Detecting storage errors in a dispersed storage network

• US 10,108,484 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kazi, Asimuddin, Resch, Jason K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ko, Chae M
• Application Number:
  US15/346,486
• Publication Number:
  US 20170052843A1
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 714 622
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/08 Error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation, e.g. by using checking codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/10 Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1068 in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk G06F11/1072 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1092 Rebuilding, e.g. when physically replacing a failing disk
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/109 Sector level checksum or ECC, i.e. sector or stripe level checksum or ECC in addition to the RAID parity calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/05 using block codes, i.e. a predetermined number of check bits joined to a predetermined number of information bits H03M13/2906 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/09 Error detection only, e.g. using cyclic redundancy check [CRC] codes or single parity bit
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/1515 Reed-Solomon codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/3761 using code combining, i.e. using combining of codeword portions which may have been transmitted separately, e.g. Digital Fountain codes, Raptor codes or Luby Transform [LT] codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/611 Specific encoding aspects, e.g. encoding by means of decoding

Abstract

A method includes determining a root cause for a rebuilding request of an encoded data slice of a set of encoded data slices, where the rebuilding request includes a slice name of the encoded data slice corresponding to a slice error. The method further includes establishing a pricing level as a user pricing level when the root cause is a user-centric root cause, and establishing the pricing level as a non-user pricing level when the root cause is a non-user-centric root cause. The method further includes facilitating the rebuilding of the encoded data slice, and generating billing information for the rebuilding based on the pricing level.

Claims

1. A method for execution by one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

determining a root cause for a rebuilding request of an encoded data slice of a set of encoded data slices, wherein the rebuilding request includes a slice name of the encoded data slice corresponding to a slice error;

establishing a pricing level as a user pricing level when the root cause is a user-centric root cause;

establishing the pricing level as a non-user pricing level when the root cause is a non-user-centric root cause;

facilitating the rebuilding of the encoded data slice; and

generating billing information for the rebuilding based on the pricing level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the root cause for the rebuilding request is based on one or more of:

an error message;

an event log;

a query; and

a test.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the slice error comprises at least one of:

an indication that the encoded data slice is missing; and

an indication that the encoded data slice is associated with an unfavorable integrity value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the root cause is the user-centric root cause comprises at least one of:

detecting that the encoded data slice is not written in DSN memory;

detecting that the encoded data slice was not successfully committed in a write operation; and

detecting that an old slice revision of the encoded data slice was not deleted from the DSN memory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the root cause is the non-user-centric root cause comprises at least one of:

detecting a memory device failure within a storage unit storing the encoded data slice;

detecting a storage unit failure within the storage unit;

detecting a network outage effecting the storage unit;

detecting that the storage unit is untrusted; and

detecting that the encoded data slice is maliciously corrupted.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating billing information comprises:

generating first billing information based on the user pricing level when the root cause is a user-centric root cause; and

generating second billing information based on the non-user pricing level when the root cause is a non-user-centric root cause, wherein the user pricing level is not equal to the non-user pricing level.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the facilitating the rebuilding of the encoded data slice comprises:

rebuilding the encoded data slice to produce a rebuilt encoded data slice; and

outputting the rebuilt encoded data slice to a storage unit of the DSN.

8. A computing device of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the computing device comprises:

an interface;

memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the memory and the interface, wherein the processing module is operable to;

determine a root cause for a rebuilding request of an encoded data slice of a set of encoded data slices, wherein the rebuilding request includes a slice name of the encoded data slice corresponding to a slice error;

establish a pricing level as a user pricing level when the root cause is a user-centric root cause;

establish the pricing level as a non-user pricing level when the root cause is a non-user-centric root cause;

facilitate the rebuilding of the encoded data slice; and

generate billing information for the rebuilding based on the pricing level.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing module is operable to determine the root cause for the rebuilding request based on one or more of:

an error message;

an event log;

a query; and

a test.

10. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the slice error comprises at least one of:

an indication that the encoded data slice is missing; and

an indication that the encoded data slice is associated with an unfavorable integrity value.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing module is operable to determine that the root cause is the user-centric root cause by at least one of:

detecting that the encoded data slice is not written in DSN memory;

detecting that the encoded data slice was not successfully committed in a write operation; and

detecting that an old slice revision of the encoded data slice was not deleted from the DSN memory.

12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing module is operable to determine that the root cause is the non-user-centric root cause by at least one of:

detecting a memory device failure within a storage unit storing the encoded data slice;

detecting a storage unit failure within the storage unit;

detecting a network outage effecting the storage unit;

detecting that the storage unit is untrusted; and

detecting that the encoded data slice is maliciously corrupted.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing module is operable to generate the billing information by:

generating first billing information based on the user pricing level when the root cause is a user-centric root cause; and

generating second billing information based on the non-user pricing level when the root cause is a non-user-centric root cause, wherein the user pricing level is not equal to the non-user pricing level.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the processing module is operable to facilitate the rebuilding of the encoded data slice by:

rebuilding the encoded data slice to produce a rebuilt encoded data slice; and

outputting the rebuilt encoded data slice to a storage unit of the DSN.