Storage systems having differentiated storage pools

• US 20040153606A1
• Filed: 01/20/2004
• Published: 08/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Equallogic Incorporated (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Schott, Eric R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1824 implemented using Network-attached Storage [NAS] architecture distributed or networked storage systems G06F3/067; protocols for distributed storage of data in a network H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1012 Load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration 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: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1017 based on a round robin mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein include among other things, systems for providing a block level data storage service. More particularly, the systems and methods of the invention provide a block level data storage service that provides differentiated pools of storage on a single storage device. To this end, the systems and methods described herein leverage the different performance characteristics across the logical block name (LBN) space of the storage device (or devices). These different performance characteristics may be exploited to support two or more classes of storage on a single device.

Claims

1. A system for providing differentiated classes of storage, comprising

a storage device having a plurality of storage locations and a logical block name space for organizing the storage locations,

a performance process for partitioning storage locations into a plurality of regions providing different levels of performance, and

a mapping process for mapping the partitioned portions of the storage locations to a selected section of the logical block name space.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the performance process separates the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of categories being associated with a different level of service.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein:

the performance process separates the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of categories being associated with a different RAID level of performance.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the mapping process associates different portions of the logical block name space to different respective levels of RAID.

5. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a load balancing mover process for moving data between different portions of the logical block name space.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein:

the load balancing mover process includes an adaptive data placement process for moving data between storage pools to thereby improve system performance.

7. A system according to claim 5, wherein

the load balancing process comprises an admin process for allowing an administrator to move data between different storage pools.

8. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a process for employing the storage to provide a file system service.

9. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a process for providing a storage volume service.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein

the mapping process creates multiple storage volumes at a selected level of performance.

11. A process for providing differentiated classes of storage, comprising the steps of

providing a storage device having a plurality of storage locations and a logical block name space for organizing the storage locations,

partitioning storage locations into a plurality of regions providing different levels of performance, and

mapping the partitioned portions of the storage locations to a selected section of the logical block name space.

12. A process according to claim 11, further including the step of

separating the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of categories associated with a different level of service.

13. A process according to claim 11, further including the step of

separating the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of categories being associated with a different RAID level of performance.

14. A process according to claim 11, wherein

the mapping process associates different portions of the logical block name space to different respective levels of RAID.

15. A process according to claim 11, comprising the further step of

load balancing by moving data between different portions of the logical block name space.

16. A process according to claim 15, wherein

load balancing process includes moving data between storage pools to thereby improve system performance.

17. A process according to claim 15, wherein

load balancing comprises allowing an administrator to move data between different storage pools.

18. A process according to claim 11, wherein

mapping creates multiple storage volumes at a selected level of performance.

19. A system for providing differentiated classes of storage, comprising

a storage device having a plurality of storage locations, a logical block name space for organizing the storage locations, and performance parameters of the storage locations that vary across the storage device, and

a partitioning process for partitioning those storage locations into regions as a function variations in performance parameters.

20. A system according to claim 19, wherein

the partitioning process selected a fixed set of partitions as a function of a selected configuration of system components.

21. A system according to claim 19, further including

a performance process for associating partitions with different levels of performance, and

a mapping process for mapping the identified partitions of the storage locations to a selected section of the logical block name space.