FIELD

The field relates generally to information processing systems, and more particularly to storage in information processing systems.

BACKGROUND

Storage arrays and other types of storage systems are often shared by multiple host devices over a network. A given host device may comprise a multipath input-output (MPIO) driver that is configured to process input-output (TO) operations for delivery from the host device to the storage system. MPIO drivers often group all of the paths between a host device and a given logical volume of a storage system into a logical device, also known as a multipath device, and assign a pseudo name to the multipath device such as, e.g., deviceX. Multipath devices are utilized by the MPIO drivers of a host device to distribute input-output (TO) operations across all available paths to a given logical volume.

A host device often comes configured with a native MPIO driver, which is typically enabled by default. When a new MPIO driver is installed on the host device to replace the native MPIO driver for distributing IO operations to a given logical volume, a reboot and downtime of the host device is typically required in order to disable or deactivate the native MPIO driver and install or activate the new MPIO driver.

In some cases, a user of the host device may also wish to migrate data from a source logical volume under control of a current MPIO driver to a target logical volume under control of that current MPIO driver or another MPIO driver. However, such data migration typically requires significant and substantial application downtime, such as, e.g., outages, reconfiguration, or other similar downtime, as the data migration is performed, especially in cases where the data is being migrated between logical volumes under control of different MPIO drivers.

SUMMARY

Illustrative embodiments disclose techniques for the migration of data from a source root logical volume to a target root logical volume and functionality for changing the dependency of a root logical volume from a current MPIO driver to a target MPIO driver.

In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a host device comprising at least one processor coupled to memory. The host device is configured to communicate over a network with a storage system comprising a root logical volume. The root logical volume comprises an operating system associated with the host device. The host device is configured to boot based at least in part on the operating system residing in the root logical volume. The host device is further configured to obtain execution data from the root logical volume and to store the execution data in the memory of the host device. The host device is further configured to suspend the root logical volume based at least in part on the execution data stored in the memory of the host device and to change a dependency of the host device from a first multipath device of the host device to a second multipath device of the host device. The host device is further configured to reload the root logical volume based at least in part on the execution data stored in the memory of the host device. The reloading comprises updating at least a portion of the root logical volume based at least in part on the change in the dependency of the host device. The host device is further configured to resume the root logical volume based at least in part on the execution data stored in the memory of the host device.

These and other illustrative embodiments include, without limitation, apparatus, systems, methods and computer program products comprising processor-readable storage media.

