Patent ID: 9189265
Filing Date: 2015-11-17
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a plurality of virtual machines on an individual computer system that is coupled to a network storage over a network, the method comprising: allocating units of the network storage to respective ones of the virtual machines, wherein the units of the network storage are logical units of non-volatile memory in the network storage that are accessed over the network; storing virtual disk data and non-disk data of respective ones of the virtual machines in the network storage units such that the non-disk data of more than one virtual machine are not commingled in any one of the network storage units; responsive to receiving a first disk access request from a guest in a first virtual machine of the virtual machines, generating, by operation of a virtualization layer, a corresponding request to access the unit of the network storage associated with the first virtual machine using a block-level I/O interface of the network storage, wherein the virtual disk data stored in the network storage units are accessible by a disk access request from respective ones of the virtual machines, wherein the virtualization layer is configured to restrict access to the non-disk data of the virtual machines stored in the network storage units by a disk access request from a guest of the virtual machines, the non-disk data of the virtual machines representing internal states of virtualized system components of the virtual machines; and responsive to receiving a response from the network storage to the corresponding request, modifying the response to conceal a location of non-disk data of the virtual machines from the guest in the first virtual machine.