Amazon.com, Inc.
Communicating state information in a distributed storage environment

Abstract:

Techniques are described for using in-band communication channels to exchange state information between components of a distributed storage environment, including between client computing devices and storage servers hosting network-connected block storage volumes. The exchange of the state information can be used, for example, to inform client computing devices of relevant events involving one or more storage volumes attached to compute instances (for example, virtual machines (VMs)) running on the client computing devices, involving one or more failover servers storing backup copies of one or more storage volumes, or involving any other relevant system components. The exchange of such state information in a distributed storage environment enables client computing devices, storage servers, and other system components to act efficiently in response to a variety of system events thereby mitigating input/output (I/O) latency increases and other issues that can arise when system components lack access to such information.