Data redundancy and recovery protection
First Claim
1. For use with a computer system having a fault tolerant, intelligent mass storage disk array subsystem, the disk subsystem having a microprocessor based controller, a method for rebuilding a replacement disk drive within the array without system processor supervision or suspension of system operations comprising:
- reading disk array and disk drive status information and fault tolerance mode for the disk array from reserved sectors on all disk drives within the drive array;
reading disk array and disk drive status information and fault tolerance mode for the disk array from reserved sectors on all disk drives within the drive array;
determining if one or more of the drives in the array has been replaced from disk drive status information;
reading all sectors on the replacement drive, thereby causing a failed sector read to occur when attempting to read the replacement drive sectors, indicating a sector to be restored;
generating rebuild commands for the replacement disk by writing to each failed sector utilizing the active fault tolerance mode;
queueing the rebuild commands; and
executing the rebuild commands by the microprocessor controller independent of the computer system processor, thereby restoring data to the replacement disk drive.
3 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for detecting the presence of a replacement disk in a fault tolerant, intelligent mass storage disk array subsystem having a microprocessor based controller in a personal computer system and rebuilding the replacement disk independent of the computer system processor. The method calls for the microprocessor controller to run a disk array check at system powerup or at specified intervals to detect the existence of a replacement drive. The microprocessor then builds a series of disk drive commands which attempt to read every sector on the replacement disk. The read commands will return a null data read, indicating that the sector must be restored. The microprocessor controller converts the replacement read commands for all sectors on the replacement disk to write-restore commands. The microprocessor executes the write commands and restores the data to the replacement drive.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. For use with a computer system having a fault tolerant, intelligent mass storage disk array subsystem, the disk subsystem having a microprocessor based controller, a method for rebuilding a replacement disk drive within the array without system processor supervision or suspension of system operations comprising:
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reading disk array and disk drive status information and fault tolerance mode for the disk array from reserved sectors on all disk drives within the drive array; reading disk array and disk drive status information and fault tolerance mode for the disk array from reserved sectors on all disk drives within the drive array; determining if one or more of the drives in the array has been replaced from disk drive status information; reading all sectors on the replacement drive, thereby causing a failed sector read to occur when attempting to read the replacement drive sectors, indicating a sector to be restored; generating rebuild commands for the replacement disk by writing to each failed sector utilizing the active fault tolerance mode; queueing the rebuild commands; and executing the rebuild commands by the microprocessor controller independent of the computer system processor, thereby restoring data to the replacement disk drive. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification