Multilevel, hierarchical, dynamically mapped data storage subsystem

• US 5,155,835 A
• Filed: 11/19/1990
• Issued: 10/13/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Storage Technology Corp (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Storage Technology Corp (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Belsan, Jay S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bowler, Alyssa H.
• Application Number:
  US07/615,329
• Time in Patent Office: 694 Days
• Field of Search: 364/200, 364/900, 365/49, 365/189.07
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/312 In storage controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/76 using address translation or modifications

Abstract

The disk drive array data storage subsystem functions as a conventional large form factor disk drive memory, using an array of redundancy groups, each containing N+M disk drives. The data storage subsystem does not modify data stored in a redundancy group but simply writes the modified data as a new record in available memory space on another redundancy group. The original data is flagged as obsolete. Virtual tracks that are least used are migrated as part of a free space collection process to low access cylinders, which are, in turn, migrated to secondary media, such as magnetic tape. The migration process is either periodic or demand driven to automatically archive little used data records.

Claims

1. Apparatus for automatically archiving infrequently used data records onto more economical media in a dynamically mapped data storage subsystem that stores data records for at least one associated host processor, said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem including a plurality of disk drive devices, where the dynamically mapped data storage subsystem writes a stream of data records received from one of said associated host processors in available memory space on said disk drive devices, comprising:

cache memory means connected to and interconnecting said host processors and said disk drive devices for storing data records transmitted therebetween;

tape drive archive memory means connected to said cache memory means for storing data records that were previously stored on said disk drive devices by said associated host processors;

means, responsive to said host processor storing one of said data records in a first available memory location on said disk drive devices, for maintaining a count of the frequency of said host processor access of said one data record stored in said first available memory location on said disk drive devices;

means for comparing said maintained count to a predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said first available memory location on said disk drive devices as archivable;

means for transferring said archivable data record from said first available memory location on said disk drives to said cache memory means for archiving; and

means, responsive to said archivable data record being transferred into said cache memory means, for rewriting said cached archivable data record stored from said cache memory means into said tape drive archive memory means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further including:

means, responsive to said rewriting means writing one of said data records into said tape drive archive memory means, for expunging the identity of said rewritten data record from said storing means.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further including:

means for determining the amount of said available memory space in said disk drive devices; and

means for resetting said predetermined threshold as a function of said determined available memory space.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said resetting means includes:

means for storing data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space; and

means for comparing said determined available memory space with said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said resetting means further includes:

means, responsive to said determined available memory space not exceeding said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space, for incrementing said predetermined threshold by a predetermined amount.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

means, responsive to said rewriting means, for storing data indicative of the memory location in said tape drive archive memory means in which said data record is stored.

7. Apparatus for automatically archiving infrequently used data records onto more economical media in a dynamically mapped memory system that stores data records for at least one associated host processor, said dynamically mapped memory system including a plurality of disk drive devices, a subset of said plurality of disk drive devices being configured into a plurality of redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of at least two disk drive devices, where said dynamically mapped memory system writes a stream of data records received from said associated host processors and redundancy data associated with said received stream of data records in a first available memory location in a selected one of said redundancy groups, comprising:

cache memory means connected to and interconnecting said host processors and said disk drive devices for storing data records transmitted therebetween;

tape drive archive memory means connected to said cache memory means for storing data records which were previously stored in said redundancy groups by said associated host processors;

means, responsive to said host processor storing one of said data records in a first available memory location in a selected one of said redundancy groups, for maintaining a count of the frequency of said host processor access of said one data record in said first available memory location in said selected one of said redundancy groups;

means for comparing said maintained count to a predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said first available memory location in said selected one of said redundancy groups as archivable;

means for transferring said archivable data record from said first available memory location in said selected one of said redundancy groups to said cache memory means for archiving; and

means, responsive to said archivable data record being transferred into said cache memory means, for rewriting said cached archivable data record into said tape drive archive memory means.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 further including:

means, responsive to said rewriting means writing said archivable data record into said tape drive archive memory means, for expunging the identity of said rewritten archivable data record from said storing means.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said tape drive archive memory means comprises at least one tape drive, further comprising:

means connected to and interconnecting said cache memory means and said tape drive for transferring data therebetween;

wherein said writing means includes;

means for staging said modified data record from said first location in a selected one of said redundancy groups to said cache memory means,

means for transmitting said staged modified data record from said cache memory means to said transferring means.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 further including:

means for determining the amount of said available memory space in said disk drive devices; and

means for resetting said predetermined threshold as a function of said determined available memory space.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said resetting means includes:

means for storing data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space; and

means for comparing said determined available memory space with said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said resetting means further includes:

means, responsive to said determined available memory space not exceeding said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space, for incrementing said predetermined threshold by a predetermined amount.

13. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

means, responsive to said rewriting means, for storing data indicative of the memory location in said tape drive archive memory means in which said data record is stored.

