NVRAM DATA ORGANIZATION USING SELF-DESCRIBING ENTITIES FOR PREDICTABLE RECOVERY AFTER POWER-LOSS

• US 20150370498A1
• Filed: 08/28/2015
• Published: 12/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Patel, Kayuri H., Shankar, Hari
• Granted Patent: US 9,619,160 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1038 LFS, i.e. Log Structured File System used in RAID systems with parity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

In one embodiment, a node coupled to a plurality of storage devices executes a storage input/output (I/O) stack having a plurality of layers including a persistence layer. A portion of non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) is configured as one or more logs. The persistence layer cooperates with the NVRAM to employ the log to record write requests received from a host and to acknowledge successful receipt of the write requests to the host. The log has a set of entries, each entry including (i) write data of a write request and (ii) a previous offset referencing a previous entry of the log. After a power loss, the acknowledged write requests are recovered by replay of the log in reverse sequential order using the previous record offset in each entry to traverse the log.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU) of a node coupled to storage devices of a storage array;

a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) coupled to the CPU, a portion of the NVRAM configured as one or more logs; and

a memory coupled to the CPU and configured to store a storage input/output (I/O) stack having a plurality of layers including a persistence layer executable by the CPU, the persistence layer cooperating with the NVRAM to employ the one or more logs to record in sequence write requests received from a host and to acknowledge successful receipt of the write requests to the host, the one or more logs having a set of entries, each entry including (i) write data of a write request and (ii) a previous offset referencing a previous entry of the log, wherein after a power loss, the acknowledged write requests are recovered by replay of the one or more logs in reverse sequential order using the previous record offset of each entry to traverse the log.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each entry further includes a sequence number used to determine a tail entry of the log, wherein the tail entry is a last entry written to the log.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the tail entry of the log is determined when the sequence number of the previous entry referenced by the previous offset in a current entry of the log is out of sequence with the sequence number of the current entry.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the sequence number facilitates matching of entries in the set of entries to allow retirement of the entries when the write data is safely stored on the storage array.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the sequence number is one of a monotonically increasing value and a time stamp.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the plurality of layers of the storage I/O stack include a volume layer disposed over an extent store layer, and wherein each entry further includes an outstanding-entries-to-volume-layer field indicating a number of write requests in progress at the volume layer.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the outstanding-entries-to-volume-layer field is embodied as a counter that tracks a number of entries processed by the volume layer and the extent store layer of the storage I/O stack.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein recovery of a last write request received from the host is enabled by the replay of log entries corresponding to write requests pending in the storage I/O stack at a time of creation of the tail entry of the log.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the replay is performed by traversing entries of the log starting from the tail entry based on a number indicated in the outstanding-entries-to-volume-layer field of the tail entry.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the replay is further performed by replaying the traversed entries in order from an oldest entry up to and including the tail entry.

11. A method comprising:

executing, by a node coupled to a plurality of solid state drives (SSDs), a storage input/output (I/O) stack having a plurality of layers including a persistence layer for configuring a portion of a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) as a log to record in sequence write requests received from a host and to acknowledge successful receipt of the write requests to the host;

organizing the log as a set of entries, each entry including (i) write data of a write request and (ii) a previous offset referencing a previous entry of the log; and

after a power loss, replaying the log in reverse sequential order using the previous record offset of each entry to traverse the log so as to recover the acknowledged write requests.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining a tail entry of the log using a sequence number included in an entry, wherein the tail entry is a last entry written to the log.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining the trail entry comprises:

determining the tail entry of the log when the sequence number of the previous entry referenced by the previous offset in a current entry of the log is out of sequence with the sequence number of the current entry.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

using the sequence number to facilitate matching of entries in the set of entries to allow retirement of the entries when the write data is safely stored on the SSDs.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

executing a volume layer disposed over an extent store layer of the storage I/O stack at the node; and

indicating a number of write requests in progress at the volume layer in an outstanding-entries-to-volume-layer field of the entry.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

embodying outstanding-entries-to-volume-layer field as a counter; and

tracking a number of entries processed by the volume layer and the extent store layer of the storage I/O stack using the counter.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein replaying further comprises:

replaying log entries corresponding to write requests pending in the storage I/O stack at a time of creation of the tail entry of the log to enable recovery to a last write request received from the host.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein replaying further comprises:

traversing entries of the log starting from the tail entry based on a number indicated in the outstanding-entries-to-volume-layer field of the tail entry.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein replaying further comprises:

replaying the traversed entries in order from an oldest entry up to and including the tail entry.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium including program instructions for execution on one or more processors, the program instructions when executed operable to:

implement a storage input/output (I/O) stack having a plurality of layers including a persistence layer for configuring a portion of a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) as a log to record in sequence write requests received from a host and to acknowledge successful receipt of the write requests to the host;

organize the log as a set of entries, each entry including (i) write data of a write request and (ii) a previous offset referencing a previous entry of the log; and

after a power loss, replay the log in reverse sequential order using the previous record offset of each entry to traverse the log so as to recover the acknowledged write requests.