Nutanix, Inc.
Entity identifier generation in distributed computing systems

Abstract:

A method embodiment serves to manage entity names for virtualized entities in a computing system comprising two or more computing nodes that host virtual machines and other virtual entities. The method commences upon receiving a request for identifiers. The request includes an identifier key that is used by a name generator. The name generator implements a deterministic algorithm that will always return the same outputs given the same inputs. The name generator generates a user- or program-specified number of virtualized entity identifiers based on the identifier key. The generated virtualized entity identifiers and corresponding identifier keys are stored in an identifier mapping table that is accessible by the two or more computing nodes. The identifier mapping table describes relationships between the virtualized entity identifiers and corresponding identifier keys. The virtualized entity identifiers are used to create respective virtualized entities. The identifier mapping table can be shared between multiple computing clusters.