Unified-interface for storage provisioning
地域：
NY
NY Islandia
摘要
Systems and methods are provided for storage platform-independent storage provisioning. The systems and methods may include receiving a storage provisioning request from a user interface, processing the storage provisioning request to determine one or more of a plurality of storage resources utilized to complete the storage provisioning request, generating an instruction to provision a data storage space among the one or more of the plurality of storage resources, and provisioning the data storage space based on the instruction. Each of the plurality of storage resources may include an interface configuration, and at least two interface configurations are different from one another. Each of the plurality of storage resources may be accessible and operational in accordance with the interface configuration thereof. The processing of a storage provisioning request may include determining at least one of a nature of the storage provisioning request, or an application associated with the storage provisioning request.
說明書
The present patent is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/186,958, filed 20 Jul. 2011, having the same title, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The invention generally relates to provisioning storage among heterogeneous storage resources using a storage device type-agnostic application.
Typically, to integrate storage provisioning functionality or features into a variety of software products, such as, e.g., software products related to system management and automation, the software products have to be adapted to directly access and communicate with storage devices or resources, some of which may have unique interfacing characteristics or configurations. Accordingly, each of those software products are required to be modified to include interface modules (e.g., using custom source code) corresponding to each unique interface configuration so that the software products can interface with the storage devices for storage allocation.
權(quán)利要求
What is claimed is:1. A method of provisioning network-attached storage, the method comprising:receiving, with one or more processors, via a network, a storage provisioning request from a requesting computing device,wherein the request specifies that storage is to be added and indicates an application for which the storage is to be provisioned, and wherein the request does not indicate which storage device is to be used to satisfy the request; after receiving the storage provisioning request, selecting, with one or more processors, a storage device from among a plurality of storage devices accessible via the network based on the application for which the storage is to be provisioned,wherein the plurality of storage devices include storage devices having different interface configurations by which the respective storage devices are remotely commanded to provision storage; instructing, with one or more processors, a module configured to provide a unified interface to provision storage in the selected storage device for the requesting computing device,wherein the instruction is provided to the unified interface, and wherein the unified interface provides a consistent interface across heterogeneous storage devices having disparate interface configurations; adapting, with one or more processers instantiating the module, the instruction to an interface configuration of the selected storage device; receiving, with one or more processors, via the network, a report indicating that the storage was successfully provisioned by the selected storage device, the report indicating an address of the provisioned storage; and sending, with one or more processors, via the network, to the requesting computing device, the address of the provisioned storage, wherein:the requesting computing device comprises a server hosting production software; the storage provisioning request comprises an automated provisioning request specifying that the application is production software; selecting the storage device comprises selecting first and second storage devices in response to the automated provisioning request, the first and second storage devices are selected based on both:differences in speed of access of the first and second storage devices relative to other storage devices among the plurality of storage devices, and failover policies of the first and second storage devices; the first and second storage devices have different interface configurations and are made by different vendors from one another; instructing the module comprises instructing the module via the unified interface to provision storage on the first and second storage devices; adapting the instruction comprises adapting the instruction with two different software modules configured to interface with the first and second storage devices respectively; and receiving the report comprises receiving a first status report from the first storage device and a second status report from the second storage device, the first status report and the second status report each indicating storage is successfully provisioned and a network address of a respective storage device on the network. 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:the requesting computing device comprises a server; the request is an automated request; the application for which the storage is to be provisioned is production software; and the plurality of storage devices comprise a first storage device and a second storage device, wherein the first storage device is faster than the second storage device in speed of access to stored data; and selecting the storage device comprises selecting the first storage device based on both the first storage device being faster than the second storage device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned being production software. 3. The method of claim 1 , wherein:the requesting computing device is a user computing device; the request is received via a web service user interface; the application for which the storage is to be provisioned is executed on the user computing device; the plurality of storage devices comprise a first storage device and a second storage device, wherein the first storage device is faster than the second storage device in speed of access to stored data; and selecting the storage device comprises selecting the second storage device based on both the first storage device being faster than the second storage device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned being executed on a user computing device. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:the application for which the storage is to be provisioned is a product testing application; and the plurality of storage devices comprise a first storage device and a second storage device, wherein the first storage device is faster than the second storage device in speed of access to stored data; and selecting the storage device comprises selecting the second storage device based on both the first storage device being faster than the second storage device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned being a product testing application. 5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:selecting the storage device comprises:obtaining for each of at least some of the plurality of storage devices:a respective failover policy, a respective backup policy, and a respective speed of access; and selecting one of the plurality of storage devices based on the respective failover policy, respective backup policy, and respective speed of access of the at least some of the plurality of storage devices. 6. The method of claim 1 , comprising:obtaining a priority of the requesting computing device, wherein selecting the storage device comprises selecting among the plurality of storage devices based on both the priority of the requesting computing device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned. 7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:selecting the storage device comprises selecting a plurality of storage devices based on storage device performance. 