/O write requests, and wherein said journal manager stores the generated hash values. 
     
     
         4 . The hypervisor virtual server system of  claim 1 , further comprising a TCP transmitter in communication with said virtual data services appliance, which transmits the intercepted I/O requests to a remote virtual data services appliance. 
     
     
         5 . The hypervisor virtual system of  claim 1 , further comprising a data analyzer in communication with said virtual data services appliance, which analyzes an intercepted I/O request and infers therefrom the data state of the virtual server that made the I/O request. 
     
     
         6 . A method for providing data services within a hypervisor virtual server system, comprising:
 intercepting I/O requests from any one of a plurality of virtual servers to one of a plurality of virtual disks; and   sending intercepted I/O write requests to a virtual data services appliance that provides hypervisor data services.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising journaling the intercepted I/O requests. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  further comprising generating a hash value for the intercepted I/O requests, and wherein said journaling comprises journaling the generated hash values. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising analyzing an intercepted I/O request inferring therefrom the data state of the virtual server that made the I/O request. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising sending the intercepted I/O requests to a remote computer, thereby providing replication for said plurality of virtual servers.