POOL SPARES FOR DATA STORAGE VIRTUALIZATION SUBSYSTEM

• US 20070078794A1
• Filed: 10/09/2006
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infortrend Technology Incorporated (Infortrend Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Infortrend Technology Incorporated (Infortrend Corporation)
• Inventors: Chen, Chieh-Wei, Schnapp, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,281,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/401
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0686 Libraries, e.g. tape libraries, jukebox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A data storage virtualization subsystem (SVS) for providing storage to a host entity is disclosed. The SVS comprises a storage virtualization controller for connecting to the host entity, at least one physical storage device (PSD) pool, and at least one PSD is designated to be a pool spare PSD to the at least one PSD pool. The at least one PSD pool comprises at least one PSD to store user data or associated redundant information and is given a pool ID for identifying the PSD pool.

Claims

1. A data storage virtualization subsystem (SVS) for providing data storage space to a host entity, the data storage virtualization subsystem comprising:

a storage virtualization controller (SVC) for connecting to the host entity; and

at least one physical storage device (PSD) pool, comprising at least one PSD to store user data or associated redundant information; and

a pool ID for each of the at least one PSD pool;

whereby at least one PSD is designated as a pool spare PSD to a said at least one PSD pool.

2. The SVS of claim 1 wherein the at least one PSD pool comprises configuration information stored in at least one of said at least one PSD.

3. The SVS of claim 2 wherein the SVC comprises a spare table including the spare associated information of the configuration information and the pool ID.

4. A control flow for the SVS of claim 3, comprising the step of:

checking the spare table to determine whether there is an available pool spare PSD designated to the PSD pool.

5. The control flow of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

rebuilding the data stored in the PSD in an available pool spare PSD.

6. The control flow of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

backing-up the data stored in the PSD in an available pool spare PSD.

7. The control flow of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

updating the at least one configuration information of the available pool spare PSD stored in the at least one PSD.

8. The control flow of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

updating the at least one configuration information of the available pool spare PSD stored in the spare table.

9. The SVS of claim 2 wherein the at least one physical storage device (PSD) is a plurality of PSDs belonging to a plurality of logical media units.

10. The SVS of claim 9 wherein a said at least one pool ID is stored in the configuration information.

11. The SVS of claim 9 wherein the storage virtualization controller comprises a spare table including spare associated information of the configuration information and the pool ID.

12. A control flow for the SVS of claim 11, comprising the step of:

checking the spare table to determine whether there is an available pool spare PSD designated to the PSD pool.

13. The control flow of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

rebuilding the data stored in the PSD in an available pool spare PSD.

14. The control flow of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

backing-up the data stored in the PSD in an available pool spare PSD.

15. The control flow of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

updating the at least one configuration information of the available pool spare PSD stored in the at least one PSD.

16. The control flow of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

updating the at least one configuration information of the available pool spare PSD stored in the spare table.

17. The SVS of claim 2 wherein the at least one physical storage device (PSD) pool comprises at least one ID-storing device to store a said pool ID.

18. The SVS of claim 17 wherein the at least one physical storage device (PSD) pool comprises at least one pool ID unit having a said ID-storing device.

19. The SVS of claim 17 wherein the at least one ID-storing device is a switch.

20. The SVS of claim 17 wherein the at least one ID-storing device is a memory.

21. The SVS of claim 17 wherein when a said at least one physical storage device (PSD) is removed from a first PSD pool and then inserted into a second PSD pool of the same SVS, the designated PSD pool is changed from the first PSD pool to the second PSD pool.

22. The SVS of claim 18 wherein a said at least one pool ID unit is a backplane.

23. The SVS of claim 18 wherein a said at least one PSD is an enclosure PSD.

24. The SVS of claim 18 wherein the at least one physical storage device is plural and belongs to a plurality of enclosures.

25. The SVS of claim 18 wherein all of the at least one PSD of a third PSD pool is located in the same building.

26. The SVS of claim 20 wherein the at least one memory is a non-volatile memory.

27. The SVS of claim 20 wherein the at least one memory is a volatile memory.

28. The SVS of claim 26 wherein the non-volatile memory is at least one EEPROM.

29. The SVS of claim 27 wherein the volatile memory is at least one DRAM.

30. The SVS of claim 17 wherein the storage virtualization controller comprises a spare table including spare associated information of the configuration information and the pool ID.

31. The SVS of claim 30 wherein the spare table of the SVC is generated when the SVC is switched on.

32. The SVS of claim 30 wherein the spare table of the SVC is updated automatically when the SVC realizes a newly inserted PSD.

33. The SVS of claim 30 wherein the spare table of the SVC is updated during a resetting procedure of the SVS when the SVC realizes a newly inserted PSD.

34. The SVS of claim 30 wherein the spare table of the SVC is updated when a said spare PSD is removed from or inserted into the SVS.

35. A control flow of the SVS of the claim 30, comprising the step of:

checking the spare table to determine whether there is an available pool spare PSD designated to the PSD pool.

36. The control flow of claim 35, comprising the step of:

rebuilding the data stored in the PSD in an available pool spare PSD.

37. The control flow of claim 35, comprising the step of:

backing-up the data stored in the PSD in an available pool spare PSD.

38. The control flow of claim 35, comprising the step of:

updating the at least one configuration information of the available pool spare PSD stored in the at least one PSD.

39. The control flow of claim 35, comprising the step of:

updating the at least one configuration information of the available pool spare PSD stored in the spare table.

40. A spare physical storage device (PSD) designating method for a data storage virtualization subsystem having a plurality of PSDs, the method comprising the steps of:

defining a PSD pool; and

designating at least one PSD as a spare PSD to said PSD pool.

41. A method for selecting a spare PSD to use in a SVS comprising a PSD pool, a pool spare PSD designated to said PSD pool, and at least one non-pool spare PSD, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting the pool spare PSD as a spare PSD to use in the PSD pool if the pool spare PSD is available; and

selecting the non-pool spare PSD as a spare PSD to use in the PSD pool if the pool spare PSD is not available.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein said at least one non-pool PSD comprises a local PSD.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein said at least one non-pool PSD comprises a global PSD.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein said at least one non-pool PSD comprises a local PSD.

45. The method of claim 41, wherein said at least one non-pool PSD comprises a local PSD and a global PSD, and said method further comprises, in the non-pool spare PSD selecting step, the step of:

selecting the local spare PSD as a spare PSD to use in the PSD pool if the pool spare PSD is not available.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising, in the non-pool spare PSD selecting step, the step of selecting the global spare PSD as a spare PSD to use in the PSD pool if the local spare PSD is not available.

47. A method for defining PSD pool to use in a SVS, comprising the steps of:

assigning at least one of the PSDs to store user data or associated redundant information; and

giving a pool ID to identify the PSD pool.