Mirroring mechanisms for storage area networks and network based virtualization

摘要

A technique is provided for implementing online mirroring of a volume in a storage area network. A first instance of the volume is instantiated at a first port of the fiber channel fabric for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the volume. One or more mirroring procedures may be performed at the volume. In at least one implementation, the first port is able to perform first I/O operations at the volume concurrently while the mirroring procedures are being performed at the first volume. In one implementation, the mirroring procedures may be implemented at a fabric switch of the storage area network. Additionally, in at least one implementation, multiple hosts may be provided with concurrent access to the volume during the mirroring operations without serializing the access to the volume.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
instantiating, by a first switch port of a plurality of ports of a fibre channel fabric associated with a storage area network, a first instance of a first volume for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the first volume; creating a differential snapshot of the first volume, the differential snapshot being representative of a copy of the first volume as of a designated time T; enabling the first switch port to perform first I/O operations at the first volume concurrently while the differential snapshot is being created; instantiating, by a second switch port of the plurality of ports of the fibre channel fabric, a second instance of the first volume for enabling I/O operations to be performed at the first volume; and enabling the second switch port to perform second I/O operations to be performed at the first volume concurrently while the differential snapshot is being created, and concurrently while the first switch port is performing the first I/O operations at the first volume; wherein the first I/O operations are performed independently of the second I/O operations; wherein the first switch port of the plurality of ports is configured to notify the second switch port of the plurality of ports of an active region of the first volume prior to performing a mirror resynchronization operation.