APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR MIGRATING WEAR SPOTS

• US 20090319743A1
• Filed: 06/23/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ash, Kevin John, Donie, Benjamin Jay, Koster, Andreas Bernardus Mattias
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,835 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7211 Wear leveling

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for migrating wear spots in solid-state drives. A count module counts lifetime write cycles for logical units of a plurality of solid-state memories. Each logical unit has a logical address. An identification module identifies a wear spot on a first logical unit of a first solid-state memory if a count for the first logical unit exceeds a cycle threshold. A migration module dynamically migrates data of the first logical unit to a second solid-state memory, wherein the data is continuously available at an original logical address.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program stored on a tangible storage device, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

count lifetime write cycles for logical units of a plurality of solid-state memories, wherein each logical unit has a logical address;

identify a wear spot on a first logical unit of a first solid-state memory if a count for the first logical unit exceeds a cycle threshold; and

dynamically migrate data of the first logical unit to a second solid-state memory, wherein the data is continuously available at an original logical address.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each logical unit is configured as a solid-state drive logical block address.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each logical unit is configured as an array logical block address.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each logical unit is configured as a logical volume.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each logical unit is configured as an extent.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the cycle threshold is a specified number of lifetime write cycles.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the cycle threshold is a specified percentage of an average of counts for lifetime write cycles of all logical units in the plurality of solid-state memories.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program is further configured to cause the computer to dynamically migrate the data using a flash copy algorithm.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the computer readable program is further configured to cause the computer to dynamically migrate the data using a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) mirroring algorithm.

10. An apparatus to migrate wear spots, the apparatus comprising:

a count module configured to count lifetime write cycles for logical units of a plurality of solid-state memories, wherein each logical unit has a logical address;

an identification module configured to identify a wear spot on a first logical unit of a first solid-state memory if a count for the first logical unit exceeds a cycle threshold; and

a migration module configured to dynamically migrate data of the first logical unit to a second solid-state memory, wherein the data is continuously available at an original logical address.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein each logical unit is configured as a solid-state drive logical block address.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein each logical unit is configured as an array logical block address.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein each logical unit is configured as a logical volume.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein each logical unit is configured as an extent.

15. A system to migrate wear spots, the system comprising:

a plurality of solid-state memories;

a count module configured to count lifetime write cycles for logical units of the plurality of solid-state memories, wherein each logical unit has a logical address;

an identification module configured to identify a wear spot on a first logical unit of a first solid-state memory if a count for the first logical unit exceeds a cycle threshold; and

a migration module configured to dynamically migrate data of the first logical unit to a second solid-state memory, wherein the data is continuously available at an original logical address.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the cycle threshold is a specified number of lifetime write cycles.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the cycle threshold is a specified percentage of an average of counts for lifetime write cycles of all logical units in the plurality of solid-state memories.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program is further configured to cause the computer to dynamically migrate the data using a flash copy algorithm.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer readable program is further configured to cause the computer to dynamically migrate the data using a RAID mirroring algorithm.

20. A method for deploying computer infrastructure, comprising integrating a computer readable program stored on a tangible storage device into a computing system, wherein the program in combination with the computing system is capable of performing the following:

counting lifetime write cycles for logical units of a plurality of solid-state memories, wherein each logical unit has a logical address;

identifying a wear spot on a first logical unit of a first solid-state memory if a count for the first logical unit exceeds a cycle threshold, wherein the cycle threshold is a specified percentage of an average of counts for lifetime write cycles of all logical units in the plurality of solid-state memories; and

dynamically migrating data of the first logical unit to a second solid-state memory using a flash copy algorithm, wherein the data is continuously available at an original logical address.