FLASH-BASED DATA ARCHIVE STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20100281207A1
• Filed: 04/05/2010
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Trimmer, Don, Miller, Steven C., Kleiman, Steven R.
• Application Number:
  US12/754,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20100281207A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0634 by changing the state or mode of one or more devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A flash-based data archive storage system having a large capacity storage array constructed from a plurality of dense flash devices is provided. The flash devices are illustratively multi-level cell (MLC) flash devices that are tightly packaged to provide a low-power, high-performance data archive system having substantially more capacity per cubic inch than more dense tape or disk drives. The flash-based data archive system may be adapted to employ conventional data de-duplication and compression methods to compactly store data. Furthermore, the flash-based archive system has a smaller footprint and consumes less power than the tape and/or disk archive system.

Claims

1. A data archive storage system comprising:

an array of multi-level cell flash devices operative interconnected with a processor configured to execute a storage operating system comprising a file system, the file system configured to, in response to receipt of a data set for storage on the data archive storage system, (i) de-duplicate the received data set, (ii) compress the received data set and (iii) store the received data set in the array of multi-level cell flash devices.

2. The data archive storage system of claim 1 wherein the file system is further configured to, in response to receipt of a request for data, (iv) identify one or more of the multi-level cell flash devices that store the requested data, (v) apply power to the identified multi-level cell flash devices, (vi) read the requested data from the identified multi-level cell flash devices and (vii) remove power from the identified multi-level cell flash devices.

3. The data archive storage system of claim 2 wherein the file system is further configured to (viii) decompress the read requested data and (ix) restore the read requested data.

4. The data archive storage system of claim 1 wherein the data set comprises a backup data stream.

5. The data archive storage system of claim 1 wherein the de-duplication comprises:

chunking the received data set into a plurality of blocks;

generating a signature for each of the plurality of blocks;

determining whether the generated signature is in a signature database;

in response to determining that the generated signature is in the signature database, replacing a block with the generated signature with a pointer to a previously stored block with the generated signature; and

in response to determining that the generated signature is not in the signature database, placing the generated signature in the signature database and storing the block with the generated signature.

6. A data archive storage system comprising:

an array of multi-level cell flash devices operatively interconnected with a processor configured to execute a storage operating system comprising a file system, the processor operatively interconnected with a flash controller configured to control power to the array of flash devices in response to commands from the storage operating system, and wherein the file system is configured to (i) receive a data set, (ii) de-duplicate the received data set and (iii) store the de-duplicated data set in the array of multi-level cell flash devices.

7. The data archive storage system of claim 6 wherein the file system is further configured to (iv) identify a set of multi-level cell flash devices of the array of multi-level cell flash devices that stores data requested by a data access request, (v) read the requested data, (vi) restoring the read requested data and (vii) return the read requested data.

8. The data archive storage system of claim 7 wherein the set of multi-level cell flash devices of the array of multi-level cell flash devices that stores data requested by the data access request are powered on by the flash controller prior to being read.

9. The data archive storage system of claim 7 wherein the set of multi-level cell flash devices of the array of multi-level cell flash devices that stores data requested by the data access request are powered down by the flash controller after the data requested by the data access request is read.

10. The data archive storage system of claim 6 wherein the de-duplication comprises:

chunking the received data set into a plurality of blocks;

generating a signature for each of the plurality of blocks;

determining whether the generated signature is in a signature database;

in response to determining that the generated signature is in the signature database, replacing a block with the generated signature with a pointer to a previously stored block with the generated signature; and

in response to determining that the generated signature is not in the signature database, placing the generated signature in the signature database and storing the block with the generated signature.

11. A data archive storage system comprising:

an array of multi-level cell flash devices operatively interconnected with a processor configured to execute a storage operating system comprising a file system, the processor operatively interconnected with a flash controller configured to control power to the array of flash devices in response to commands from the storage operating system, and wherein the file system is configured to (i) receive a data set, (ii) compress the received data set and (iii) store the compressed data set in the array of multi-level cell flash devices.

12. The data archive storage system of claim 11 wherein the file system is further configured to (iv) identify a set of multi-level cell flash devices of the array of multi-level cell flash devices that stores data requested by a data access request, (v) read the requested data, (vi) decompress the read requested data and (vii) return the read requested data.

13. A method for execution on a data archive storage system comprising:

receiving a data set for storage on the data archive storage system;

performing a de-duplication procedure on the received data set;

compressing the de-duplicated data set;

storing the compressed data set on an array of multi-level cell flash devices;

receiving a read request from a client of the data archive storage system directed to the stored data;

determining, by a controller, a set of multi-level cell flash devices storing the requested data;

applying power to the set of multi-level cell flash devices;

reading the requested data from the set of multi-level cell flash devices;

decompressing the read requested data;

restoring the decompressed data;

responding to the read request; and

removing power to the set of multi-level cell flash devices.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the de-duplication procedure comprises chunking the received data set into a plurality of predefined sized blocks.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the data set comprises a backup data stream.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein compressing the de-duplicated data set comprises utilizing a symmetric compression technique.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the de-duplication procedure comprises:

chunking the received data set into a plurality of blocks;

generating a signature for each of the plurality of blocks;

determining whether the generated signature is in a signature database;

in response to determining that the generated signature is in the signature database, replacing a block with the generated signature with a pointer to a previously stored block with the generated signature; and

in response to determining that the generated signature is not in the signature database, placing the generated signature in the signature database and storing the block with the generated signature.

18. A method comprising:

receiving a data set from a client for storage on a data archive storage system, wherein the data archive storage system comprises a processor operatively interconnected with a controller configured to control an array of multi-level cell flash devices;

de-duplication, by one or more modules of a storage operating system executing on the processor, the received data set; and

storing, by the controller, the de-duplicated data set on the array of multi-level cell flash devices.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising compressing the received data set.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein compressing the received data set comprises utilizing a symmetric compression technique.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein de-duplicating the received data set comprises:

chunking the received data set into a plurality of blocks;

generating a signature for each of the plurality of blocks;

determining whether the generated signature is in a signature database;

in response to determining that the generated signature is in the signature database, replacing a block with the generated signature with a pointer to a previously stored block with the generated signature; and

in response to determining that the generated signature is not in the signature database, placing the generated signature in the signature database and storing the block with the generated signature.