MANAGING DATA IN A STORAGE ARRAY

• US 20180267714A1
• Filed: 01/22/2016
• Published: 09/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Nazari, Siamak, Price, William Joshua, Afkham, Anahita, Khan, Danyaal Masood
• Application Number:
  US15/761,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20180267714A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Techniques are described herein for managing data in a storage array. A system includes a distributing unit to distribute compressible data and uncompressible data across compression-capable drives. The system also includes a vacating unit to vacate an excess chunklet to another drive in the storage array if a new compression factor is less than a default compression factor for the storage array.

Claims

1. A system for managing data in a storage array, comprising:

a distributing unit to distribute compressible data and uncompressible data across compression-capable drives; and

a vacating unit to vacate an excess chunklet to another drive in the storage array if a new compression factor is less than a default compression factor for the storage array.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a migrating unit to migrate uncompressible data to a compression-incapable drive.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a grouping unit to group data on a drive according to its compressibility.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a reporting unit to report a characteristic of a drive in a storage array to the storage array.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the reporting unit uses a log page to report the characteristic of the drive to the storage array.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the characteristic of the drive comprises the number of write bytes received, the number of host bytes written, the number of used blocks, and the number of free blocks.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an alerting unit to alert the storage array when a threshold capacity limit of the drive has been reached.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the alerting unit uses a retrievable sense code to alert the storage array.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the alerting unit uses a command completion code to alert the storage array.

10. A method for managing data in a storage array, comprising:

distributing compressible data and uncompressible data across compression-capable drives; and

vacating an excess chunklet to another drive in the storage array if a new compression factor is less than a default compression factor for the storage array.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising migrating uncompressible data to compression-incapable drives.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising grouping data on a drive according to its compressibility.

13. A non-transitory, computer readable medium comprising machine-readable instructions for managing data in a storage array, the instructions, when executed, direct a processor to:

distribute compressible data and uncompressible data across compression-capable drives; and

vacate an excess chunklet to another drive in the storage array if a new compression factor is less than a default compression factor for the storage array.

14. The non-transitory, computer readable medium comprising machine-readable instructions of claim 13, further comprising code to direct the processor to migrate uncompressible data to compression-incapable drives.

15. The non-transitory, computer readable medium comprising machine-readable instructions of claim 13, further comprising code to direct the processor to group data on a drive according to its compressibility.