System and method for preventing data corruption after power failure

• US 20100138603A1
• Filed: 12/03/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mukker, Atul
• Application Number:
  US12/315,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20100138603A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1057 Parity-multiple bits-RAID6, i.e. RAID 6 implementations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1059 Parity-single bit-RAID5, i.e. RAID 5 implementations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1061 Parity-single bit-RAID4, i.e. RAID 4 implementations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1064 Parity-single bit-RAID3, i.e. RAID 3 implementations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1071 Power loss, i.e. interrupted writes due to power loss in a RAID system

Abstract

A system and method for preventing data corruption after power failure is described. The system may include a host server, a disk array, a journaling disk, and/or a RAID controller. A method for preventing data corruption after power failure may include receiving at least one of a read command or a write command, storing information on an array of disk drives at least partially based on receiving the at least one of a read command or a write command, and storing persistent information on a journaling drive.

Claims

1. A system for storing data, comprising:

a disk array including a plurality of disk drives;

a journaling disk; and

a RAID controller communicatively coupled to the journaling disk and the disk array, and configured for reading from the disk array and writing to the disk array at least partially based upon commands received from the host server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the disk array including a plurality of disk drives comprises:

a redundant array of independent disks configuration (RAID).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the RAID controller comprises:

a controller configured for storing uncommitted writes to the journaling disk.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the disk array including a plurality of disk drives comprises:

a RAID 5 configuration.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the disk array including a plurality of disk drives comprises:

at least one of a RAID 3 configuration, a RAID 4 configuration, or a RAID 6 configuration.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the journaling disk comprises:

a supplemental disk to the disk array configured for receiving metadata.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the journating disk comprises:

a journating disk configured to be sized according to a ratio number of outstanding WRITE commands versus the size of a RAID volume.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the journaling disk comprises:

a journaling disk configured to service the host write command in a degraded RAID configuration.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the journaling disk comprises:

a journaling disk configured to have a smaller volume than the disk array including a plurality of disk drives.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a host server.

11. A method, comprising:

receiving at least one of a read command or a write command;

storing information on an array of disk drives at least partially based on receiving the at least one of a read command or a write command; and

storing persistent information on a journating drive.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving at least one of a read command or a write command comprises:

receiving a command from a host server.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein storing information on an array of disk drives at least partially based on receiving the at least one of a read command or a write command comprises:

storing information in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID).

14. The method of claim 13, wherein storing information in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) comprises:

storing information in a RAID 5 configuration.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein storing information in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) comprises:

storing information in at least one of a RAID 3 configuration, a RAID 4 configuration, or RAID 6 configuration.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein storing persistent information on a journaling drive comprises:

storing information in a journaling drive configured to have a smaller storage capacity than the at least one disk drive.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein storing persistent information on a journaling drive comprises:

storing information in a flash memory-based journaling drive.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein storing persistent information on a journaling drive comprises:

storing information on a journaling drive configured for servicing a host command in a degraded at least one disk drive configuration.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

correcting parity from persistent data on the journaling drive subsequent to degradation of the at least one disk drive.

20. A RAID system for storing data, comprising:

a RAID 5 disk array including at Least two disk drives;

a journaling disk communicatively coupled to the RAID 5 disk array, where the journating disk is a solid state drive configured to store persistent data and has a smaller storage volume than the RAID 5 disk array; and

a RAID controller communicatively coupled to the journaling disk and the RAID 5 disk array, where the RAID controller is configured for reading from the RAID 5 disk array and writing to the RAID 5 disk array at least partially based upon commands received from a host server.