Method and system for disk stippling

• US 20060259683A1
• Filed: 05/16/2005
• Published: 11/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Bridge, William Havinden Jr.
• Application Number:
  US11/131,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20060259683A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/112
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0667 at data level, e.g. file, record or object virtualisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A method, system, and program for allocating disk space and performance is disclosed. Stipples are interleaved throughout a disk to share space and performance characteristics.

Claims

1. A method of managing disk space and performance, comprising:

determining a set of parameters; and

configuring one or more stipples, each stipple being one of a set of interleaved portions distributed evenly throughout a disk space.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the stipple utilizes the set of parameters, the set of parameters including a number of blocks in a stroke, and a number of strokes in a stroke set, and wherein configuring comprises:

determining which strokes in the stroke set are available; and

selecting one or more available strokes for the stipple.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the stipples can be partitioned.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein stipples can be configured in any virtual disk space.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising converting a stipple block number to a disk block number using arithmetic equations.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the converting comprises:

determining a stroke size, a stroke set size, a member set array, and a member set size;

computing a stipple stroke number as an integer quotient of the stipple block number and the stroke size;

computing a stipple stroke offset as a remainder of the stipple block number divided by the stroke size;

computing a stroke set number as an integer quotient of the stipple stroke number and the member set size;

computing a member set index as a remainder of the stipple stroke number divided by the member set size;

computing a stroke set member as the member set array;

computing a disk stroke member as a sum of the stroke set member and an arithmetic product of the stroke set number and the stroke set size; and

computing the disk block number as a sum of the stroke block offset and the arithmetic product of the disk stroke number and the stroke size.

4. The method of claim 4, wherein configuring the stipple further comprises:

determining a fraction of disk space required; and

selecting one or more available strokes based on the fraction of disk space required.

9. A system of managing disk space and performance, comprising:

logic for determining a set of parameters; and

logic for configuring one or more stipples, each stipple being one of a set of interleaved portions distributed evenly throughout a disk space.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the logic for configuring the stipple utilizes the set of parameters, the set of parameters including a number of blocks in a stroke, and a number of strokes in a stroke set, and wherein the logic for configuring comprises:

logic for determining which strokes in the stroke set are available; and

logic for selecting one or more available strokes for the stipple.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising logic for converting a stipple block number to a disk block number using arithmetic equations.

13. A computer program product embodied on computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute a method for managing disk space and performance, the method comprising:

determining a set of parameters; and

configuring one or more stipples, each stipple being one of a set of interleaved portions distributed evenly throughout a disk space.

14. The computer program of claim 13, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

15. The computer program of claim 13 wherein configuring the stipple utilizes the set of parameters, the set of parameters including a number of blocks in a stroke, and a number of strokes in a stroke set, and wherein configuring comprises:

determining which strokes in the stroke set are available; and

selecting one or more available strokes for the stipple.

16. The computer program of claim 13, further comprising converting a stipple block number to a disk block number using arithmetic equations.

17. A method of distributing a disk space comprising:

dividing a disk space into equal portions;

grouping the portions into sets, each set comprised of an equal number of portions;

assigning one or more of the portions in each set to a stipple.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein each portion in a set has similar performance characteristics.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising converting a stipple block number to a disk block number using mathematical equations.

21. A system of distributing a disk space comprising:

logic for dividing a disk space into equal portions;

logic for grouping the portions into sets, each set comprised of an equal number of portions;

logic for assigning one or more of the portions in each set to a stipple.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

23. A computer program product embodied on computer readable medium, the computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute a method for distributing a disk space, the method comprising:

dividing a disk space into equal portions;

grouping the portions into sets, each set comprised of an equal number of portions;

assigning one or more of the portions in each set to a stipple.

24. The computer program of claim 23, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

25. A method of managing disk space allocation, comprising

distributing a set of stipples evenly throughout a disk space, the stipples in the set being interleaved.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein each stipple has similar performance characteristics.

27. A method of managing disk space and performance, comprising:

distributing a disk into a plurality of portions, each portion having similar performance characteristics.