SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS PROVIDING READ ACCESS IN A STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20180181319A1
• Filed: 02/22/2018
• Published: 06/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Reddy, Raghunatha
• Granted Patent: US 10,649,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2087 with a common controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• 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 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A computer program product having a computer readable medium tangibly recording computer program logic for providing data access in a storage system, the computer program product including code to analyze a plurality of data access requests directed to a source volume of the storage system, code to generate a mirror volume of the source volume, the mirror volume including a subset of data items of the source volume, in which the first subset of data items is selected for the minor volume based at least in part on data access patterns revealed by analyzing the data access requests, and code to access the mirror volume in parallel with accessing the source volume to fulfill read requests from a plurality of hosts.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing metadata from access operations received by a storage network environment within a database to create a record of the access operations;

analyzing the database to identify access characteristics of data stored by the storage network environment within a first storage structure;

identifying a subset of data having an access characteristic different than access characteristics of other data stored by the storage network environment;

creating a second storage structure within the storage network environment;

storing the subset of data into the second storage structure; and

providing clients with read access to the subset of data through the second storage structure.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

providing the clients with read access to the subset of data through the first storage structure and the second storage structure.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

processing a first access request to the subset of data using the first storage structure in parallel with processing a second access request to the subset of data using the second storage structure.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating a second storage structure comprises:

creating a load sharing mirror, as the second storage structure, that has read-only access and can be accessed independently of the first storage structure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing metadata comprises:

creating the database in a reserved area of the first storage structure.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second storage structure has read-only access and the first storage structure supports read operations and write operations.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a plurality of additional storage structures with independent access paths to allow parallel access thereto.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing copies of the subset of data within the plurality of additional storage structures.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing the database comprises:

identifying data items for inclusion within the subset of data based upon the data items being access greater than a threshold frequency.

10. A computing device comprising:

a memory containing computer readable medium comprising instructions for performing a method; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the instructions to cause the processor to;

store metadata from access operations received by a storage network environment within a database to create a record of the access operations;

analyze the database to identify access characteristics of data stored by the storage network environment within a first storage structure;

identify a subset of data having an access characteristic different than access characteristics of other data stored by the storage network environment;

create a second storage structure within the storage network environment;

store the subset of data into the second storage structure; and

provide clients with read access to the subset of data through the second storage structure.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the first storage structure comprises a logical volume.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the second storage structure comprises a logical volume.

13. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the instructions cause the processor to update data within the second storage structure with changes to the subset of data that occurred at the first storage structure, wherein the updating is performed according to an updating policy.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the database is saved to a reserved space in the first storage structure.

15. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the instructions cause the processor to create an additional storage structure mirroring the second storage structure, wherein both the second storage structure and the additional storage structure comprise independent access paths.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to:

store metadata from access operations received by a storage network environment within a database to create a record of the access operations;

analyze the database to identify access characteristics of data stored by the storage network environment within a first storage structure;

identify a subset of data having an access characteristic different than access characteristics of other data stored by the storage network environment;

create a second storage structure within the storage network environment;

store the subset of data into the second storage structure; and

provide clients with read access to the subset of data through the second storage structure.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions cause the machine to:

determining a threshold number of changes occurring to the subset of data within the first storage structure; and

updating data within the second storage structure according to an updating policy.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first storage structure is a logical volume.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first storage structure provides read and write access and the second storage structure provides read-only access.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the second storage structure is a logical volume.