Method and apparatus for mirroring blocks of information in a disc drive storage system
First Claim
1. A method of managing blocks of information in a computer system, the computer system including a data processing system and a disc drive storage system coupled thereto, wherein the data processing system writes the blocks of information to the disc drive storage system for storage thereon, the disc drive storage system including a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing one of the blocks of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc, the method comprising a step of:
- (A) mirroring at least one block of information that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc;
wherein the step (A) is implemented within the disc drive storage system so that in response to a same write I/O operation from the data processing system to the disc drive storage system, the disc drive storage system controls writing of the at least one block of information to both the first disc and the second disc.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for managing blocks of information in a disc drive storage system. One embodiment is directed to a disc drive storage system that employs a plurality of disc drives, and that mirrors blocks of information on different physical locations within at least two of the disc drives. Another embodiment is directed to the handling of a hot spot by temporarily employing another disc drive as a temporary mirror to enable parallel access to blocks of information within the hot spot.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method of managing blocks of information in a computer system, the computer system including a data processing system and a disc drive storage system coupled thereto, wherein the data processing system writes the blocks of information to the disc drive storage system for storage thereon, the disc drive storage system including a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing one of the blocks of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc, the method comprising a step of:
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(A) mirroring at least one block of information that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; wherein the step (A) is implemented within the disc drive storage system so that in response to a same write I/O operation from the data processing system to the disc drive storage system, the disc drive storage system controls writing of the at least one block of information to both the first disc and the second disc. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method of managing blocks of information to be accessed on a disc drive storage system, the disc drive storage system including a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing one of the blocks of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc, the method comprising steps of:
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(A) mirroring at least one block of information that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; and (B) mirroring at least one block of information that is written to the second disc at a third physical sector address on the first disc at a fourth physical sector address that is different than the third physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the second disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the first disc. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of managing blocks of information to be accessed on a disc drive storage system, the disc drive storage system including a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing one of the blocks of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc, the method comprising a step of:
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(A) mirroring at least one block of information that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; wherein the at least one block of information written to the first disc includes a plurality of blocks of information written to the first disc at a first plurality of physical sector addresses; wherein step (A) includes a step of mirroring each of the plurality of blocks of information written to the first disc at the first plurality of physical sector addresses on the second disc at a second plurality of physical sector addresses that is different than the first plurality of physical sector addresses so that each of the plurality of blocks of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; and wherein the method further includes a step of; (B) mirroring a plurality of blocks of information written to the second disc at the first plurality of physical sector addresses on the first disc at the second plurality of physical sector addresses so that each of the plurality of blocks of information written to the second disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the first disc. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A disc drive storage system for use in a computer system including the disc drive storage system and a data processing system, the disc drive storage system to store date written by the data processing system, the disc drive storage system comprising:
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a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing a block of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc; and a controller that, in response to a same write I/O operation from the data processing system to the disc drive storage system, mirrors at least one block of information that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address, on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A disc drive storage system, comprising:
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a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing a block of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc; and a controller that mirrors at least one block of information, that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address, on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; wherein the controller includes means for mirroring at least one block of information that is written to the second disc at a third physical sector address on the first disc at a fourth physical sector address that is different than the third physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the second disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the first disc. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A disc drive storage system, comprising:
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a plurality of disc drives that each includes at least one disc, the plurality of disc drives including a first disc drive including a first disc and a second disc drive including a second disc, each of the discs having a surface including a plurality of information tracks, each of the tracks including a plurality of sectors, each sector for storing a block of information, each sector having a physical sector address that identifies a physical location of the sector on the surface of the disc; and a controller that mirrors at least one block of information, that is written to the first disc at a first physical sector address, on the second disc at a second physical sector address that is different than the first physical sector address so that the at least one block of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; wherein the at least one block of information written to the first disc includes a plurality of blocks of information written to the first disc at a first plurality of physical sector addresses; wherein the controller includes means for mirroring each of the plurality of blocks of information written to the first disc at the first plurality of physical sector addresses on the second disc at a second plurality of physical sector addresses that is different than the first plurality of physical sector addresses so that each of the plurality of blocks of information written to the first disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the second disc; and wherein the controller further includes means for mirroring a plurality of blocks of information written to the second disc at the first plurality of physical sector addresses on the first disc at the second plurality of physical sector addresses so that each of the plurality of blocks of information written to the second disc is mirrored at a different physical location on the first disc. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A method of managing a disc drive storage system in a computer system that includes a data processing system and the disc drive storage system to store information written from the data processing system, the disc drive storage system including a plurality of disc drives that includes at least M disc drives, each of the plurality of disc drives including at least one disc so that the system includes at least M discs corresponding to the M disc drives, the disc drive storage system storing a logical volume including a plurality of blocks of information, each of the M discs storing at least N of the plurality of blocks of information of the logical volume, the method comprising the steps of:
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(A) identifying a temporary need for increased performance in accessing at least one of the plurality of blocks of information in the logical volume; (B) mirroring the at least one of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume on an additional disc drive without altering an arrangement of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume stored in the M disc drives; and (C) performing at least two read operations of the at least one of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume in parallel from the additional disc drive and at least one of the M disc drives; wherein the step (B) is implemented within the disc drive storage system so that the disc drive storage system controls writing of the at least one of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume to the additional disc drive. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A disc drive storage system for use in a computer system including the disc drive storage system and a data processing system, the disc drive storage system to store date written by the data processing system, the disc drive storage system comprising:
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a plurality of disc drives that includes at least M disc drives, each of the plurality of disc drives including at least one disc so that the disc drive storage system includes at least M discs corresponding to the M disc drives, the M disc drives storing a logical volume including a plurality of blocks of information, each of the M discs storing at least N of the plurality of blocks of information of the logical volume; and a controller that, in response to identification of a temporary need for increased performance in accessing at least one of the plurality of blocks of information in the logical volume, mirrors the at least one of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume on an additional disc drive without altering an arrangement of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume stored in the M disc drives, and performs at least two read operations of the at least one of the plurality of blocks of the logical volume in parallel from the additional disc drive and at least one of the M disc drives. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification