US-12619374-B2 - Host multi-path layer with dynamic adjustment of zone sets through interaction with a centralized discovery controller

US12619374B2US 12619374 B2US12619374 B2US 12619374B2US-12619374-B2

Abstract

An apparatus in an illustrative embodiment comprises at least one processing device that includes a processor coupled to a memory. The at least one processing device is configured to implement a centralized discovery controller for coupling to a host and to a storage system accessed by the host. The centralized discovery controller is configured to receive, from at least one of the host and the storage system, information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set, a given such zone set specifying a plurality of endpoints including one or more host endpoints and one or more storage system endpoints, and responsive to the received information, to automatically initiate the adjustment in the at least one zone set. The host endpoints illustratively comprise respective host initiators and the storage system endpoints illustratively comprise respective storage system targets.

Inventors

Amit Pundalik Anchi
Rimpesh Patel

Assignees

DELL PRODUCTS L.P.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20231127

Claims (20)

1 . An apparatus comprising: at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory; the at least one processing device being configured: to implement a centralized discovery controller for coupling to a host and to a storage system accessed by the host; wherein the centralized discovery controller is configured: to receive discovery requests from the host and to provide, in response to each of one or more of the discovery requests, information identifying at least one storage system endpoint to which the host is permitted to connect; to receive, from at least one of the host and the storage system, information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set, a given such zone set specifying a plurality of endpoints including one or more host endpoints and one or more storage system endpoints; and responsive to the received information, to automatically initiate the adjustment in the at least one zone set; wherein the information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set comprises a request from the host, generated based at least in part on a condition detected by the host, to move at least one endpoint from a configured zone set maintained for the host in the centralized discovery controller to an active zone set maintained for the host in the centralized discovery controller, the request being sent from the host to the centralized discovery controller to direct the centralized discovery controller to modify the configured zone set and the active zone set as requested by the host, the modification of the configured zone set and the active zone set being carried out in the centralized discovery controller through adjustment of the configured zone set and the active zone set in at least one zoning database maintained by the centralized discovery controller.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one processing device comprises at least a portion of a switch fabric over which the host communicates with the storage system.
3 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the host endpoints comprise respective host initiators and the storage system endpoints comprise respective storage system targets.
4 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the centralized discovery controller is further configured to identify particular targets of the storage system that are accessible to the host.
5 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set is received in the centralized discovery controller from a multi-path input-output driver of the host and wherein the multi-path input-output driver controls delivery of input-output operations from the host to the storage system over selected paths.
6 . The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set is generated by the multi-path input-output driver based at least in part on an issue detected by the multi-path input-output driver, wherein the issue detected by the multi-path input-output driver comprises at least one of: a loss of at least a threshold number of connections between one or more host endpoints and one or more storage system endpoints; at least a threshold amount of change in a workload of at least one application executing on the host; and at least a threshold amount of performance degradation associated with one or more fabric performance impact notifications (FPINs) relating to a storage area network (SAN) over which the host communicates with the storage system.
7 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises a request from the host for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set.
8 . The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the particular type of adjustment comprises at least one of an addition of at least one endpoint to a given zone set and a deletion of at least one endpoint from the given zone set.
9 . The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the request for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises at least one command sent from a multi-path input-output driver of the host utilizing a particular storage access protocol.
10 . The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the request for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises a request to modify a status of at least one endpoint from a configured status to an active status for the at least one zone set.
11 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises a request from the storage system for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set.
12 . The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises at least one Asynchronous Event Notification (AEN) sent from one of the host and the storage system and associated with at least one corresponding Asynchronous Event Request (AER) previously sent by the centralized discovery controller to one of the host and the storage system.
13 . The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the AEN is sent from the storage system to the centralized discovery controller and indicates a detected condition relating to one or more storage system endpoints that will adversely impact one or more connections between the host and the storage system.
14 . The apparatus of claim 13 wherein responsive to receipt of the AEN from the storage system, the centralized discovery controller automatically initiates the adjustment in the at least one zone set at least in part by sending an AEN to the host, wherein the host, responsive to receipt of the AEN from the centralized discovery controller, sends a log page command to the centralized discovery controller to determine one or more new endpoints to which it should connect to alleviate the detected condition.
15 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory, causes the at least one processing device: to implement a centralized discovery controller for coupling to a host and to a storage system accessed by the host; wherein the centralized discovery controller is configured: to receive discovery requests from the host and to provide, in response to each of one or more of the discovery requests, information identifying at least one storage system endpoint to which the host is permitted to connect; to receive, from at least one of the host and the storage system, information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set, a given such zone set specifying a plurality of endpoints including one or more host endpoints and one or more storage system endpoints; and responsive to the received information, to automatically initiate the adjustment in the at least one zone set; wherein the information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set comprises a request from the host, generated based at least in part on a condition detected by the host, to move at least one endpoint from a configured zone set maintained for the host in the centralized discovery controller to an active zone set maintained for the host in the centralized discovery controller, the request being sent from the host to the centralized discovery controller to direct the centralized discovery controller to modify the configured zone set and the active zone set as requested by the host, the modification of the configured zone set and the active zone set being carried out in the centralized discovery controller through adjustment of the configured zone set and the active zone set in at least one zoning database maintained by the centralized discovery controller.
16 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises a request from one of the host and the storage system for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set.
17 . The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises at least one Asynchronous Event Notification (AEN) sent from one of the host and the storage system and associated with at least one corresponding Asynchronous Event Request (AER) previously sent by the centralized discovery controller to one of the host and the storage system.
18 . A method comprising: implementing a centralized discovery controller for coupling to a host and to a storage system accessed by the host, the centralized discovery controller being configured to receive discovery requests from the host and to provide, in response to each of one or more of the discovery requests, information identifying at least one storage system endpoint to which the host is permitted to connect; receiving, in the centralized discovery controller from at least one of the host and the storage system, information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set, a given such zone set specifying a plurality of endpoints including one or more host endpoints and one or more storage system endpoints; and responsive to the received information, automatically initiating in the centralized discovery controller the adjustment in the at least one zone set; wherein the information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set comprises a request from the host, generated based at least in part on a condition detected by the host, to move at least one endpoint from a configured zone set maintained for the host in the centralized discovery controller to an active zone set maintained for the host in the centralized discovery controller, the request being sent from the host to the centralized discovery controller to direct the centralized discovery controller to modify the configured zone set and the active zone set as requested by the host, the modification of the configured zone set and the active zone set being carried out in the centralized discovery controller through adjustment of the configured zone set and the active zone set in at least one zoning database maintained by the centralized discovery controller; and wherein the method is performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.
19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises a request from one of the host and the storage system for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set.
20 . The method of claim 18 wherein the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises at least one Asynchronous Event Notification (AEN) sent from one of the host and the storage system and associated with at least one corresponding Asynchronous Event Request (AER) previously sent by the centralized discovery controller to one of the host and the storage system.

Description

FIELD The field relates generally to information processing systems, and more particularly to storage in information processing systems. BACKGROUND Information processing systems often include distributed storage systems comprising multiple storage nodes. These distributed storage systems are often dynamically reconfigurable under software control in order to adapt the number and type of storage nodes and the corresponding system storage capacity as needed, in an arrangement commonly referred to as a software-defined storage system. For example, in a typical software-defined storage system, storage capacities of multiple distributed storage nodes are pooled together into one or more storage pools. For applications running on a host that utilizes the software-defined storage system, such a storage system provides a logical storage volume view to allow a given application to store and access data, without the application being aware that the data is being dynamically distributed among different storage nodes. In these and numerous other storage system arrangements, it can be difficult to configure and adjust zone sets, particularly when using advanced storage access protocols such as Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) over Fabrics, also referred to as NVMe-oF, or NVMe over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), also referred to as NVMe/TCP. For example, conventional approaches in these and other contexts often require excessive manual intervention by storage administrators or other users. SUMMARY Illustrative embodiments provide techniques for dynamic adjustment of zone sets at least in part through interaction of a multi-path layer of one or more hosts with a centralized discovery controller. The centralized discovery controller in some embodiments is implemented, for example, in a switch fabric of a network through which the one or more hosts communicate with a distributed storage system or other type of storage system. Such techniques advantageously facilitate the usage of advanced storage access protocols such as NVMe-oF or NVMe/TCP while avoiding the above-described drawbacks of conventional practice. For example, some embodiments can substantially eliminate or otherwise alleviate the need for manual intervention, thereby providing significantly more flexible zone set arrangements, resulting in improved performance. Although some embodiments are described herein in the context of implementing an NVMe-oF or NVMe/TCP storage access protocol in a software-defined storage system or other distributed storage system, it is to be appreciated that other embodiments can be implemented in other types of storage systems using other storage access protocols. In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises at least one processing device that includes a processor coupled to a memory. The at least one processing device is configured to implement a centralized discovery controller for coupling to a host and to a storage system accessed by the host. The centralized discovery controller is configured to receive, from at least one of the host and the storage system, information indicating a need for an adjustment in at least one zone set, a given such zone set specifying a plurality of endpoints including one or more host endpoints and one or more storage system endpoints, and responsive to the received information, to automatically initiate the adjustment in the at least one zone set. The host endpoints illustratively comprise respective host initiators, such as respective host bus adaptors (HBAs) or other types of host ports, and the storage system endpoints illustratively comprise respective storage system targets, such as NVM subsystems, although numerous other types of host and storage system endpoints can be used in other embodiments. The information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set is illustratively received in the centralized discovery controller from, for example, a multi-path input-output (MPIO) driver of the host, where the MPIO driver controls delivery of IO operations from the host to the storage system over selected paths. In some embodiments, the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set comprises a request from the host for the centralized discovery controller to initiate a particular type of adjustment in the at least one zone set. Additionally or alternatively, such a request can come from the storage system. A wide variety of other types of information indicating a need for adjustment in at least one zone set can be used in other embodiments. For example, in some embodiments, the information indicating the need for the adjustment in the at least one zone set illustratively comprises at least one Asynchronous Event Notification (AEN) sent from one of the host and the storage system and associated with at least one corresponding Asynchronous Event Request (AER) previously sent by the centralized discovery controller to one of the host and the