Method and apparatus for managing a heterogeneous data storage system

• US 6,571,310 B1
• Filed: 04/20/2000
• Issued: 05/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ottesen, Hal Hjallmar, Smith, Gordon James
• Primary Examiner(s): Peikari, B. James
• Application Number:
  US09/552,821
• Time in Patent Office: 1,132 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170-171, 711/172, 711/173, 711/112, 711/4, 711/5, 710/11, 710/16, 710/63, 360/48, 360/264.4, 709/104
• US Class Current: 711/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1096 Parity calculation or recalculation after configuration or reconfiguration of the system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1016 Continuous RAID, i.e. RAID system that allows streaming or continuous media, e.g. VOD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/103 Hybrid, i.e. RAID systems with parity comprising a mix of RAID types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1833 by adding special lists or symbols to the coded information G11B20/1806, G11B20/1866 take precedence

Abstract

A set of data storage devices are used to store heterogeneous data, i.e., to store some alphanumeric data, and some multimedia data. The internal operating parameters of the storage devices are monitored, and data is selectively stored by matching the type of data to the internal operating parameters of the storage devices. Preferably, the set of data storage devices is a RAID system containing multiple rotating magnetic disk drive storage devices. The system monitors the operating temperature, the soft error rate, the head flyheight, and the actuator performance of the drives in the system. A fuzzy logic classification system is used to generate a set of fuzzy classification scores evaluating each drive as most appropriate to one of three types of data: alphanumeric, graphics/sound, or video. A drive is selected for storing a type of data according to the fuzzy classification scores. Optionally, a separate set of fuzzy classification scores is generated for each disk surface, and each disk surface may independently be allocated to data of different types. In the preferred embodiment, a disk drive has on-board soft error recovery procedures for recovering data following a soft error, and the capability to selectively disable or limit this feature. If a disk drive is selected for storage of multimedia data, the soft error recovery is disabled, and soft errors are simply transmitted to the host system as data. If each disk surface may be independently allocated to data of different types, soft error recovery may be independently disabled for each disk surface.

Claims

1. A method for managing the storage of heterogeneous data, said heterogenous data comprising data of a first type and data of a second type, on a plurality of data storage devices of a same type, said method comprising the steps of:

measuring a plurality of internal operating parameters with respect to each of said plurality of data storage devices, wherein said internal operating parameters are parameters exhibiting unintentional individual performance variation among said plurality of data storage devices;

determining at least one evaluation result using fuzzy logic for each respective data storage device of said plurality of data storage devices, said at least one evaluation result being derived from said plurality of measured internal operating parameters;

selecting a data storage device for storage of data according to the type of said data and the measured internal operating parameters of the selected data storage device by matching said type of data to said evaluation results with respect to said plurality of data storage devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said data of a first type consists of alphanumeric data, and said data of a second type consists of non-alphanumeric data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said heterogenous data comprises data of a third type, said data of a third type consisting of video data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said data storage device is a rotating magnetic rigid disk drive storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

maintaining at least some of said heterogeneous data in a redundant format.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein data of said first type is maintained in a first redundant format, and data of said second type is maintained in a second redundant format different from said first redundant format.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein data of said first type is maintained in a first redundant format, and data of said second type is maintained in a non-redundant format.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

selectively disabling at least one soft error recovery function in at least one data storage device which contains no data of said first type.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of internal operating parameters includes at least one measure of soft error rate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of internal operating parameters includes at least one measure of flyheight.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of internal operating parameters includes at least one measure of temperature.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of internal operating parameters includes at least one measure of seek-settle time.

13. A program product for controlling the operation of a storage controller, said storage controller controlling a plurality of digital data storage devices of a same type, said plurality of digital data storage devices for storing heterogenous data comprising data of a first data type and data of a second data type, said program product comprising:

a plurality of processor executable instructions recorded on signal-bearing media, wherein said instructions, when executed by at least one programmable processor of said storage controller, cause the storage controller to perform the steps of;

obtaining a plurality of internal operating parameters with respect to each of said plurality of data storage devices, wherein said internal operating parameters are parameters exhibiting unintentional individual performance variation among said plurality of data storage devices;

determining at least one evaluation result using fuzzy logic for each respective data storage device of said plurality of data storage devices, said at least one evaluation result being derived from said plurality of measured internal operating parameters;

selecting a data storage device for storage of data according to the type of said data and the measured internal operating parameters of the selected data storage device by matching said type of data to said evaluation results with respect to said plurality of data storage devices.

14. The program product of claim 13, wherein said data of a first type consists of alphanumeric data, and said data of a second type consists of non-alphanumeric data.

15. The program product of claim 13, wherein said executable instructions further cause the storage controller to perform the step of:

maintaining at least some of said heterogeneous data in a redundant format.

16. The program product of claim 13, wherein said executable instructions further cause the storage controller to perform the step of:

selectively disabling at least one soft error recovery function in at least one data storage device which contains no data of said first type.

17. The program product of claim 13, wherein said plurality of internal operating parameters includes at least one measure of soft error rate.

18. A data storage subsystem for storing heterogeneous data, said heterogenous data comprising data of first type and data of a second type, comprising:

a plurality of data storage devices of a same type;

a data storage controller coupled to said plurality of data storage devices and controlling the operation of said plurality of data storage devices, said data storage controller including a programmable processor and a memory for storing instructions executable on said programmable processor;

a control program executable on said programmable processor, said control program including;

a storage device parameter gathering function, said storage device parameter gathering function obtaining a plurality of internal operating parameters with respect to each of said plurality of data storage devices, wherein said internal operating parameters are parameters exhibiting unintentional individual performance variation among said plurality of data storage devices; and

a data type matching function, said data type matching function determining at least one evaluation result using fuzzy logic for each respective data storage device of said plurality of data storage devices, said at least one evaluation result being derived from said plurality of measured internal operating parameters, said data type matching function matching the type of data to be stored with said internal operating parameters of a selected data storage device by matching said type of data to said evaluation results with respect to said plurality of data storage devices.

19. A method for managing the storage of heterogeneous data, said heterogenous data comprising data of a first type, said data of a first type consisting of alphanumeric data, and data of a second type, said data of a second type consisting of non-alphanumeric data, on a plurality of rotating magnetic disk drive data storage devices of a same type, said method comprising the steps of:

measuring at least one internal operating parameter with respect to each of a plurality of rotating magnetic disk drive data storage devices, wherein said at least one internal operating parameter is a parameter exhibiting unintentional individual performance variation among said plurality of data storage devices;

determining at least one evaluation result using fuzzy logic for each respective data storage device of said plurality of data storage devices, said at least one evaluation result being derived from said plurality of measured internal operating parameters; and

selecting a disk drive data storage device for storage of data according to the type of said data and the at least one measured internal operating parameter of the selected data storage device by matching said type of data to said evaluation results with respect to said plurality of data storage devices.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said heterogenous data comprises data of a third type, said data of a third type consisting of video data.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

maintaining at least some of said heterogeneous data in a redundant format.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

selectively disabling at least one soft error recovery function in at least one disk drive data storage device which contains no data of said first type.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein said at least one internal operating parameter includes at least one measure of soft error rate.