A method is provided that includes establishing, by an application server, a remote access session with a client device, and creating, by a file system agent running on the application server, a metadata-only virtual file system associated with the remote access session, wherein the virtual file system only comprises file metadata associated with a plurality of files residing in a local file system of the client device. The method further includes responsive to receiving, by the virtual file system, a request to access content of a file referenced by the virtual file system, redirecting the request to a file system driver implementing at least a sub-tree of the local file system of the client device.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a hybrid approach to performing a lazy pull of a container image. A file system in user space (FUSE) is utilized to lazy pull the container image, and manage file requests from the container while the container image is being fetched locally. During the retrieving, the FUSE may receive from the container, one or more file requests, and may temporarily block each of the one or more file requests until it can process them. Once the container image is fully fetched locally, the overlay structure of the container image expected by a file system in the kernel (e.g., Overlay FS) is created and control is passed to the file system in the kernel. The FUSE may then unmount itself, to expose the container to the underlying mount point.

A method of transparently inserting a virtual storage layer into a Fibre channel based storage area network (SAN) while maintaining continuous I/O operations is provided. A device is inserted between a host entity and a first storage device. The device identifies a plurality of first paths between the host entity and the first storage device, and defines a plurality of second paths by defining, for each first path among the plurality of first paths, a corresponding second path between the host entity and a second storage device. The device determines, for each of the plurality of first paths, a respective first state. The device establishes, for each of the second paths among the plurality of second paths, a second state based on the first state of the corresponding first path. The device redirects, to the second storage device, communications directed from the host entity to the first storage device, via the plurality of second paths.

A method for de-duplicating updates in virtual machines (VMs) is provided that may be executed on a host computer using a hypervisor. Client VMs are derived from a base image, and the method includes: creating a temporary virtual machine, updating the temporary virtual machine, identifying modified blocks of the updated temporary virtual machine, and identifying files associated with the modified blocks. Moreover, the method includes determining block identifiers of matching files of a VM corresponding to identified files of the updated temporary VM, moving block content of blocks relating to the determined block identifiers from its initial location to a free location within the client VM if the block content and the matching files are not identical in the client virtual machine and the temporary VM, and de-duplicating content within the client VM, generating a complete bootable image, and replacing the base image by the temporary VM.

Techniques for a virtualized fabric name server for a storage area network are described herein. An aspect includes operating a storage area network, the storage area network including a hybrid control plane. Another aspect includes managing, using a virtualized fabric name server and the hybrid control plane, the storage area network, wherein the virtualized fabric name server is disposed in a container that is hosted on an element of the storage area network.

Examples of systems described herein include a virtualized file server including a first file server virtual machine and a second file server virtual machine configured to manage a distributed file share of storage items. The second file server virtual machine is configured to manage a particular storage item of the distributed file share of storage items. The first file server virtual machine is configured to, in response to receipt of a referral request for a file share path for the particular storage item from a client, look up a file share path for the particular storage item in a map of at least a portion of the distributed file share of storage items, and provide a referral with the file share path that identifies the second file server virtual machine.

Examples of systems described herein include a virtualized file server including a first file server virtual machine and a second file server virtual machine configured to manage a distributed file share of storage items. The second file server virtual machine is configured to manage a particular storage item of the distributed file share of storage items. The first file server virtual machine is configured to, in response to receipt of a referral request for a file share path for the particular storage item from a client, look up a file share path for the particular storage item in a map of at least a portion of the distributed file share of storage items, and provide a referral with the file share path that identifies the second file server virtual machine.

A computer-implemented method may comprise executing, by a first plurality of replicated state machines, a sequence of ordered agreements to make mutations to a data stored in a first data storage of a first type and executing, by a second plurality of replicated state machines, the sequence of ordered agreements to make mutations to the data stored in a second data storage of a second type. First metadata of the mutated data stored in the first data storage may then be received and stored, as may second metadata of the mutated data stored in the second data storage. A comparison of the stored first and second metadata may then be carried out when the data stored in the first data storage that corresponds to the first metadata and the data stored in the second data storage that corresponds to the second metadata have been determined to have settled according to the predetermined one of the sequence of ordered agreements. A selected action may then be carried out depending upon a result of the comparison.

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing virtual machine (“VM”) management, and, more particularly, to methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing VM management using hardware compression. In various embodiments, a computing system might identify one or more first virtual machines (“VM's”) among a plurality of VM's that are determined to be currently inactive and might identify one or more second VM's among the plurality of VM's that are determined to be currently active. The computing system might compress a virtual hard drive associated with each of the identified one or more first VM's that are determined to be currently inactive. The computing system might also perform or continue to perform one or more operations using each of the identified one or more second VM's that are determined to be currently active.

A system and method are presented that utilize separate append-only arrays to track metadata and real data for a file. All modifications to the file result in metadata records being appended to the end of the metadata array. Write modification commands cause real data to be appended to the file data array. The location of real data on the file data array is identified by a record in the metadata array. Modification commands can be grouped into sets, which complete as a set. Modification sets can rely upon the completeness of prior sets. Read-like commands cause the creation of a virtual array based upon the records of the metadata array. The created virtual array has the same size as the actual file but does not contain the real data for the file. Rather, the virtual file array maps to the actual data stored in the file data array.