Proactive data reliability in a power-managed storage system

• US 20060090098A1
• Filed: 11/16/2005
• Published: 04/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: COPAN Systems, Inc. (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Guha, Aloke, Cousins, Jeffrey, Le, Kim B.
• Application Number:
  US11/281,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20060090098A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2221 to test input/output devices or peripheral units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1088 Scrubbing in RAID systems with parity

Abstract

Methods and systems for maintaining data reliability in a particular disk drive that is powered off in a storage system are disclosed. The methods include checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available, powering on the particular disk drive, and checking the particular disk drive to detect an error. Further, the method includes correcting the particular disk drive when the error is detected.

Claims

1. A method for preventing loss of data in a particular disk drive in a power-managed storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the method comprising:

checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

powering on the particular disk drive;

checking the particular disk drive; and

correcting the particular disk drive in response to the checking.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein checking the particular disk drive comprises:

executing a test on the particular disk drive; and

marking the particular disk drive for replacement based on the executed test.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the test comprises at least one of a buffer test, a read test, and a read scan test.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein checking the particular disk drive is performed at predetermined intervals of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined intervals of time are periodic.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising delaying the correcting of the particular disk drive until a power budget is available.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein correcting the particular disk drive comprises:

transferring data of the particular disk drive to a spare disk drive; and

cloning one or more write requests for the particular disk drive to the spare disk drive.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein transferring data comprises at least one of:

copying the data to the spare disk drive, and

reconstructing the data on the spare disk drive.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein cloning the one or more write requests comprises:

directing the requests to the particular disk drive, and

directing the requests to the spare disk drive.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising aborting correcting of the particular disk drive when a number of spare disk drives are less than two.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

removing the particular disk drive from the storage system when the data has been transferred to the spare disk drive; and

replacing the particular disk drive with the spare disk drive.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising powering off the spare disk drive.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising delaying the powering on the particular disk drive until a power budget is available.

14. A system for preventing loss of data in a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the apparatus comprising:

a power budget checker for checking power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

a power controller for controlling power to the disk drives and the particular disk drive;

a checking-module for checking the particular disk drive; and

a correction-module for correcting the particular disk drive;

whereby, the particular disk drive is powered on by the power controller before the checking is to be performed.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the checking-module comprises a testing-module for executing a test on the particular disk drive.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the correction-module comprises;

a transfer-module for transferring data of the particular disk drive to a spare disk drive; and

a request cloning-module for cloning one or more write requests for data of the particular disk drive to the spare disk drive.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of disk drives is arranged in a dual-level array in the storage system.

18. An apparatus for preventing loss of data in a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the apparatus comprising:

a processor for executing instructions; and

a machine-readable medium including;

one or more instructions for checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

one or more instructions for powering-on the particular disk drive;

one or more instructions for checking the particular disk drive; and

one or more instructions for correcting the particular disk drive.

19. A machine-readable medium including instructions executable by a processor for preventing loss of data in a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the machine readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions for checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

one or more instructions for powering-on the particular disk drive;

one or more instructions for checking the particular disk drive; and

one or more instructions for correcting the particular disk drive.

20. A method for repairing a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the method comprising:

checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

powering on the particular disk drive; and

correcting the damaged logical blocks in response to the checking.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein correcting the damaged logical blocks comprises:

overwriting the damaged logical blocks with good logical blocks onto the particular disk drive;

executing a surface scrubbing test on each logical block;

wherein each logical block comprises good logical blocks, and

relocating logical block addresses corresponding to the damaged logical blocks to a new location on the particular disk drive.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the correcting is performed when the particular disk drive receives a host request.

23. The method of claim 20 further comprising powering off the particular disk drive.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising delaying the powering on the particular disk drive until a power budget is available.

25. The method of claim 20 further comprising delaying the correcting of the damaged logical blocks until a host request is received.

26. A system for repairing a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the apparatus comprising:

a power budget checking unit for checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

a power controller for controlling power to the disk drives and the particular disk drive; and

a correction-unit for correcting the damaged logical blocks;

whereby, the particular disk is powered-on by the power controller before the checking is to be performed.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the correction-unit comprises a checking-unit for checking damaged logical blocks in the particular disk drive.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the checking-unit comprises a block detector for detecting the damaged logical blocks that generate an error in an error correction code.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the block detector comprises a testing-unit for executing a surface scrubbing test on each logical block of the particular disk drive.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the correction-unit further comprises:

a reconstructing-module for reconstructing the damaged logical blocks in the particular disk drive; and

a replacement-module for replacing the damaged logical blocks with good logical blocks.

31. An apparatus for repairing a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the apparatus comprising:

a processor for executing instructions; and

a machine-readable medium including;

one or more instructions for checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

one or more instructions for powering-on the particular disk drive; and

one or more instructions for correcting the damaged logical blocks.

32. A machine-readable medium including instructions executable by a processor for repairing a particular disk drive in a storage system, wherein the storage system includes a plurality of disk drives and a particular disk drive, wherein the particular disk drive is powered off, the machine readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions for checking a power budget to determine that sufficient power is available;

one or more instructions for powering-on the particular disk drive; and

one or more instructions for correcting the damaged logical blocks.