Method and system for using a block allocation policy

• US 20070106865A1
• Filed: 04/20/2006
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Moore, William, Bonwick, Jeffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,899,989 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• 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 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A method for writing a logical block into a storage pool includes receiving a request to write the logical block, selecting a block allocation policy, by a file system associated with the storage pool, from a set of allocation policies, obtaining a list of free physical blocks in the storage pool, allocating a physical block from the list of free physical blocks, based on the block allocation policy, and writing the logical block to the physical block.

Claims

1. A method for writing a logical block into a storage pool, comprising:

receiving a request to write the logical block;

selecting a block allocation policy, by a file system associated with the storage pool, from a plurality of allocation policies;

obtaining a list of free physical blocks in the storage pool;

allocating a physical block from the list of free physical blocks, based on the block allocation policy; and

writing the logical block to the physical block.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining metadata associated with the logical block, wherein the block allocation policy is selected from the plurality of allocation policies using the metadata.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the metadata identifies a type of file with which the logical block is associated.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the metadata identifies an application that initiated the request.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding a new allocation policy to the plurality of allocation policies, at run-time, such that the new allocation policy may be used by the file system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical block is an indirect block comprising a block pointer referencing a data block.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein writing the logical block to the physical block comprises writing a portion of the logical block to the physical block, if the logical block is larger than the physical block.

8. A system comprising:

a storage pool; and

a file system operatively connected to the storage pool and configured to;

receive a request to write a logical block;

select a block allocation policy from a plurality of allocation policies;

obtain a list of free physical blocks in the storage pool;

allocate a physical block from the list of free physical blocks based on the block allocation policy; and

write the logical block to the physical block.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the file system is further configured to:

obtain metadata associated with the logical block, wherein the block allocation policy is selected from the plurality of allocation policies using the metadata.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata identifies an application that initiated the request.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the metadata identifies a type of file with which the logical block is associated.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the file system is further configured to:

add a new allocation policy to the plurality of allocation policies, at run-time, such that the new allocation policy may be used by the file system.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the logical block is an indirect block comprising a block pointer referencing a data block.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein writing the logical block to the physical block comprises writing a portion of the logical block to the physical block, if the logical block is larger than the physical block.

15. A computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for writing a logical block into a storage pool by:

receiving a request to write the logical block;

selecting a block allocation policy, by a file system associated with the storage pool, from a plurality of allocation policies;

obtaining a list of free physical blocks in the storage pool;

allocating a physical block from the list of free physical blocks based on the block allocation policy; and

writing the logical block to the physical block.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising executable instructions for writing the logical block into the storage pool by:

obtaining metadata associated with the logical block, wherein the block allocation policy is selected from the plurality of allocation policies using the metadata.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the metadata identifies one selected from the group consisting of a type of file with which the logical block is associated and an application that initiated the request.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising executable instructions for writing the logical block into the storage pool by:

adding a new allocation policy to a system comprising the storage pool, at run-time, such that the new allocation policy may be used by the system.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the logical block is an indirect block comprising a block pointer referencing a data block.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein writing the logical block to the physical block comprises writing a portion of the logical block to the physical block, if the logical block is larger than the physical block.