FIELD

This disclosure relates to storage devices. More particularly, the present disclosure technically relates to tracking and assigning storage device resources utilized by a plurality of virtual hosts.

BACKGROUND

Storage devices are ubiquitous within computing systems. Recently, solid-state memory devices capable of nonvolatile storage have become the predominant choice within various consumer electronics products. These storage devices can communicate and utilize various protocols including non-volatile memory express (NVMe), and peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) to reduce processing overhead and increase efficiency.

As processing capabilities have grown, the use of virtual machines has also increased. Virtual machines are an emulation of a computer system that is itself processed and executed as part of another computer system to provide functionality similar to that of a traditional physical computing device. It is becoming more common for various companies to utilize their available computing resources to provide virtual machines to customers as a service. Once established, a virtual machine may act as a virtual host when communicating with one or more storage devices.

It has also become increasingly more common for a storage device to be in communication with a multitude of virtual hosts. Each of these virtual hosts may be sending various commands to read and/or write data to the storage device. Each virtual host communicates to the storage device in a similar manner as if it were a dedicated storage device. The controller, software and/or logic can manage the location and ownership of any data requested and written by the virtual host.

However, as the number of virtual hosts increases, so does the variability between their storage device usage. One errant virtual host may utilize the storage device in a manner that is detrimental to the other virtual hosts. Consequently, the performance of a storage device with one virtual host using very few storage device commands may be negatively impacted in response to a second, more active virtual host. As more virtualization services are sold based on stated or promised performance, this can directly affect customers.