14. Apparatus for automatically archiving data records stored in a dynamically mapped data storage subsystem that stores data records for at least one associated data processor, said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem including a plurality of data storage devices, a subset of said plurality of said data storage devices configured into at least one redundancy group, each redundancy group consisting of n+m data storage devices, where n and m are both positive integers with n being greater than 1 and m being equal to or greater than 1, and said data storage devices each including a like plurality of physical tracks to form sets of physical tracks called logical tracks, each logical track having one physical track at the same relative address on each of said n+m data storage devices, for storing data records thereon, said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem generates m redundancy segments using n received streams of data records, selects a first one of said logical tracks in one of said redundancy groups, having at least one set of available physical tracks addressable at the same relative address for each of said n+m data storage devices and writes said n received streams of data records and said m redundancy segments on said n+m data storage devices in said selected set of physical tracks, each stream of data records and redundancy segment at said selected available logical track on a respective one of said n+m data storage devices, comprising:

cache memory means connected to and interconnecting said host processors and said data storage devices for storing data records transmitted therebetween;

archive memory means connected to said cache memory means for storing data records which were previously stored in said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem by said associated host processors;

means, responsive to said host processor storing one of said data records stored in a first available memory location on said memory devices, for maintaining a count of the frequency of said host processor access of said one data record;

means for comparing said maintained count to a predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said first memory location as archivable;

means for transferring said archivable data record from said first memory location to said cache memory means; and

means for rewriting said cached archivable data record into said archive memory means.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 further including:

means, responsive to said rewriting means writing said archivable data record into said archive memory means, for expunging the identity of said rewritten archivable data record from said storing means.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said archive memory means comprises at least one tape drive, further comprising:

means connected to and interconnecting said cache memory means and said tape drive for transferring data therebetween;

wherein said writing means includes;

means for staging said modified data record from said first location in a selected one of said redundancy groups to said cache memory means,

means for transmitting said staged modified data record from said cache memory means to said transferring means.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 further including:

means for determining the amount of said available memory space in said data storage devices; and

means for resetting said predetermined threshold as a function of said determined available memory space.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said resetting means includes:

means for storing data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space; and

means for comparing said determined available memory space with said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said resetting means further includes:

means, responsive to said determined available memory space not exceeding said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space, for incrementing said predetermined threshold by a predetermined amount.

20. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising:

means, responsive to said rewriting means, for storing data indicative of the memory location in said archive memory means in which said data record is stored.

21. Apparatus for automatically archiving data records in a dynamically mapped data storage subsystem that stores data records for at least one associated host processor, said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem including a plurality of disk drive devices, where the dynamically mapped data storage subsystem writes a stream of data records received from one of said associated host processors in available memory space on said data storage devices, comprising:

cache memory means connected to and interconnecting said host processors and said disk drive devices for storing data records transmitted therebetween;

tape drive archive memory means connected to said cache memory means for storing data records which were previously stored on said disk drive devices by said associated host processors;

means, responsive to said host processor storing one of said data records in a first available memory location on said disk drive devices, for maintaining a count of the frequency of said host processor access of said one data record;

means for comparing said maintained count to a first predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said first predetermined threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said first available memory location on said disk drive devices as a low frequency of access data record;

means for rewriting said data record stored in said first available memory location on said disk drive devices into a second available memory location on said disk drive devices;

means for comparing said maintained count for each of said data records stored in said second available memory location to a second predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said second predetermined threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said second available memory location on said disk drive devices as an archivable data record; and

means for rewriting said archivable data record stored in said second available memory location from said second available memory location into said tape drive archive memory means.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further including:

means, responsive to said rewriting means writing one of said data records into said tape drive archive memory means, for expunging the identity of said rewritten data record from said storing means.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 further including:

means for determining the amount of said available memory space in said disk drive devices; and

means for resetting said second predetermined threshold as a function of said determined available memory space.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein said resetting means includes:

means for storing data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space; and

means for comparing said determined available memory space with said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein said resetting means further includes:

means, responsive to said determined available memory space not exceeding said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space, for incrementing said second predetermined threshold by a predetermined amount.

26. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising:

means, responsive to said rewriting means, for storing data indicative of the memory location in said tape drive archive memory means in which said data record is stored.