8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:the selected plurality of storage devices comprises:a first storage device having a first interface configuration; a second storage device having a second interface configuration that is different from the first interface configuration; adapting the instruction comprises:interfacing with the first storage device with a first software module to provision at least some requested storage; interfacing with the second storage device with a second software module to provision at least some requested storage, the second software module being a different software module from the first software module. 9. The method of claim 1 , comprising:receiving, with the selected storage device, data to be stored from the requesting computing device; and storing the received data with the selected storage device. 10. A system, comprising:one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that when executed by at least some of the processors effectuate operations comprising:receiving, via a network, a storage provisioning request from a requesting computing device,wherein the request specifies that storage is to be added and indicates an application for which the storage is to be provisioned, and wherein the request does not indicate which storage device is to be used to satisfy the request; after receiving the storage provisioning request, selecting a storage device from among a plurality of storage devices accessible via the network based on the application for which the storage is to be provisioned,wherein the plurality of storage devices include storage devices having different interface configurations by which the respective storage devices are remotely configured to provision storage; instructing a module configured to provide a unified interface to provision storage in the selected storage device to the requesting computing device,wherein the instruction is provided to the unified interface, and wherein the unified interface provides a consistent interface across heterogeneous storage devices having disparate interface configurations; adapting, with the module, the instruction to an interface configuration of the selected storage device; receiving, via the network, a report indicating that the storage was successfully provisioned by the selected storage device, the report indicating an address of the provisioned storage; and sending, via the network, to the requesting computing device, the address of the provisioned storage, wherein:the requesting computing device comprises a server hosting production software; the storage provisioning request comprises an automated provisioning request specifying that the application is production software; selecting the storage device comprises selecting first and second storage devices in response to the automated provisioning request, the first and second storage devices are selected based on both:differences in speed of access of the first and second storage devices relative to other storage devices among the plurality of storage devices, and failover policies of the first and second storage devices; the first and second storage devices have different interface configurations and are made by different vendors from one another; instructing the module comprises instructing the module via the unified interface to provision storage on the first and second storage devices; adapting the instruction comprises adapting the instruction with two different software modules configured to interface with the first and second storage devices respectively; and receiving the report comprises receiving a first status report from the first storage device and a second status report from the second storage device, the first status report and the second status report each indicating storage is successfully provisioned and a network address of a respective storage device on the network. 11. The system of claim 10 , wherein:the requesting computing device comprises a server; the request is an automated request; the application for which the storage is to be provisioned is production software; and the plurality of storage devices comprise a first storage device and a second storage device, wherein the first storage device is faster than the second storage device in speed of access to stored data; and selecting the storage device comprises selecting the first storage device based on both the first storage device being faster than the second storage device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned being production software. 12. The system of claim 10 , wherein:the requesting computing device is a user computing device; the request is received via a web service user interface; the application for which the storage is to be provisioned is executed on the user computing device; the plurality of storage devices comprise a first storage device and a second storage device, wherein the first storage device is faster than the second storage device in speed of access; and selecting the storage device comprises selecting the second storage device based on both the first storage device being faster than the second storage device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned being executed on a user computing device. 13. The system of claim 10 , wherein:the application for which the storage is to be provisioned is a product testing application; and the plurality of storage devices comprise a first storage device and a second storage device, wherein the first storage device is faster than the second storage device in speed of access; and selecting the storage device comprises selecting the second storage device based on both the first storage device being faster than the second storage device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned being a product testing application. 14. The system of claim 10 , wherein:selecting the storage device comprises:obtaining for each of at least some of the plurality of storage devices:a respective failover policy, a respective backup policy, and a respective speed of access; and selecting one of the plurality of storage devices based on the respective failover policy, respective backup policy, and respective speed of access of the at least some of the plurality of storage devices. 15. The system of claim 10 , the operations comprising:obtaining a priority of the requesting computing device, wherein selecting the storage device comprises selecting among the plurality of storage devices based on both the priority of the requesting computing device and the application for which the storage is to be provisioned. 16. The system of claim 10 , wherein:selecting the storage device comprises selecting a plurality of storage devices based on storage device performance. 17. The system of claim 16 , wherein:the selected plurality of storage devices comprises:a first storage device having a first interface configuration; a second storage device having a second interface configuration that is different from the first interface configuration; adapting the instruction comprises:interfacing with the first storage device with a first software module to provision at least some requested storage; interfacing with the second storage device with a second software module to provision at least some requested storage, the second software module being a different software module from the first software module. 18. The system of claim 10 , comprising:at least some of the plurality of storage devices; means for processing storage provisioning requests to determine one or more specific storage devices; and means for accepting instructions to provision required storage.
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