ELECTRONIC STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20170097775A1
• Filed: 10/03/2016
• Published: 04/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Weka.IO Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Weka.IO Ltd.
• Inventors: Ben Dayan, Maor, Zvibel, Liran, Palmon, Omri
• Granted Patent: US 11,237,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1847 specifically adapted to static storage, e.g. adapted to flash memory or SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1012 Load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• 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 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

Methods and systems for electronic storage are provided. A storage system comprises a plurality of storage system front ends, a plurality of storage system back ends, and a plurality of solid state drive (SSD) agents. Each storage system front end resides on a server of a plurality of servers. Each server of the plurality of servers comprises one or more storage system back ends of the plurality of storage system back ends. Each storage system front end is able to receive I/O requests and relay information associated with the I/O requests to a relevant storage system back end. The relevant storage system back end communicates metadata associated with the I/O request to an SSD via an SSD agent.

Claims

1. A method for operating a storage system, comprising:

receiving an I/O request by a storage system front end on a first server of a plurality of servers;

determining a relevant storage system back end, of a plurality of storage system back ends, according to the I/O request, each server of the plurality of servers comprising one or more storage system back ends of the plurality of storage system back ends;

relaying information associated with the I/O request to the relevant storage system back end; and

communicating metadata associated with the I/O request between the relevant storage system back end and a first solid state drive (SSD) of a plurality of SSDs via an SSD agent of a plurality of SSD agents.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

writing the information associated with the I/O request to the first SSD, wherein the I/O request is a write operation; and

migrating the information associated with the I/O request from the first SSD to an object store as a background asynchronous process.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the object store is cloud-based.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

adding a second SSDs to the plurality of SSDs of the storage system; and

redistributing data already written to the plurality of SSDs, wherein the redistribution is a virtualization of the storage system across the plurality of SSDs.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting a failure of the first SSD;

rebuilding data of the first SSD via data distributed across all SSDs of the plurality of SSDs that have not failed; and

load balancing the data distributed across all SSDs of the plurality of SSDs that have not failed.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein rebuilding begins after the failure has been detected for a specified timeout.

7. The method of claim 5, comprising:

detecting a resolution of the failure of the first SSD; and

aborting the rebuilding according to the resolution.

8. A machine-readable storage having stored thereon, a computer program having at least one code section for networking, the at least one code section being executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform:

receiving an I/O request by a storage system front end on a first server of a plurality of servers;

determining a relevant storage system back end, of a plurality of storage system back ends, according to the I/O request, each server of the plurality of servers comprising one or more storage system back ends of the plurality of storage system back ends;

relaying information associated with the I/O request to the relevant storage system back end; and

communicating metadata associated with the I/O request between the relevant storage system back end and a first solid state drive (SSD) of a plurality of SSDs via an SSD agent of a plurality of SSD agents.

9. The machine-readable storage of claim 8, wherein the at least one code section causes the machine to perform:

writing the information associated with the I/O request to the first SSD, wherein the I/O request is a write operation; and

migrating the information associated with the I/O request from the first SSD to an object store as a background asynchronous process.

10. The machine-readable storage of claim 8, wherein the at least one code section causes the machine to perform:

adding a second SSDs to the plurality of SSDs of the storage system; and

redistributing data already written to the plurality of SSDs, wherein the redistribution is a virtualization of the storage system across the plurality of SSDs.

11. The machine-readable storage of claim 8, wherein the at least one code section causes the machine to perform:

detecting a failure of the first SSD;

rebuilding data of the first SSD via data distributed across all SSDs of the plurality of SSDs that have not failed; and

load balancing the data distributed across all SSDs of the plurality of SSDs that have not failed.

12. The machine-readable storage of claim 11, wherein rebuilding begins after the failure has been detected for a specified timeout.

13. The machine-readable storage of claim 11, wherein the at least one code section causes the machine to perform:

detecting a resolution of the failure of the first SSD; and

aborting the rebuilding according to the resolution.

14. A storage system comprising:

a storage system front end on a first server of a plurality of servers;

a plurality of storage system back ends, each server of the plurality of servers comprising one or more storage system back ends of the plurality of storage system back ends; and

a plurality of solid state drive (SSD) agents,

the storage system front end being operable to receive an I/O request and relay information associated with the I/O request to a relevant storage system back end of the plurality of storage system back ends, wherein metadata associated with the I/O request are communicated between the relevant storage system back end and a first SSD of a plurality of SSDs via a first SSD agent of the plurality of SSD agents.

15. The storage system of claim 14, wherein the first SSD agent is operable to write the information associated with the I/O request to the first SSD when the I/O request is a write operation, the information associated with the I/O request being subsequently migrated from the first SSD to an object store as a background asynchronous process.

16. The storage system of claim 15, wherein the object store is cloud-based.

17. The storage system of claim 14, comprising:

a second SSD, wherein the second SSD is added to the plurality of SSDs of the storage system and data already written to the plurality of SSDs is redistributed, wherein the redistribution is a virtualization of the storage system across the plurality of SSDs comprising the second SSD.

18. The storage system of claim 14, wherein the detection of a failure of the first SSD causes data of the first SSD to be rebuilt via data that is distributed across all SSDs of the plurality of SSDs that have not failed, the distributed data being load balanced across all SSDs of the plurality of SSDs that have not failed.

19. The storage system of claim 18, wherein the rebuilding begins after the failure has been detected for a specified timeout.

20. The storage system of claim 18, wherein the rebuilding is aborted if the failure of the first SSD is resolved before the rebuilding is complete.