Scattered storage

• US 20090265517A1
• Filed: 04/18/2008
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NCR Atleos Corp.
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation (NCR Voyix Corporation)
• Inventors: Sinclair, Colin A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,692 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/161
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are described in which data, which is required by system software in a self-service terminal, is stored across a number of persistent storage elements. The persistent storage elements are located in peripheral devices within the self-service terminal. When the data is lost from volatile memory in the core computing device in the self-service terminal, the data is read back from one or more of the persistent storage elements.

Claims

1. A method of operating a self-service terminal, the self-service terminal comprising a core computing device running system software and a plurality of peripheral devices and the method comprising:

storing data which is required by the system software on a plurality of persistent storage elements, wherein at least one persistent storage element is located in one of the plurality of peripheral devices; and

subsequently reading data portions from one or more of the plurality of persistent storage elements and recreating the data which is required by the system software.

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

storing the data in a non-persistent store associated with the core computing device;

updating the data in the non-persistent store; and

periodically storing the updated data on a plurality of persistent storage elements.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein reading and recreating the data is performed following loss of the data in the non-persistent store.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of persistent storage elements comprises a hard disk associated with the core computing device, and wherein storing data which is required by the system software on a plurality of persistent storage elements comprises:

storing data on at least one persistent storage element located in one of the plurality of peripheral devices; and

storing an encrypted version of the data on a hard disk drive associated with the core computing device.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein reading data portions from one or more of the plurality of persistent storage elements and recreating the data which is required by the system software comprises:

reading data portions from any available persistent storage elements from the plurality of persistent storage elements;

integrity checking each data portion; and

recreating the data which is required by the system software from checked data portions.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the self-service terminal is an automated teller machine.

7. A self-service terminal comprising:

a plurality of peripheral devices, at least one of the peripheral devices comprising a persistent storage element; and

a core computing device arranged to run system software and further comprising;

a storage manager arranged to store data required by the system software on at least two persistent storage elements.

8. A self-service terminal according to claim 7, wherein the storage manager is further arranged to:

read data portions from one or more of the persistent storage elements; and

recreate the data which is required by the system software.

9. A self-service terminal according to claim 8, wherein the storage manager is further arranged to:

store the data in a non-persistent store associated with the core computing device,

and wherein the storage manager is arranged to perform the reading and recreating following loss of the data in the non-persistent store.

10. A self-service terminal according to claim 9, wherein the storage manager is further arranged to:

update the data in the non-persistent store; and

periodically store the updated data on a plurality of persistent storage elements.

11. A self-service terminal according to claim 8, wherein the storage manager is further arranged to perform integrity checking on each data portion, and wherein the data is recreated from checked data portions.

12. A self-service terminal according to claim 7, wherein each peripheral device further comprises a peripheral storage provider arranged to enable the storage manager to read and write to the persistent storage element.

13. A self-service terminal according to claim 12, wherein the core computing device further comprises a scattered storage provider arranged to interface between the storage manager and peripheral storage providers in each of the plurality of peripheral devices.

14. A self-service terminal according to claim 13, wherein the at least two persistent storage elements comprise at least one persistent storage element using a first storage technology and at least one persistent storage element using a second storage technology and wherein the core computing device comprises:

a first scattered storage provider arranged to interface between the storage manager and a peripheral storage provider in a peripheral device comprising a persistent storage element using the first storage technology; and

a second scattered storage provider arranged to interface between the storage manager and a peripheral storage provider in a peripheral device comprising a persistent storage element using the second storage technology.

15. A self-service terminal according to claim 7, which is an automated teller machine.

16. One or more tangible device-readable media with device-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

storing data which is required by system software on a plurality of persistent storage elements, wherein at least one persistent storage element is located in one of a plurality of peripheral devices associated with a self-service terminal and wherein the system software is arranged to run on a core computing device in the self-service terminal; and

subsequently reading data portions from one or more of the plurality of persistent storage elements and recreating the data which is required by the system software.

17. One or more tangible device-readable media according to claim 16, further comprising device-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

storing the data in a non-persistent store associated with the core computing device;

updating the data in the non-persistent store; and

periodically storing the updated data on a plurality of persistent storage elements.

18. One or more tangible device-readable media according to claim 17, wherein reading and recreating the data is performed following loss of the data in the non-persistent store.

19. One or more tangible device-readable media according to claim 16, wherein one of the plurality of persistent storage elements comprises a hard disk associated with the core computing device and wherein storing data which is required by system software on a plurality of persistent storage elements comprises:

storing data on at least on persistent storage element located in one of the plurality of peripheral devices associated with the self-service terminal; and

storing an encrypted version of the data on a hard disk drive associated with the core computing device.

20. One or more tangible media according to claim 16, wherein the device-executable instructions for performing steps comprising reading data portions from one of more of the plurality of persistent storage elements and recreating the data which is required by the system software comprises device-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

reading data portions from any available persistent storage elements from the plurality of persistent storage elements;

integrity checking each data portion; and

recreating the data which is required by the system software from checked data portions.