METHOD FOR BACKING UP DATA IN A CASE OF POWER FAILURE OF STORAGE SYSTEM, AND STORAGE SYSTEM CONTROLLER

• US 20150081958A1
• Filed: 10/31/2014
• Published: 03/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Yansong
• Granted Patent: US 9,465,426 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for backing up data in a case of a power failure of a storage system including: when a power failure is detected, acquiring current refresh progress of a buffer in a storage system, an address, in the buffer, of data that is in the buffer and needs to be backed up to a non-volatile memory in the storage system, and a first time required for backing up the data; calculating, according to the current refresh progress of the buffer and the address of the data in the buffer, a second time for which the data can at least keep being not lost since a last refresh; and stopping refreshing the buffer, and backing up the data to the non-volatile memory, if the second time is greater than the first time.

Claims

1. A method for backing up data in a case of a power failure of a storage system, the method comprising:

when a power failure is detected, acquiring current refresh progress of a buffer in a storage system, an address, in the buffer, of data that is in the buffer and needs to be backed up to a non-volatile memory in the storage system, and a first time required for backing up the data;

calculating, according to the current refresh progress of the buffer and the address of the data in the buffer, a second time for which the data can at least keep being not lost since a last refresh; and

stopping refreshing the buffer, and backing up the data to the non-volatile memory, if the second time is greater than the first time.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein acquiring current refresh progress of a buffer in a storage system comprises:

acquiring, from a counter, the current refresh progress of the buffer in the storage system, wherein the current refresh progress is a current count value of the counter and the count value of the counter increases according to a set value each time a refresh command is sent to the buffer.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein calculating, according to the current refresh progress of the buffer and the address of the data in the buffer, a second time for which the data can at least keep being not lost since a last refresh comprises:

when a minimum row number p1 of the data in the buffer is greater than or equal to a row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress, calculating the second time t1=T1−

[T2−

(p1−

p)*Δ

] for which the data can at least keep being not lost since the last refresh, wherein T1 is maximum time for which any row of data can keep after a refresh, T2 is a period for which a refresh is performed on the buffer, an interval at which two adjacent rows are refreshed Δ

=T2/M, and M is the total number of rows in the buffer.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein calculating, according to the current refresh progress of the buffer and the address of the data in the buffer, a second time for which the data can at least keep being not lost since a last refresh comprises:

when a maximum row number p2 of the data in the buffer is smaller than or equal to the row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress, calculating the second time t1=T1−

(p−

p1)*Δ

for which the data can at least keep being not lost since the last refresh.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein calculating, according to the current refresh progress of the buffer and the address of the data in the buffer, a second time for which the data can at least keep being not lost since a last refresh comprises:

when the row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress is greater than the minimum row number p1 of the data in the buffer, and the row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress is smaller than the maximum row number p2 of the data in the buffer, calculating the second time t1 for which the data can at least keep being not lost since the last refresh, wherein the second time t1 comprises t2 and t3;

t2 is time for which data ranging from the row number p to the row number p2 can at least keep since the last refresh, t2=T1−

T2;

t3 is time for which data ranging from the row number p1 to the row number p can at least keep since the last refresh, t3=T1−

(p−

p1)*Δ

−

t4; and

t4 is time required for backing up the data ranging from the row number p to the row number p2 to the non-volatile memory.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein stopping refreshing the buffer if the second time is greater than the first time comprises:

stopping refreshing the buffer if t2 is greater than t4 and t3 is greater than time t5 required for backing up the data ranging from the row number p1 to the row number p to the non-volatile memory.

7. A storage system controller, comprising:

an acquiring unit, configured to;

when a power failure is detected, acquire current refresh progress of a buffer in a storage system, an address, in the buffer, of data that is in the buffer and needs to be backed up to a non-volatile memory in the storage system, and a first time required for backing up the data;

a calculating unit, configured to calculate, according to the current refresh progress of the buffer and the address of the data in the buffer, a second time for which the data can at least keep being not lost since a last refresh;

a refreshing unit, configured to stop refreshing the buffer if the second time is greater than the first time; and

a backup unit, configured to back up the data to the non-volatile memory.

8. The storage system controller according to claim 7, wherein the acquiring unit is configured to acquire, from a counter, the current refresh progress of the buffer in the storage system, wherein the current refresh progress is a current count value of the counter and the count value of the counter increases according to a set value each time a refresh command is sent to the buffer.

9. The storage system controller according to claim 7, wherein the calculating unit is configured to:

when a minimum row number p1 of the data in the buffer is greater than or equal to a row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress, calculate the second time t1=T1−

[T2−

(p1−

p)*Δ

] for which the data can at least keep being not lost since the last refresh, wherein T1 is maximum time for which any row of data can keep after a refresh, T2 is a period for which a refresh is performed on the buffer, an interval at which two adjacent rows are refreshed Δ

=T2/M, and M is the total number of rows in the buffer.

10. The storage system controller according to claim 9, wherein the calculating unit is further configured to:

when a maximum row number p2 of the data in the buffer is smaller than or equal to the row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress, calculate the second time t1=T1−

(p−

p1)*Δ

for which the data can at least keep being not lost since the last refresh.

11. The storage system controller according to claim 9, wherein the calculating unit is further configured to:

when the row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress is greater than the minimum row number p1 of the data in the buffer, and the row number p of the buffer corresponding to the current refresh progress is smaller than the maximum row number p2 of the data in the buffer, calculate the second time t1 for which the data can at least keep being not lost since the last refresh, wherein the second time t1 comprises t2 and t3;

t2 is time for which data ranging from the row number p to the row number p2 can at least keep since the last refresh, t2=T1−

T2;

t3 is time for which data ranging from the row number p1 to the row number p can at least keep since the last refresh, t3=T1−

(p−

p1)*Δ

−

t4; and

t4 is time required for backing up the data ranging from the row number p to the row number p2 to the non-volatile memory.

12. The storage system controller according to claim 11, wherein the refreshing unit is configured to:

stop refreshing the buffer if t2 is greater than t4 and t3 is greater than time t5 required for backing up the data ranging from the row number p1 to the row number p to the non-volatile memory.