Context sensitive storage management

• US 20040054850A1
• Filed: 09/18/2002
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ortera Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Ortera Incorporated
• Inventors: Fisk, David C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,020,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/112
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3471 Address tracing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/083 for increasing network speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0846 based on copy from other elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5019 Ensuring fulfilment of SLA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 : wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications

Abstract

The invention relates to methods and associated systems for managing application workloads and data storage resources. Data storage resources my be mapped to logical addresses associated with applications based on the I/O activity associated with those addresses. Techniques are disclosed for determining the I/O capacity of a data storage resource for a given workload and allocating resources according to administrator requirements. Various physical devices may be mapped to logical addresses by defining a composite volume for the application. The invention may be implemented as a transparent layer between the application and the data storage resource, for example, in the file system.

Claims

1. A method of managing data storage comprising:

monitoring I/O activity associated with at least one range of addresses in an application address space; and

associating at least one data storage device with the at least one range of addresses according to the I/O activity associated with the at least one range of addresses.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein associating comprises mapping physical address space associated with the at least one data storage device to logical address space associated with the at least one range of addresses.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one range of addresses comprises a portion of a logical volume.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one range of addresses comprises a plurality of ranges of addresses in an application address space.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the I/O activity comprises at least one of the group consisting of response time and data access type.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the I/O activity is associated with a unit-of-work.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the at least one data storage device from at least one of the group consisting of RAID level, stripe size and stripe width.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting the at least one data storage device from at least one of the group consisting of at least one disk drive and at least one solid state device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring I/O activity comprises:

generating a profile of at least one data storage device;

determining a load level of the profiled data storage device;

determining a probability distribution of a workload associated with the profiled data storage device; and

determining I/O capacity for a workload associated with the profiled data storage device according to the profile, the load level and the probability distribution.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein:

monitoring I/O activity comprises identifying a plurality of response characteristics of at least one data storage device to a plurality of application workloads and identifying a response time of the at least one data storage device to at least one of the application workloads; and

wherein;

associating comprises defining a stripe width of a RAID data storage device associated with at least one range of addresses.

11. A method of managing data storage comprising:

defining a plurality of address ranges within a logical address space;

associating a plurality of data storage devices with the address ranges; and

defining a logical volume associated with the data storage devices.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein associating comprises selecting the data storage devices according to I/O activity associated with the address ranges.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting the data storage devices comprises selecting at least one of the group consisting of RAID level, stripe size and stripe width.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting the data storage devices comprises selecting at least one of the group consisting of a disk drive and a solid state device.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the I/O activity comprises at least one of the group consisting of response time and data access type.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the I/O activity is associated with a unit-of-work.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting the data storage devices according to I/O activity comprises:

generating a profile of a data storage resource;

determining a load level of the data storage resource;

determining a probability distribution of a workload associated with the data storage resource; and

determining I/O capacity for a workload associated with the data storage resource according to the profile, the load level and the probability distribution.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein selecting the data storage devices according to I/O activity comprises:

identifying a plurality of response characteristics of at least one data storage device to a plurality of application workloads and identifying a response time of the at least one data storage device to at least one of the application workloads; and

defining a stripe width of a RAID data storage device associated with at least one of the address ranges.

19. A method of managing data storage comprising:

associating a plurality of data storage devices with an application address space; and

generating a composite volume associated with the plurality of data storage devices and the application address space.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising selecting the data storage devices according to I/O activity associated with the application address space.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein selecting the data storage devices comprises selecting at least one of the group consisting of RAID level, stripe size and stripe width.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein selecting the data storage devices comprises selecting at least one of the group consisting of a disk drive and a solid state device.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the I/O activity comprises at least one of the group consisting of response time and data access type.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein the I/O activity is associated with a unit-of-work.

25. The method of claim 19 further comprising selecting the data storage devices according to I/O activity associated with a range of addresses in the application address space.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein selecting the data storage devices comprises selecting at least one of the group consisting of RAID level, stripe size and stripe width.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein selecting the data storage devices comprises selecting at least one of the group consisting of a disk drive and a solid state device.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the I/O activity comprises at least one of the group consisting of response time and data access type.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein the I/O activity is associated with a unit-of-work.

30. A method of managing data storage comprising:

identifying at least one response characteristic of at least one data storage device;

determining at least one probability distribution of application workloads associated with the at least one data storage device; and

determining a response time for at least one of the application workloads according to the at least one response characteristic and the at least one probability distribution to characterize I/O activity associated with at least one range of addresses in an address space associated with at least one application; and

associating at least one data storage device with the at least one range of addresses according to the I/O activity associated with the at least one range of addresses.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the at least one response characteristic defines, for the at least one data storage device, response times relative to load levels.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the at least one probability distribution defines a percent of I/O activity associated with the at least one data storage device.

33. The method of claim 30 further comprising determining a utilization level of the at least one data storage device according to the response time.

34. A method of managing data storage comprising:

defining a plurality of address ranges within a logical address space associated with an application;

identifying at least one response characteristic of at least one data storage device;

determining at least one probability distribution of application workloads associated with the at least one data storage device; and

determining a response time for at least one of the application workloads according to the at least one response characteristic and the at least one probability distribution to characterize I/O activity associated with the address ranges;

associating a plurality of data storage devices with the address ranges; and

defining a logical volume associated with the data storage devices.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the at least one response characteristic defines, for the at least one data storage device, response times relative to load levels.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein the at least one probability distribution defines a percent of I/O activity associated with the at least one data storage device.

37. The method of claim 34 further comprising determining a utilization level of the at least one data storage device according to the response time.

38. An encapsulated file system comprising:

at least one data storage device;

at least one processor executing at least one application and at least one encapsulation layer process, wherein the at least one encapsulation layer process monitors I/O activity associated with at least one range of addresses in an address space for the application process and associates a plurality of data storage devices with the at least one range of addresses according to the I/O activity.

39. An encapsulated file system comprising:

at least one data storage device;

at least one processor executing at least one application and at least one encapsulation layer process, wherein the encapsulation layer process defines a plurality of address ranges within a logical address space, associates a plurality of data storage devices with the address ranges and defines a logical volume associated with the data storage devices.

40. A method of managing data storage comprising:

processing an I/O request;

redirecting the I/O request to a data monitoring process;

monitoring, by the data monitoring process, I/O activity associated with at least one range of addresses in an address space associated with the I/O request;

associating a plurality of data storage devices with the at least one range of addresses according to the I/O activity; and

redirecting the I/O request to one of the data storage devices.

41. A method of managing data storage comprising:

processing an I/O request;

redirecting the I/O request to a data monitoring process;

monitoring, by the data monitoring process, I/O activity associated with a plurality of address ranges within a logical address space associated with the I/O request;

associating a plurality of data storage devices with the address ranges according to the I/O activity;

defining a logical volume associated with the data storage devices; and

redirecting the I/O request to one of the data storage devices.