Health Reporting From Non-Volatile Block Storage Device to Processing Device

• US 20110010487A1
• Filed: 07/13/2009
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sadovsky, Vladimir, Bovee, James C., Alexander, Robin A., Obr, Nathan Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,812,770 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/00 Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures digital input from, or digital output to record carriers, e.g. to disk storage units, G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/145 the protection being virtual, e.g. for virtual blocks or segments before a translation mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7202 Allocation control and policies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7211 Wear leveling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0616 in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

Methods and devices are provided for adapting an I/O pattern, with respect to a processing device using a non-volatile block storage device based on feedback from the non-volatile block storage device. The feedback may include information indicating a status of the non-volatile block storage device. In response to receiving the feedback, a storage subsystem, included in an operating system executing on processing device, may change a behavior with respect to the non-volatile block storage device in order to avoid, or reduce, a negative impact to the non-volatile block storage device or to enhance an aspect of the non-volatile block storage device. The feedback may include performance information and/or operating environmental information of the non-volatile block storage device. When the non-volatile block storage device is not capable of providing the feedback, the processing device may request information about the non-volatile block storage device from a database service.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for adapting a storage subsystem, included in an operating system executing on a processing device, to a non-volatile block storage device, the machine-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, by the storage subsystem from either the non-volatile block storage device or a remote source, information about the non-volatile block storage device; and

adapting, by the storage subsystem, an input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device based on the obtained information about the non-volatile block storage device.

2. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the obtaining of information about the non-volatile block storage device further comprises;

requesting, from a database service via a network, data concerning performance characteristics about the non-volatile block storage device, and

receiving from the database service the data concerning the performance characteristics of the non-volatile block storage device; and

the adapting of the input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device further comprises;

selecting one of a plurality of predefined profiles based on the received data concerning the performance characteristics about the non-volatile block storage device, at least some of the plurality of predefined profiles defining a respective input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device.

3. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the obtaining of information about the non-volatile block storage device further comprises;

receiving, from the non-volatile block storage device, at least one type of information from a group of types of information including performance information and environmental information; and

the adapting of the input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device further comprises;

setting, as a current profile, one of a plurality of predefined profiles based on the at least one type of received information, the one of the plurality of predefined profiles being a profile from among the plurality of predefined profiles that most closely addresses a status of the non-volatile block storage device as indicated by the at least one type of information.

4. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the information about the non-volatile block storage device further comprises:

receiving a communication from the non-volatile block storage device indicating the input/output pattern for a storage subsystem component to adapt when accessing the non-volatile block storage device.

5. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the adapting of the input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device further comprises;

selecting one of a plurality of predefined profiles based on the received information about the non-volatile block storage device, at least some of the plurality of predefined profiles defining a respective input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device; and

the plurality of predefined profiles are associated with a respective plurality of queuing methods.

6. The machine-implemented method of claim 5, wherein one of the plurality of queuing methods further comprises:

aggregating input/output operations from a plurality of input/output operations, and

performing the aggregated input/output operations on the non-volatile block storage device as a single input/output operation.

7. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of information about the non-volatile block storage device further comprises:

polling the non-volatile block storage device, and

receiving the information about the non-volatile block storage device in response to the polling.

8. The machine-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of information about the non-volatile block storage device further comprises:

asynchronously receiving the information about the non-volatile block storage device.

9. A non-volatile block storage device comprising:

a processor;

a non-volatile storage medium capable of storing data connected to the processor; and

a static storage device connected to the processor, the static storage device including instructions for the processor, the instructions comprising;

instructions for monitoring patterns of operations from a processing device, and

instructions for providing feedback to the processing device, the feedback including information which can be used by the processing device to adjust a pattern of writing to the non-volatile block storage device.

10. The non-volatile block storage device of claim 9, wherein the static storage device further comprises:

instructions for including operational environmental information in the feedback

11. The non-volatile block storage device of claim 9, wherein the instructions for providing feedback to the processing device further comprise:

instructions for providing the feedback to the processing device in response to receiving a poll.

12. The non-volatile block storage device of claim 9, wherein the feedback includes a predefined profile, which defines a particular behavior for the processing device to use in order to avoid, or reduce, a negative impact to the non-volatile block storage device or to enhance an aspect of the non-volatile block storage device.

13. The non-volatile storage device of claim 9, wherein the feedback includes information describing one or more input/output patterns not to be used by the processing device when accessing the non-volatile storage device.

14. The non-volatile storage device of claim 9, wherein the static storage device further comprises:

instructions for changing a pattern of accessing the non-volatile storage medium in order to decrease a negative impact to the non-volatile storage device.

15. A tangible machine-readable medium comprising:

instructions for obtaining, from either a remote server, a storage subsystem, or a non-volatile block storage device, information for decreasing a negative impact of an input/output pattern for accessing a non-volatile block storage device; and

instructions for adapting the input/output pattern for accessing the block storage device, based on the obtained information for decreasing the negative impact to the non-volatile block storage device.

16. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the obtained information includes performance characteristics of the non-volatile block storage device.

17. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for modifying the input/output pattern for accessing the non-volatile block storage device using any one of a plurality of predefined profiles, wherein

the obtained information includes one of the plurality of predefined profiles to use in order to decrease the negative impact to the block storage device.

18. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for receiving operating environmental information from the block storage device; and

instructions for changing input/output patterns, based on the received environmental information.

19. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for receiving statistical data from the non-volatile block storage device; and

instructions for determining, based on the received statistical data, which one of a plurality of predefined profiles to use when accessing the non-volatile block storage device, each of the plurality of predefined profiles defining a respective behavior with respect to use of the non-volatile block storage device.

20. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

instructions for enabling or disabling one or more features of an input/output controller based on the obtained information.