Exposing storage resources with differing capabilities

• US 20090112811A1
• Filed: 10/26/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Fridella, Stephen, Dimitrov, Rossen, Oliveira, Fernando, Eaton, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,122,397 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0634 by changing the state or mode of one or more devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Tracking storage resources includes providing a table containing storage resources along with capabilities and statuses thereof, updating the table in response to a change of status of a storage resource, updating the table in response to a change in capabilities of a storage resource and, in response to an inquiry for a storage resource having a particular capability, searching the table for a storage resource having the particular capability. Tracking storage resources may also include adding an element to the table in response to a new resource being added to the system. The capabilities may include RAID striping, data deduplication, and green operation. The status may be one of: on-line, off-line, and full.

Claims

1. A method of tracking storage resources, comprising:

providing a table containing storage resources along with capabilities and statuses thereof;

updating the table in response to a change of status of a storage resource;

updating the table in response to a change in capabilities of a storage resource; and

in response to an inquiry for a storage resource having a particular capability, searching the table for a storage resource having the particular capability.

2. A method, according to claim 1, further comprising:

adding an element to the table in response to a new resource being added to the system.

3. A method, according to claim 1, wherein the capabilities include RAID striping, data deduplication, and green operation.

4. A method, according to claim 1, wherein the status is one of:

on-line, off-line, and full.

5. A method, according to claim 1, wherein the storage resources are disk drives.

6. A method, according to claim 5, wherein the disk drives are managed by data storage servers that present an OSD interface for the disk drives.

7. A method, according to claim 1, wherein the table is maintained by a resource manager server that receives information about storage resources from other servers.

8. Computer software, provided in a computer-readable storage medium, that tracks storage resources, comprising:

a table that contains storage resources along with capabilities and statuses thereof;

executable code that updates the table in response to a change of status of a storage resource;

executable code that updates the table in response to a change in capabilities of a storage resource; and

executable code that searches the table for a storage resource having a particular capability in response to an inquiry for a storage resource having the particular capability.

9. Computer software, according to claim 8, further comprising:

executable code that adds an element to the table in response to a new resource being added to the system.

10. Computer software, according to claim 8, wherein the capabilities include RAID striping, data deduplication, and green operation.

11. Computer software, according to claim 8, wherein the status is one of:

on-line, off-line, and full.

12. Computer software, according to claim 8, wherein the storage resources are disk drives.

13. Computer software, according to claim 12, wherein the disk drives are managed by data storage servers that present an OSD interface for the disk drives.

14. Computer software, according to claim 8, wherein the table is maintained by a resource manager server that receives information about storage resources from other servers.

15. A resource manager that manages storage resources for a storage system, comprising:

a processing device; and

computer-readable memory coupled to the processing device, the computer-readable memory having a table provided in a data structure and containing storage resources along with capabilities and statuses thereof, the computer-readable memory also having executable code that updates the table in response to a change of status of a storage resource, executable code that updates the table in response to a change in capabilities of a storage resource, and executable code that searches the table for a storage resource having a particular capability in response to an inquiry for a storage resource having the particular capability.

16. A resource manager, according to claim 15, wherein the computer-readable memory also contains executable code that adds an element to the table in response to a new resource being added to the system.

17. A resource manager, according to claim 15, wherein the capabilities include RAID striping, data deduplication, and green operation.

18. A resource manager, according to claim 15, wherein the status is one of:

on-line, off-line, and full.

19. A resource manager, according to claim 15, wherein the storage resources are disk drives.

20. A resource manager, according to claim 19, wherein the disk drives are managed by data storage servers that present an OSD interface for the disk drives.

21. A data storage system, comprising:

a plurality of clients; and

a plurality of servers coupled to the clients, wherein a subset of the servers manage storage resources using a table containing storage resources along with capabilities and statuses thereof, wherein the subset updates the table in response to a change of status of a storage resource, updates the table in response to a change in capabilities of a storage resource, and searches the table for a storage resource having the particular capability in response to an inquiry for a storage resource having a particular capability.

22. A data storage system, according to claim 21, wherein the subset of servers adds an element to the table in response to a new resource being added to the system.

23. A data storage system, according to claim 21, wherein the storage resources are disk drives.

24. A method of providing information to a resource manager of a data storage system, comprising:

providing information to the resource manager in response to a change in capabilities of a storage resource;

providing information to the resource manager in response to a change in status of a storage resource; and

providing information to the resource manager in response to adding a new storage resource.

25. A method, according to claim 24, wherein the storage resources are disk drives.