INTELLIGENT FAILURE PREDICTION AND REDUNDANCY MANAGEMENT IN A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20160239395A1
• Filed: 02/16/2015
• Published: 08/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: MADSEN, CHRISTIAN BRUUN, KHURSHUDOV, ANDREI, ALEXANDER, ZACHARY
• Granted Patent: US 10,176,065 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2082 Data synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• 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 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, systems, and devices are described for redundancy management for a storage system including a plurality of storage devices. Approaches for redundancy management may involve storage device failure prediction techniques and/or a redundancy value associated with a data file. In one example, a copy of the file may be stored on at least two storage devices. Whether or not to store an additional copy of the file on another storage device may be based at least in part on the redundancy value for the file. In another example, a determination may be made whether to store a copy of the file on another storage device when a storage device storing a copy of the file is predicted to fail. Whether to store a copy of the file on another storage device may be based at least in part on a redundancy value associated with the file.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing a copy of a file on a subset of a plurality of storage devices, the subset including at least two healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices;

predicting that a storage device of the subset is going to fail; and

based at least in part on a redundancy value for the file, determining whether to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the redundancy value for the file based at least in part on a number of copies of the file stored on healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the determined redundancy value for the file with a threshold redundancy value;

wherein determining whether to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices is based at least in part on a result of the comparison.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

when the result of the comparison is that the determined redundancy value for the file is less than the threshold redundancy value, storing a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein storing a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices comprises:

moving the copy of the file stored on the storage device predicted to fail to another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

storing a copy of a file on a subset of the plurality of storage devices comprises storing a copy of a first file on a first subset of the plurality of storage devices and storing a copy of a second file on a second subset of the plurality of storage devices, each of the subsets including at least two healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices;

predicting that a storage device of the subset is going to fail comprises predicting that a storage device of at least one of the subsets is going to fail; and

determining whether to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices comprises determining whether to store a copy of the file(s) on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices, based at least in part on a redundancy value for the file(s).

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining a first redundancy value for the first file based at least in part on a number of copies of the first file stored on healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices; and

determining a second redundancy value for the second file based at least in part on a number of copies of the second file stored on healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determined first redundancy value is different from the determined second redundancy value.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

comparing the determined first redundancy value with a first threshold redundancy value; and

comparing the determined second redundancy value with a second threshold redundancy value;

wherein determining whether to store a copy of the first file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices is based at least in part on a result of the comparison of the determined first redundancy value, and determining whether to store a copy of the second file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices is based at least in part on a result of the comparison of the determined second redundancy value.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first threshold redundancy value is different from the second threshold redundancy value.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

when the result of the comparison of the determined first redundancy value is that the determined first redundancy value is less than the first threshold redundancy value, storing a copy of the first file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices; and

when the result of the comparison of the determined second redundancy value is that the determined second redundancy value is less than the second threshold redundancy value, storing a copy of the second file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices.

12. A system, comprising:

a data storage system including a plurality of storage devices; and

at least one processor configured to store a copy of a file on a subset of the plurality of storage devices, the subset including at least two healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices, and to determine whether to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices based at least in part on a redundancy value for the file.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to predict that a storage device of the subset is going to fail, and to determine whether to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices based at least in part on the failure prediction for the storage device of the subset.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the redundancy value for the file is based at least in part on a number of copies of the file stored on healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to compare the redundancy value for the file with a threshold redundancy value, and to determine whether to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices based at least in part on a result of the comparison.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices when the result of the comparison is that the redundancy value for the file is less than the threshold redundancy value.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to store a copy of the file on another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices by moving the copy of the file stored on the storage device predicted to fail to another healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the redundancy value for the file is based at least in part on an importance of the file.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code for redundancy management, the code executable by a processor to cause a device to:

store a copy of a file on a subset of a plurality of storage devices of a storage system, the subset including at least two healthy storage devices of the plurality of storage devices;

predict that a storage device of the subset is going to fail;

determine a redundancy value corresponding to a number of copies of the file stored healthy storage devices of the subset that are not predicted to fail;

compare the determined redundancy value to a threshold redundancy value; and

based at least in part on the comparing, store a copy of the file on a healthy storage device of the plurality of storage devices that does not have a copy of the file stored thereon.

20. The medium of claim 19, wherein the code is executable by the processor to cause the device to predict that a storage device of the subset is going to fail by:

monitoring operation of the storage devices of the subset; and

evaluating performance of the storage devices of the subset based at least in part on data obtained from monitoring.