On demand, non-capacity based process, apparatus and computer program to determine maintenance fees for disk data storage system
First Claim
1. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to determine a maintenance fee for a data storage system, the operations comprising:
- monitoring at least one data storage device during operation of the data storage system to determine a data storage device duty cycle; and
determining a current value of the maintenance fee based at least in part on the determined data storage device duty cycle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In one aspect the invention provides a signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions that are executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to determine a maintenance fee for a data storage system. The operations include monitoring at least one data storage device during operation of the data storage system to determine a duty cycle and determining a current value of the maintenance fee based at least in part on the determined duty cycle. In a further disk drive-based embodiment the operations may include, or be instead, determining a disk drive redundancy configuration of disk drives of a data storage system. The operations then compare the determined duty cycle to a threshold value and assert a redundancy configuration change signal based on the result of the comparison. For a RAID configuration embodiment having a RAID level, the asserting operation asserts a RAID level change signal based on the result of the comparison.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to determine a maintenance fee for a data storage system, the operations comprising:
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monitoring at least one data storage device during operation of the data storage system to determine a data storage device duty cycle; and
determining a current value of the maintenance fee based at least in part on the determined data storage device duty cycle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations to determine a disk drive redundancy configuration of disk drives of a data storage system, the operations comprising:
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monitoring said disk drives during operation of the data storage system to determine a duty cycle;
comparing the determined duty cycle to a threshold value; and
asserting a redundancy configuration change signal based on the result of the comparison. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A disk drive, comprising:
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at least one rotating disk;
at least one moveable disk read/write head; and
a monitor coupled at least to the at least one read/write head for recording and reporting information to a maintenance fee determination function that is descriptive of a disk drive duty cycle over a sampling interval.
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15. A disk drive, comprising:
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at least one rotating disk;
at least one moveable disk read/write head; and
a monitor coupled at least to the at least one read/write head for recording and reporting information to a RAID level determination function that is descriptive of a disk drive duty cycle over a sampling interval.
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16. A disk drive controller coupled to at least one disk drive, each disk drive comprising at least one rotating disk and at least one moveable disk read/write head;
- said disk drive controller comprising a monitor coupled at least to the at least one read/write head for recording and reporting information that is descriptive of a disk drive duty cycle over a sampling interval to a maintenance fee determination function.
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17. A disk drive controller coupled to at least one disk drive, each disk drive comprising at least one rotating disk and at least one moveable disk read/write head;
- said disk drive controller comprising a monitor coupled at least to the at least one read/write head for recording and reporting information that is descriptive of a disk drive duty cycle over a sampling interval to a RAID level determination function.
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18. A maintenance provider system operable for establishing a value for a maintenance fee to be charged for operating disk drive data storage system, said maintenance provider system comprising an interface for coupling to a monitor that monitors operation of the disk drive data storage system to determine usage of disk drives;
- and further comprising a processor responsive to information received from the monitor via the interface to determine a disk drive utilization factor and, based at least in part on the determined utilization factor, a current value for the maintenance fee.
- View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A disk drive-based data storage system comprising:
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means for monitoring said disk drives during operation of the data storage system to determine usage information for the disk drives, the usage information comprising at least one of a number of write operations per unit time, a number of read operations per unit time, and a number of seek operations per unit time; and
interface means for coupling to means for determining a maintenance fee for the data storage system, said interface means reporting said usage information to said determining means. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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27. A method to determine a maintenance fee for a data storage system, comprising:
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monitoring at least one data storage device during operation of the data storage system to determine a data storage device duty cycle; and
determining a value of the maintenance fee based at least in part on the determined data storage device duty cycle. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification