DISAGGREGATED COMPUTE RESOURCES AND STORAGE RESOURCES IN A STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20180024964A1
• Filed: 07/18/2017
• Published: 01/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2016
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Inventors: MAO, YUHONG, KANNAN, HARI
• Application Number:
  US15/653,285
• Publication Number:
  US 20180024964A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3268 Power saving in hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/161 Computing infrastructure, e.g. computer clusters, blade chassis or hardware partitioning casings, cabinets, racks or drawers for data centers H05K5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 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]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A storage cluster with disaggregated compute resources and storage memory is provided. The storage cluster includes a plurality of blades coupled as the storage cluster, each of at least a subset of the plurality of blades having solid-state storage memory therein. The storage cluster includes a switch that direct network-connects a plurality of processors, as compute resources in the plurality of blades, and the solid-state storage memory in each of the at least a subset of the plurality of blades, wherein the compute resources and the solid-state storage memory are disaggregated in the storage cluster.

Claims

1. A storage cluster with disaggregated compute resources and storage memory, comprising:

a plurality of blades coupled as the storage cluster, each of at least a subset of the plurality of blades having solid-state storage memory therein; and

a switch that direct network-connects a plurality of processors, as compute resources in the plurality of blades, and the solid-state storage memory in each of the at least a subset of the plurality of blades, wherein the compute resources and the solid-state storage memory are disaggregated in the storage cluster.

2. The storage cluster of claim 1, wherein the plurality of blades comprises a homogeneous set of hybrid compute and storage blades.

3. The storage cluster of claim 1, wherein the plurality of blades comprises a heterogeneous mix of compute-only blades, storage-only blades or hybrid compute and storage blades.

4. The storage cluster of claim 1, wherein the switch comprises at least one of a switch fabric, a switch matrix, a network switch, a switch module, a fabric module, a plurality of switches in one or more chassis, or a top of rack switch.

5. The storage cluster of claim 1, further comprising:

the plurality of blades configurable to have in the compute resources a plurality of host controllers, for the solid-state storage memory, wherein having the compute resources in the solid-state storage memory disaggregated in the storage cluster comprises each of the plurality of host controllers being assignable or transferable to a one of the plurality of blades independent of whether the one of the plurality of blades has on the blade a corresponding solid-state storage memory that is controlled by the host controller.

6. The storage cluster of claim 1, further comprising:

the plurality of blades configurable to have Ethernet communication among the plurality of processors and the solid-state storage memory, through the switch and direct network connection to each of the plurality of processors and the solid-state storage memory, without PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express).

7. The storage cluster of claim 1, wherein the plurality of blades are internally and externally connected through a PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) connection.

8. The storage cluster of claim 1, wherein at least one of the blades having solid-state storage memory therein comprises:

flash memory; and

a NIC (network interface card or network interface controller), coupled to the flash memory and direct network-connected to the switch.

9. The storage cluster of claim 1, wherein at least one of the blades having solid-state storage memory therein comprises:

flash memory; and

a flash memory controller connected to the flash memory and direct-network connected to the switch.

10. A storage system with disaggregated compute resources and storage memory, comprising:

one or more chassis;

a plurality of blades in the one or more chassis and having solid-state storage memory in at least a subset of the plurality of blades; and

a switch, with the solid-state storage memory in the at least a subset of the plurality of blades direct network-connected to the switch, and a plurality of processors, as compute resources in the plurality of blades direct network-connected to the switch such that the compute resources and the solid-state storage memory are disaggregated in the storage system.

11. The storage system of claim 10, wherein:

the plurality of blades comprises a homogeneous set of hybrid compute and storage blades or a heterogeneous mix of compute-only blades having one or more processors and no solid-state storage memory, storage-only blades each having solid-state storage memory or hybrid compute and storage blades each having one or more processors and solid-state storage memory; and

the switch comprises at least one of;

a plurality of switches in the one or more chassis, or a plurality of switches coupled to a plurality of chassis.

12. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the compute resources in the solid-state storage memory are disaggregated in the storage system comprises:

each of the plurality of processors able to communicate with each of the solid-state storage memories in the at least a subset of the plurality of blades through the switch, using Ethernet protocol.

13. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the compute resources in the solid-state storage memory are disaggregated in the storage system comprises:

each of the plurality of blades that has one or more of the plurality of processors selectable to have a host controller for one of the solid-state storage memories in the at least a subset of the plurality of blades without requiring the host controller be on a same blade as the one of the solid-state storage memories.

14. The storage system of claim 10, wherein each of the at least a subset of the plurality of blades having the solid-state storage memory comprises:

flash memory; and

a NIC (network interface card or network interface controller) integrated with, local to, or remote from and connected to the flash memory, or a flash controller connected to the flash memory.

15. A method of communicating in a storage system that has disaggregated compute resources and storage memory, comprising:

communicating from a processor in a first blade of a storage cluster, through a switch, to a solid-state storage memory in a second blade of the storage cluster, wherein the switch direct network-connects a plurality of processors as compute resources in a plurality of blades of the storage cluster to solid-state storage memories in the plurality of blades; and

communicating from a solid-state storage memory in a third blade of the storage cluster, through the switch, to a processor in a fourth blade of the storage cluster.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the communicating from the processor in the first blade of the storage cluster, through the switch, to the solid-state storage memory in the second blade of the storage cluster comprises one of communicating to Ethernet-connectable flash memory in the second blade of the storage cluster or communicating through a NIC (network interface card or network interface controller) to flash memory in the second blade of the storage cluster.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

electing, selecting or assigning a plurality of host controllers for the solid-state storage memories to the compute resources, wherein the storage system that has disaggregated compute resources and storage memory comprises the electing, selecting or assigning of each of the plurality of host controllers to a compute resource is independent of whether the solid-state storage memory controlled by a host controller is on a same blade as the host controller.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first blade is in a first chassis and the second blade is in a second chassis.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of blades are internally and externally connected through a PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) connection.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the communicating from the processor in the first blade comprises a portion of a first data stripe being written; and

the communicating from the solid-state storage in the third blade comprises a portion of a second data stripe being read.