Storage pool space allocation across multiple locations

• US 7,363,454 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2004
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dawson, Colin Scott, Fruchtman, Barry, Cannon, David Maxwell, Nichols, Charles Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): LANE, JOHN A
• Application Number:
  US11/009,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20060129779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• Field of Search: 711/100, 711/170, 707/1, 707/10, 707/200, 707/205
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

Techniques are provided for allocating storage space to a storage pool. A request for storage space for the storage pool is received. A list of locations associated with the storage pool is obtained, wherein the locations are capable of spanning multiple file systems or multiple directories within a single file system. One or more allocation techniques are applied to select one or more locations at which storage space is to be allocated. The storage space is allocated at the selected one or more locations.

Claims

1. A method for allocating storage space to a storage pool, comprising:

storing associations between locations on storage devices and a storage pool, wherein the storage pool is a grouping of volumes on the storage devices, wherein the storage pool spans at least one of multiple file systems and multiple directories within a file system, wherein each file system enables creation and management of files on the volumes on the storage devices and enables performing Input/Output (I/O) operations to those files, and wherein at least one of the file systems includes multiple directories;

receiving a request for storage space for the storage pool;

obtaining a list of locations associated with the storage pool, wherein the locations represent locations on the storage devices that are part of the storage pool;

applying one or more allocation techniques to select one or more locations from the list of locations at which storage space is to be allocated to the storage pool; and

allocating the storage space at the selected one or more locations to the storage pool.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein pre-existing storage space is allocated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein additional storage space is allocated.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocated storage space comprises a combination of pre-existing storage space and additional storage space.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving associations between locations in a storage subsystem and the storage pool, wherein the associations indicate which devices in the storage subsystem are to be part of the storage pool.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving server mappings that map server addressing information to the locations in the storage pool; and

receiving storage agent mappings that map storage agent addressing information to the locations in the storage pool.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling a storage management server and one or more storage agents to access data at a location in the storage pool simultaneously via different addressing information, wherein the different addressing information is associated with different file systems.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocation technique matches retrieval performance requirements of the data being stored to physical characteristics of an individual location in the storage pool.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a data request for the storage pool; and

forwarding storage agent addressing information for the location of the data within the storage pool to a storage agent.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to store data comprising an object in the storage pool;

disassembling the object into object portions; and

storing the object portions across multiple file systems contained within the storage pool.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the object has a size larger than a limit on an individual file system.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

reassembling the object portions to form the object on restore or retrieval operations.