Virtual disk drive system and method

• US 10,067,712 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2016
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell International LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell International LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Soran, Philip E., Guider, John P., Aszmann, Lawrence E., Klemm, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US15/240,653
• Publication Number:
  US 20160357446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/108 Parity data distribution in semiconductor storages, e.g. in SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2089 Redundant storage control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/02 Addressing or allocation; Relocation program address sequencing G06F9/00; arrangements for selecting an address in a digital store G11C8/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A disk drive system and method capable of dynamically allocating data is provided. The disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem having a pool of storage, for example a page pool of storage that maintains a free list of RAIDs, or a matrix of disk storage blocks that maintain a null list of RAIDs, and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across the pool of storage and a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocation and data progression allow a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed. Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume pool of storage, instant data replay and data instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc.

Claims

1. A method of data progression in a disk drive system, the method comprising:

determining a cost of operating for each of a plurality of data storage devices, each data storage device storing data in a plurality of data pages;

classifying each of the plurality of data storage devices based on cost;

at time intervals, generating one or more snapshot point-in-time copies (PITCs) of the data for the plurality of data storage devices, each snapshot PITC identifying changes to the data stored in one or more data pages that have taken place since a previous snapshot PITC taken at a previous time interval;

checking the one or more snapshot PITCs to determine whether data stored in a data page of a data storage device of a first classification has been recently accessed; and

if the data stored in a data page stored on the data storage device of the first classification has been recently accessed, moving the data to one or more data storage devices of a second classification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data storage devices of the second classification each have a higher cost than the data storage device of the first classification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost of each data storage device is based on efficiency of the storage device relative to the other data storage devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost of each data storage device is based on storage capacity of the data storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the cost of each data storage device is based on physical cost of the data storage device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the time intervals are user defined intervals.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the time intervals are in a range of every few minutes to every few hours.

8. A method of data progression in a disk drive system, the method comprising:

determining a cost of operating for each of a plurality of data storage devices, each data storage device storing data in a plurality of data pages;

classifying each of the plurality of data storage devices based on cost;

at time intervals, generating a point-in-time copy (PITC), the PITC initially being an active PITC that satisfies write requests to the plurality of data storage devices, thereby recording writes to the data stored in one or more data pages that have taken place since a previously active PITC;

converting an active PITC to a snapshot PITC by committing the active PITC to disk as read-only, and subsequently moving data stored in the one or more data pages corresponding to the writes recorded while that PITC was active to one or more data storage devices of a second classification.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more data storage devices of the second classification each have a lower cost than the data storage device of the first classification.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the cost of each data storage device is based on efficiency of the storage device relative to the other data storage devices.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the cost of each data storage device is based on storage capacity of the data storage device.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the cost of each data storage device is based on physical cost of the data storage device.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the time intervals are user defined intervals.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the time intervals are in a range of every few minutes to every few hours.

15. A disk drive system, comprising:

one or more data storage devices of a first classification storing data in a plurality of data pages, the storage devices of the first classification having a cost;

one or more data storage devices of a second classification storing data in a plurality of data pages, the storage devices of the second classification having a lower cost than that of the storage devices of the first classification;

an active point-in-time-copy (PITC) satisfying writes to one or more data pages that have taken place since a previously active PITC, wherein the writes are stored on the one or more data storage devices of the first classification; and

a historical PITC, being a previously active PITC that was committed to disk as read-only, identifying writes to data pages that occurred while it was an active PITC, wherein the writes to the data are stored on the one or more data storage devices of the second classification.

16. The disk drive system of claim 15, wherein the cost of each of the storage devices is based on efficiency of the storage device relative to one another.

17. The disk drive system of claim 15, wherein the cost of each of the storage devices is based on storage capacity of the storage device.

18. The disk drive system of claim 15, wherein the cost of each of the storage devices is based on physical cost of the storage device.