UPDATING DISTRIBUTED STORAGE NETWORK SOFTWARE

• US 20120311557A1
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Cleversafe Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Resch, Jason K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,395,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/10 Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2089 Redundant storage control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17331 Distributed shared memory [DSM], e.g. remote direct memory access [RDMA]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/263 Network storage, e.g. SAN or NAS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/24 Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/085 Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0861 Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords

Abstract

A method begins by a management unit of a distributed storage network (DSN) sending a software update notice to a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) units, wherein the plurality of DS units supports a plurality of digital storage vaults, and wherein a set of DS units of the plurality of DS units supports a digital storage vault of the plurality of digital storage vaults. The method continues with a DS processing module determining an update strategy for updating software of the plurality of DS units such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of the set of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the digital storage vault and updating the software of at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy.

Claims

1. A method comprises:

sending, by a management unit of a distributed storage network (DSN), a software update notice to a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) units, wherein the plurality of DS units supports a plurality of digital storage vaults, wherein a set of DS units of the plurality of DS units supports a digital storage vault of the plurality of digital storage vaults, wherein a DS unit of the set of DS unit stores encoded data slices associated with the digital storage vault, and wherein data is encoded using a dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices that includes the encoded data slices;

determining, in regards to the software update notice, an update strategy for updating software of the plurality of DS units such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of the set of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the digital storage vault; and

updating the software of at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

determining, by the management unit, the update strategy based on responses by the plurality of DS units to the software update notice;

identifying, by the management unit, one of the at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy to produce an identified DS unit; and

facilitating, by the management unit, the updating of the software of identified DS unit.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

determining, by the management unit, the update strategy based on responses by the plurality of DS units to the software update notice; and

implementing, by the at least some of the plurality of DS units, the updating of the software of at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

determining, by the at least some of the plurality of DS units, the update strategy based on the software update notice; and

implementing, by the at least some of the plurality of DS units, the updating of the software of at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the update strategy further comprises:

determining status of a software update that is used to update the software; and

determining the update strategy based on the status of the software update.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the update strategy further comprises:

determining update status of the at least some of the plurality of DS units; and

determining the update strategy based on the update status of the at least some of the plurality of DS units.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the update strategy further comprises:

identifying a set of digital storage vaults of the plurality of digital storage vaults supported by the DS unit;

identifying a set of sets of DS units supporting the set of digital storage vaults to produce an identified set of sets of DS units; and

determining the update strategy such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of each of the set of sets of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the set of the digital storage vaults.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the update strategy further comprises:

determining priority status of at least some of the plurality of vaults; and

determining the update strategy based on the priority status of the at least some of the plurality of vaults.

9. A distributed storage (DS) module comprises:

a first module, when operable within a computing device, causes the computing device to;

receive a software update notice, wherein a plurality of DS units supports a plurality of digital storage vaults, wherein a set of DS units of the plurality of DS units supports a digital storage vault of the plurality of digital storage vaults, wherein a DS unit is within the set of DS units and stores encoded data slices associated with the digital storage vault, and wherein data is encoded using a dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices that includes the encoded data slices;

a second module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

determine, in regards to the software update notice, an update strategy for updating software of the DS unit such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of the set of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the digital storage vault; and

a third module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

update the software of the DS unit in accordance with the update strategy.

10. The DS module of claim 9, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

determining status of a software update that is used to update the software; and

determining the update strategy based on the status of the software update.

11. The DS module of claim 9, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

determining update status of the at least some of DS units of the set of DS units; and

determining the update strategy based on the update status of the at least some of the plurality of DS units.

12. The DS module of claim 9, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

identifying a set of digital storage vaults of the plurality of digital storage vaults supported by the DS unit;

identifying a set of sets of DS units supporting the set of digital storage vaults to produce an identified set of sets of DS units; and

determining the update strategy such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of each of the set of sets of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the set of the digital storage vaults.

13. The DS module of claim 9, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

determining priority status of at least some of the plurality of vaults; and

determining the update strategy based on the priority status of the at least some of the plurality of vaults.

14. A management unit of a distributed storage network (DSN), the management unit comprises:

a first module, when operable within a computing device, causes the computing device to;

generate and send a software update notice to a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) units, wherein the plurality of DS units supports a plurality of digital storage vaults, wherein a set of DS units of the plurality of DS units supports a digital storage vault of the plurality of digital storage vaults, wherein a DS unit of the set of DS unit stores encoded data slices associated with the digital storage vault, and wherein data is encoded using a dispersed storage error encoding function to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices that includes the encoded data slices;

a second module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

determine, in regards to the software update notice, an update strategy for updating software of the plurality of DS units such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of the set of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the digital storage vault; and

a third module, when operable within the computing device, causes the computing device to;

facilitate updating the software of at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy.

15. The management unit of claim 14, wherein the second module is further operable to:

determine the update strategy based on responses by the plurality of DS units to the software update notice;

identify one of the at least some of the plurality of DS units in accordance with the update strategy to produce an identified DS unit; and

facilitate the updating of the software of identified DS unit.

16. The management unit of claim 14, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

determining status of a software update that is used to update the software; and

determining the update strategy based on the status of the software update.

17. The management unit of claim 14, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

determining update status of the at least some of the plurality of DS units; and

determining the update strategy based on the update status of the at least some of the plurality of DS units.

18. The management unit of claim 14, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

identifying a set of digital storage vaults of the plurality of digital storage vaults supported by the DS unit;

identifying a set of sets of DS units supporting the set of digital storage vaults to produce an identified set of sets of DS units; and

determining the update strategy such that at least a decode threshold number of DS units of each of the set of sets of DS units is continually available to service access requests to the set of the digital storage vaults.

19. The management unit of claim 14, wherein the second module is further operable to determine the update strategy by:

determining priority status of at least some of the plurality of vaults; and

determining the update strategy based on the priority status of the at least some of the plurality of vaults.