27. Apparatus for automatically archiving data records in a dynamically mapped memory system that stores data records for at least one associated host processor, said dynamically mapped memory system including a plurality of disk drive devices, a subset of said plurality of disk drive devices being configured into a plurality of redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of at least two disk drive devices, where said dynamically mapped memory system writes a stream of data records received from said associated host processors and redundancy data associated with said received stream of data records in a first available memory location in a selected one of said redundancy groups, comprising:

cache memory means connected to an interconnecting said host processors and said disk drive devices for storing data records transmitted therebetween;

tape drive archive memory means connected to said cache memory means for storing data records which were previously stored in said plurality of redundancy groups by said associated host processors;

means, responsive to said host processor storing a data record in a first available memory location on disk drives in a first redundancy group, for maintaining a count of the frequency of said host processor access of said data record in said first available memory location in said first redundancy group;

means for comparing said maintained count to a first predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said first predetermined threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said first available memory location in said first redundancy group as a low frequency of access data record;

means for rewriting said data record stored in said first available memory location in said first redundancy group into a second available memory location on disk drives in a second redundancy group;

means for comparing said maintained count for each of said data records stored in said second available memory location in said second redundancy group to a second predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said second predetermined threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said second available memory location in said second redundancy group as archivable;

means for transferring said archivable data record from said second available memory location in said second redundancy group to said cache memory means for archiving; and

means, responsive to said archivable data record being transferred into said cache memory means, for rewriting said cached archivable data record into said tape drive archive memory means.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 further including:

means, responsive to said rewriting means writing said archivable data record into said tape drive archive memory means, for expunging the identity of said rewritten archivable data record from said storing means.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein said tape drive archive memory means comprises at least one tape drive, further comprising:

means connected to and interconnecting said cache memory means and said tape drive for transferring data therebetween;

wherein said writing means includes;

means for staging said modified data record from said second location in said second redundancy group to said cache memory means,

means for transmitting said staged modified data record from said cache memory means to said transferring means.

30. The apparatus of claim 27 further including:

means for determining the amount of said available memory space in said disk drive devices; and

means for resetting said second predetermined threshold as a function of said determined available memory space.

31. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein said resetting means includes:

means for storing data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space; and

means for comparing said determined available memory space with said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space.

32. The apparatus of claim 31 wherein said resetting means further includes:

means, responsive to said determined available memory space not exceeding said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space, for incrementing said second predetermined threshold by a predetermined amount.

33. The apparatus of claim 27 further comprising:

means, responsive to said rewriting means, for storing data indicative of the memory location in said tape drive archive memory means in which said data record is stored.

34. Apparatus for automatically archiving data records stored in a dynamically mapped data storage subsystem that stores data records for at least one associated data processor, said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem including a plurality of data storage devices, a subset of said plurality of said data storage devices configured into at least one redundancy group, each redundancy group consisting of n+m data storage devices, where n and m are both positive integers with n being greater than 1 and m being equal to or greater than 1, and said data storage devices each including a like plurality of physical tracks to form sets of physical tracks called logical tracks, each logical track having one physical track at the same relative address on each of said n+m data storage devices, for storing data records thereon, said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem generates m redundancy segments using n received streams of data records, selects a first one of said logical tracks in one of said redundancy groups, having at least one set of available physical tracks addressable at the same relative address for each of said n+m data storage devices and writes said n received streams of data records and said m redundancy segments on said n+m data storage devices in said selected set of physical tracks, each stream of data records and redundancy segment at said selected available logical track on a respective one of said n+m data storage devices, comprising:

cache memory means connected to and interconnecting said host processors and said data storage devices for storing data records transmitted therebetween;

archive memory means connected to said cache memory means for storing data records which were previously stored in said dynamically mapped data storage subsystem by said associated host processors;

means, responsive to said host processor storing one of said data records in a first available memory location on said memory devices, for maintaining a count of the frequency of said host processor access of said one data record;

means for comparing said maintained count to a first predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said first predetermined threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said first memory location as a low frequency of access data record;

means for rewriting said data record stored in said first memory location into a second memory location on said memory devices;

means for comparing said maintained count for each of said data records stored in said second memory location to a second predetermined threshold;

means, responsive to said second predetermined threshold exceeding said count, for signifying said data record stored in said second memory location as archivable;

means for transferring said archivable data record from said second memory location to said cache memory means; and

means for rewriting said cached archivable data record into said archive memory means.

35. The apparatus of claim 34 further including:

means, responsive to said rewriting means writing said archivable data record into said archive memory means, for expunging the identity of said rewritten archivable data record from said storing means.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein said archive memory means comprises at least one tape drive, further comprising:

means connected to and interconnecting said cache memory means and said tape drive for transferring data therebetween;

wherein said writing means includes;

means for staging said modified data record from said second location in a selected one of said redundancy groups to said cache memory means,

means for transmitting said staged modified data record from said cache memory

means to said transferring means.

37. The apparatus of claim 34 further including:

means for determining the amount of said available memory space in said data storage devices; and

means for resetting said second predetermined threshold as a function of said determined available memory space.

38. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein said resetting means includes:

means for storing data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space; and

means for comparing said determined available memory space with said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space.

39. The apparatus of claim 38 wherein said resetting means further includes:

means, responsive to said determined available memory space not exceeding said data indicative of a minimum amount of available memory space, for incrementing said second predetermined threshold by a predetermined amount.

40. The apparatus of claim 34 further comprising:

means, responsive to said rewriting means, for storing data indicative of the memory location in said archive memory means in which said data record is stored.