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 - 10 . (canceled) 
     
     
         11 . A cross-host multi-hypervisor system, comprising:
 a plurality of host sites executed by at least one processor, each site comprising:
 at least one hypervisor, each of which comprises:
 at least one virtual server; 
 at least one virtual disk that is read from and written to by said at least one virtual server; 
 
 a tapping driver installed within a hypervisor kernel of the at least one hypervisor, wherein the tapping driver resides in a software layer between the at least one virtual server and the at least one virtual disk, and the tapping driver is in communication with said at least one virtual server, wherein the tapping driver intercepts write requests made by any one of said at least one virtual server to any one of said at least one virtual disk; and 
 a virtual data services appliance, in communication with said tapping driver, which receives the intercepted write requests from said tapping driver, and which provides data services based thereon; and 
 a data services manager for coordinating the virtual data services appliances at the site and for communicatively coupling said plurality of host sites via a network, wherein said data services manager coordinates data transfer across said plurality of host sites via said network; 
 wherein said data services manager provides data recovery for the at least one virtual server executing on the at least one hypervisor. 
   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  wherein at least one of said virtual data services appliances at a first of said plurality of host sites transmits intercepted write requests to at least one of said virtual data services appliances at a second of said plurality of host sites, via said network. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12  wherein the at least one of said virtual data services appliances at the second of said plurality of host sites periodically apply the intercepted write requests to at least one of said virtual disks at the second site. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11  wherein said data services managers pair a group of at least one of said virtual servers at one or more first ones of said plurality of host sites with a corresponding group of at least one of said virtual servers at one or more second ones of said plurality of host sites, as source virtual protection groups and target virtual protection groups. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein said virtual data services appliance at each hypervisor at the one or more first ones of said plurality of host sites preserves write order fidelity for the write requests intercepted from virtual servers in the source virtual protection group at the hypervisor. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  wherein said virtual data services appliances at the hypervisors at the one or more first ones of said plurality of host sites transmit, via said network, the write requests intercepted from virtual servers in the source virtual protection group, to said virtual data services appliances in the hypervisors at the one or more second ones of said plurality of host sites that include virtual servers in the target virtual protection group. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16  wherein said virtual data services appliances in the hypervisors at the one or more second ones of said plurality of host sites that include virtual servers in the target virtual protection group periodically apply the intercepted write requests to at least one of said virtual disks in the hypervisors at the one or more second ones of said plurality of host sites. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the virtual servers in the source virtual protection group belong to a same hypervisor. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the virtual servers in the target virtual protection group belong to a same hypervisor. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the source virtual protection group spans a same number of hypervisors as does the target virtual protection group. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 14  wherein said data services managers provide data recovery for the virtual servers in the source virtual protection group from the virtual servers in the target virtual protection group.