Query-based spares management technique

• US 20050114593A1
• Filed: 03/21/2003
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Network Appliance Incorporated (NetApp, Inc.)
• Inventors: Schoenthal, Scott, Cassell, Loellyn J., Sankar, Sunitha S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,664,913 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• 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 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A query-based spares management technique enables a storage operating system of a storage system to select disks to be added to one or more RAID groups of a volume. The spares management technique includes an attributes-based disk selection procedure that is performed by the storage operating system in response to an operator-initiated request to add disks to the volume or in response to a demand-driven request resulting from a requirement imposed by the system to add disks to the volume. The disks that are added to the RAID groups of the volume are retrieved from one or more spare pools of disks maintained by the storage system.

Claims

1. A system adapted to select disks for addition to one or more RAID groups of a volume of a storage system, the system comprising:

a storage operating system executing on the storage system and configured to implement a disk selection process having attributes, each attribute having an associated element of policy, the elements of policy cooperating to produce a granularity of disk selection; and

at least one pool of spare disks of the storage system, the pool having disks to be added to the RAID groups in response to the disk selection process.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein an element of policy is priority ordering of disk attributes considered during disk selection.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein an element of policy is locality, the locality denoting electrical connectivity for fault isolation.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein an element of policy is disk addition associated with the volume.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the disk selection process is performed by the storage operating system in response to an operator-initiated request to add disks to the volume.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the disk selection process is performed by the storage operating system in response to a demand-driven request resulting from a requirement imposed by the storage system to add disks to the volume.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein an element of policy is locality, the locality denoting electrical connectivity for increasing aggregate bandwidth to the volume through connections to the disks.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein an element of policy is disk replacement associated with the volume.

9. The system of claim 5 wherein the operator-initiated request initiates selection of a user-specified disk for addition to a specific volume.

10. The system of claim 5 wherein the operator-initiated request initiates selection of any of one or more disks for addition to a specific volume.

11. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a select-query-allocate (SQA) manager to determine which spare disk best satisfies the disk selection process based on the attributes.

12. A method for selecting disks for addition to one or more RAID groups of a volume of a storage system, the method comprising the steps of:

implementing a disk selection process having attributes, each attribute having an associated element of policy, the elements of policy cooperating to produce a granularity of disk selection; and

providing at least one pool of spare disks of the storage system, the pool having disks to be added to the RAID groups in response to the disk selection process.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein an element of policy is priority ordering of disk attributes considered during disk selection.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein an element of policy is locality, the locality denoting electrical connectivity for fault isolation.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein an element of policy is disk addition associated with the volume.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of implementing comprises the stop of performing the disk selection process in response to an operator-initiated request to add disks to the volume.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the step of implementing comprises the stop of performing the disk selection process in response to a demand-driven request resulting from a requirement imposed by the storage system to add disks to the volume.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein an element of policy is locality, the locality denoting electrical connectivity for increasing aggregate bandwidth to the volume through connections to the disks.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein an element of policy is disk replacement associated with the volume.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of performing comprises the step of initiating, via the operator-initiated request, selection of a user-specified disk for addition to a specific volume.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of performing comprises the step of initiating, via the operator-initiated request, selection of any of one or more disks for addition to a specific volume.

22. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of:

determining, by a select-query-allocate (SQA) manager, which spare disk best satisfies the disk selection process based on the attributes.

23. A system adapted to select disks for addition to one or more RAID groups of a volume of a storage system, the method comprising the steps of:

means for implementing a disk selection process having attributes, each attribute having an associated element of policy, the elements of policy cooperating to produce a granularity of disk selection; and

means for providing at least one pool of spare disks of the storage system, the pool having disks to be added to the RAID groups in response to the disk selection process.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein an element of policy is priority ordering of disk attributes considered during disk selection.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein an element of policy is locality, the locality denoting electrical connectivity for fault isolation.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein an element of policy is disk addition associated with the volume.

27. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for implementing comprises means for performing the disk selection process in response to an operator-initiated request to add disks to the volume.

28. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for implementing comprises means for performing the disk selection process in response to a demand-driven request resulting from a requirement imposed by the storage system to add disks to the volume.

29. The system of claim 23 wherein an element of policy is locality, the locality denoting electrical connectivity for increasing aggregate bandwidth to the volume through connections to the disks.

30. The system of claim 23 wherein an element of policy is disk replacement associated with the volume.

31. The system of claim 27 wherein the means for performing comprises means for initiating, via the operator-initiated request, selection of a user-specified disk for addition to a specific volume.

32. The system of claim 27 wherein the means for performing comprises means for initiating, via the operator-initiated request, selection of any of one or more disks for addition to a specific volume.

33. The system of claim 23 further comprising:

means for determining which spare disk best satisfies the disk selection process based on the attributes.

34. Computer-readable media for selecting disks for addition to one or more RAID groups of a volume of a storage system, the computer-readable media comprising instructions for:

implementing a disk selection process having attributes, each attribute having an associated element of policy, the elements of policy cooperating to produce a granularity of disk selection; and

providing at least one pool of spare disks of the storage system, the pool having disks to be added to the RAID groups in response to the disk selection process.

35. Electromagnetic signals propagating on a computer network for selecting disks for addition to one or more RAID groups of a volume of a storage system, the electromagnetic signals comprising instructions for:

implementing a disk selection process having attributes, each attribute having an associated element of policy, the elements of policy cooperating to produce a granularity of disk selection; and

providing at least one pool of spare disks of the storage system, the pool having disks to be added to the RAID groups in response to the disk selection process.