REQUESTING CLOUD DATA STORAGE

• US 20110225451A1
• Filed: 02/04/2011
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Resch, Jason. K., Leggette, Wesley
• Granted Patent: US 8,578,205 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6.22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1425 the protection being physical, e.g. cell, word, block
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

A method begins by a processing module determining that a data storage request is a cloud data storage request. The method continues with the processing module determining at least one of a cloud storage access reliability indication and a cloud storage data reliability indication for the data storage request. The method continues with the processing module sending the data storage request and the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and cloud storage data reliability indication to a cloud storage system.

Claims

1. A method comprises:

determining that a data storage request is a cloud data storage request;

determining at least one of a cloud storage access reliability indication and a cloud storage data reliability indication for the data storage request; and

sending the data storage request and the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication to a cloud storage system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication further comprises:

upon receiving the data storage request, providing a cloud storage menu; and

receiving at least one of a selection for the cloud storage access reliability indication and a selection for the cloud storage data reliability indication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication further comprises:

determining a data type for data of the data storage request; and

accessing a user register to obtain at least one of a user setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the data type and a user setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the data type;

or

accessing a system register to obtain at least one of a system setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the data type and a system setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the data type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication further comprises:

determining an application type that generated data of the data storage request; and

accessing a user register to obtain at least one of a user setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the application type and a user setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the application type;

or

accessing a system register to obtain at least one of a system setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the application type and a system setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the application type.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication further comprises at least one of:

accessing a first register to obtain at least one of a default system setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication and a default system setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication; and

accessing a second register to obtain at least one of a user-defined default setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication and a user-defined default setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

the cloud storage access reliability indication including at least one of;

level of availability of data of the data storage request;

storage cost information;

a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) preference indicator; and

a data dispersal preference indicator;

the cloud storage data reliability indication including at least one of;

a data loss cost consequence;

a data loss tolerance level;

the storage cost information;

the RAID preference indicator; and

the data dispersal preference indicator.

7. A method comprises:

receiving a data storage request and at least one of a cloud storage access reliability indication and a cloud storage data reliability indication;

interpreting the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication to determine at least one of a storage access level and a storage reliability level;

determining dispersed storage error encoding parameters based on the at least one of the storage access level and the storage reliability level; and

encoding data of the data storage request based on the dispersed storage error encoding parameters to produce one or more sets of encoded data slices.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprises:

the cloud storage access reliability indication including at least one of;

level of availability of data of the data storage request;

storage cost information;

a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) preference indicator; and

a data dispersal preference indicator;

the cloud storage data reliability indication including at least one of;

a data loss cost consequence;

a data loss tolerance level;

the storage cost information;

the RAID preference indicator; and

the data dispersal preference indicator.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprises:

sending an indication of the dispersed storage error encoding parameters to a requesting device associated with the data storage request.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining the dispersed storage error encoding parameters further comprises at least one of:

determining a pillar width and a spacing between a decode threshold and a read threshold based on the storage access level, wherein the pillar width and the spacing between the decode threshold and the read threshold are proportional to the storage access level;

determining a spacing between the decode threshold and the pillar width based on the storage reliability level, wherein the spacing between the decode threshold and the pillar width is proportional to the storage reliability level;

determining a spacing between a write threshold and the pillar width based on the storage access level, wherein the spacing between the write threshold and the pillar width are proportional to the storage access level; and

determining a spacing between the decode threshold and the write threshold based on the storage reliability level, wherein the spacing between the decode threshold and write threshold is proportional to the storage reliability level.

11. A computer comprises:

an interface;

a memory; and

a processing module operable to;

determine that a data storage request is a cloud data storage request;

determine at least one of a cloud storage access reliability indication and a cloud storage data reliability indication for the data storage request; and

send, via the interface, the data storage request and the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and cloud storage data reliability indication to a cloud storage system.

12. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processing module further functions to determine the at least one of the cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication by:

upon receiving, via the interface, the data storage request, providing a cloud storage menu; and

receiving at least one of a selection for the cloud storage access reliability indication and a selection for the cloud storage data reliability indication.

13. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processing module further functions to determine the at least one of the cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication by:

determining a data type for data of the data storage request; and

accessing a user register, of the memory, to obtain at least one of a user setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the data type and a user setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the data type;

or

accessing a system register, of the memory, to obtain at least one of a system setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the data type and a system setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the data type.

14. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processing module further functions to determine the at least one of the cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication by:

determining an application type that generated data of the data storage request; and

accessing a user register, of the memory, to obtain at least one of a user setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the application type and a user setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the application type;

or

accessing a system register, of the memory, to obtain at least one of a system setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication for the application type and a system setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication for the application type.

15. The computer of claim 11, wherein the processing module further functions to determine the at least one of the cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication by:

accessing a first register, of the memory, to obtain at least one of a default system setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication and a default system setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication; and

accessing a second register, of the memory, to obtain at least one of a user-defined default setting for the cloud storage access reliability indication and a user-defined default setting for the cloud storage data reliability indication.

16. The computer of claim 11 further comprises:

the cloud storage access reliability indication including at least one of;

level of availability of data of the data storage request;

storage cost information;

a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) preference indicator; and

a data dispersal preference indicator;

the cloud storage data reliability indication including at least one of;

a data loss cost consequence;

a data loss tolerance level;

the storage cost information;

the RAID preference indicator; and

the data dispersal preference indicator.

17. A computer comprises:

an interface;

a memory; and

a processing module operable to;

receive, via the interface, a data storage request and at least one of a cloud storage access reliability indication and a cloud storage data reliability indication;

interpret the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and the cloud storage data reliability indication to determine at least one of a storage access level and a storage reliability level;

determine dispersed storage error encoding parameters based on the at least one of the storage access level and the storage reliability level; and

encode data of the data storage request based on the dispersed storage error encoding parameters to produce one or more sets of encoded data slices.

18. The computer of claim 17 further comprises:

the cloud storage access reliability indication including at least one of;

level of availability of data of the data storage request;

storage cost information;

a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) preference indicator; and

a data dispersal preference indicator;

the cloud storage data reliability indication including at least one of;

a data loss cost consequence;

a data loss tolerance level;

the storage cost information;

the RAID preference indicator; and

the data dispersal preference indicator.

19. The computer of claim 17, wherein the processing module further functions to:

send, via the interface, an indication of the dispersed storage error encoding parameters to a requesting device associated with the data storage request.

20. The computer of claim 17, wherein the processing module further functions to determine the dispersed storage error encoding parameters by at least one of:

determining a pillar width and a spacing between a decode threshold and a read threshold based on the storage access level, wherein the pillar width and the spacing between the decode threshold and the read threshold are proportional to the storage access level;

determining a spacing between the decode threshold and the pillar width based on the storage reliability level, wherein the spacing between the decode threshold and the pillar width is proportional to the storage reliability level; and

determining a spacing between a write threshold and the pillar width based on the storage access level, wherein the spacing between the write threshold and the pillar width are proportional to the storage access level; and

determining a spacing between the decode threshold and the write threshold based on the storage reliability level, wherein the spacing between the decode threshold and write threshold is proportional to the storage reliability level.