In one embodiment, a system for managing a virtualization environment includes a set of host machines, each of which includes a hypervisor, virtual machines, and a virtual machine controller, and a data migration system configured to identify one or more existing storage items stored at one or more existing File Server Virtual Machines (FSVMs) of an existing virtualized file server (VFS). For each of the existing storage items, the data migration system is configured to identify a new FSVMs of a new VFS based on the existing FSVM, send a representation of the storage item from the existing FSVM to the new FSVM, such that representations of storage items are sent between different pairs of FSVMs in parallel, and store a new storage item at the new FSVM, such that the new storage item is based on the representation of the existing storage item received by the new FSVM.

A method for synchronous replication of stream data includes receiving a stream of data blocks for storage at a first storage location associated with a first geographical region and at a second storage location associated with a second geographical region. The method also includes synchronously writing the stream of data blocks to the first storage location and to the second storage location. While synchronously writing the stream of data blocks, the method includes determining an unrecoverable failure at the second storage location. The method also includes determining a failure point in the writing of the stream of data blocks that demarcates data blocks that were successfully written and not successfully written to the second storage location. The method also includes synchronously writing, starting at the failure point, the stream of data blocks to the first storage location and to a third storage location associated with a third geographical region.

In one embodiment, a system for managing communication connections in a virtualization environment includes a plurality of host machines implementing a virtualization environment, wherein each of the host machines includes a hypervisor, at least one user virtual machine (user VM), and a distributed file server that includes file server virtual machines (FSVMs) and associated local storage devices. Each FSVM and associated local storage device are local to a corresponding one of the host machines, and the FSVMs conduct I/O transactions with their associated local storage devices based on I/O requests received from the user VMs. Each of the user VMs on each host machine sends each of its respective I/O requests to an FSVM that is selected by one or more of the FSVMs for each I/O request based on a lookup table that maps a storage item referenced by the I/O request to the selected one of the FSVMs.

Techniques for managing a file system involve in response to receiving, at a first backup device of the file system, a request for replicating data of the file system from the first backup device to a second backup device of the file system, determining a synchronization state between the first backup device and the file system, the second backup device being a backup device located downstream of the first backup device; creating, based on the synchronization state, a target snapshot associated with the file system; and causing the data to be replicated from the first backup device to the second backup device based on the target snapshot. Therefore, the data backup flexibility and accuracy of a file system can be significantly improved and therefore the reliability of the whole system may be enhanced.

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for dynamic mirroring. A first storage node and the second storage node within a first storage cluster may locally mirror data between one another based upon a local failover partnership. The first storage node and a third storage node within a second storage cluster may remotely mirror data between one another based upon a primary disaster recovery partnership. If the third storage node fails, then the first storage node may remotely mirror data to a fourth storage node within the second storage cluster based upon an auxiliary disaster recovery partnership. In this way, data loss protection for the first storage node may be improved, such that the fourth storage node provide clients with access to mirrored data from the first storage node in the event the second storage node and/or the third storage node are unavailable when the first storage node fails.

Generating datasets using approximate baselines including receiving, by a source storage system, an instruction to create, on a target storage system, a current snapshot for a source dataset stored on the source storage system, wherein no snapshots for the source dataset exist on the target storage system; selecting, as a baseline dataset, a similar dataset from a plurality of datasets on the source storage system with an existing snapshot on the target storage system, wherein the similar dataset comprises at least a portion of the source dataset; instructing the target storage system to generate a baseline snapshot for the source dataset using a copy of the existing snapshot of the baseline dataset; and transferring, from the source storage system to the target storage system, only a difference between the baseline dataset and the source dataset.

A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes determining patterns of an application that utilizes a filesystem and/or properties of queries of the application. Data of the filesystem is stored across a plurality of replication sites of a data storage system. Based on the determined patterns of the application and/or the determined proper-ties of the queries of the application, a utility of storing at least some of the data of the filesystem in different variations at more than one of the replication sites is estimated. The estimated utility is compared against a predetermined utility threshold, and in response to a determination that the estimated utility is greater than the predetermined utility threshold, a write system call offered by the filesystem is modified to store the data in different variations at more than one of the replication sites.

In some examples, a system receives a write request from a requester to write first data to a storage system that implements redundancy in which redundancy information is stored for data in the storage system. The system initiates the write to the storage system. The system determines that partial hardening for the first data has been achieved based on detecting that an information portion has been written to the storage system for the write request, the information portion being less than an entirety of the first data and the first parity information. In response to the determining of the partial hardening, the system notifies the requester of completion of the write request.

Techniques providing I/O control involve: in response to receiving an I/O request, detecting a first set bits for a stripe in a RAID. The RAID is built on disk slices divided from disks. The stripes include extents. Each of the first set bits indicates whether a disk slice where a corresponding extent in the stripe is located is in a failure state. The techniques further involve determining, from the stripe and based on the first set bits, a first set of extents in the failure state and a second set of extents out of the failure state. The techniques further involve executing the I/O request on the second set of extents without executing the I/O request on the first set of extents. Such techniques can simplify storage bits in I/O control, support the degraded stripe write request for the RAID and enhance performance executing the I/O control.

The present disclosure generally relates to creating virtualized block storage devices whose data is replicated across isolated computing systems to lower risk of data loss even in wide-scale events, such as natural disasters. The virtualized device can include at least two volumes, each of which is implemented in a distinct computing system. Each volume can be implemented by at least two computing devices, a first of which is configured as a primary device to which reads from and writes to the volume are directed. Of the two volumes, one can be indicated as primary, indicating authority to accept reads to and writes from the virtualized device. A primary device of the primary volume, on obtaining a write to the volume, can replicate the write to both a secondary device of a primary volume and to the secondary volume.