Disk power manager for network servers

• US 5,961,613 A
• Filed: 09/02/1997
• Issued: 10/05/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: AST Research, Inc. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: DeNicola, Richard M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DHARIA, RUPAL
• Application Number:
  US08/922,155
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: 395/838, 395/839, 395/182.04, 395/621, 711/157, 711/114, 710/15-19, 709/105, 360/69, 360/71, 360/73.03
• US Class Current: 710/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3221 of disk drive devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3268 Power saving in hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3447 Performance evaluation by modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A computer network includes a network server in communication with a plurality of user terminals. The network server includes disk drives which store data accessible via the user terminals. To increase power efficiency of the network server, the number of accesses to the disk drives is monitored and a histogram is generated to display the distribution of disk accesses over time. A network administrator subsequently selects time intervals to spin down one or more of the disk drives during periods of disk inactivity as depicted in the histogram. In a preferred embodiment, the network administrator uses the histogram for failure analysis to determine which disks are more likely to fail over long time periods.

Claims

1. A method of reducing wear on disk drives within a computer network, said method comprising the steps of:

monitoring accesses to said disk drives over time to produce a statistical record of accesses to said disk drives;

generating a histogram based upon said statistical record;

determining by an administrator if any of said disk drives is being accessed more frequently than others of said disk drives based upon said histogram; and

if said administrator determines that disk drive is accessed more frequently than others of said disk drives, said administrator redistributes data contained within said disk drive to other disk drives to assure that said disk drive is accessed less frequently.