Predicting capacity consumption in a memory component

• US 7,590,666 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2006
• Issued: 09/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Anthony, Elwood A., Korman, Stephen R., Feng, Jiong
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy; Hung T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Kim T
• Application Number:
  US11/454,592
• Publication Number:
  US 20070294206A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,187 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200, 707/205
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0676 Magnetic disk device

Abstract

Techniques and technologies are provided for predicting when remaining storage capacity of a memory component will be fully consumed. For example, the remaining storage capacity of the memory component can be determined and a rate of change of the storage capacity can be calculated. Using this information, a prediction or estimate can be made as to when the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be fully consumed. The prediction or estimate can be based, for example, on a ratio of the remaining storage capacity to the rate of change of the storage capacity.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining remaining storage capacity of the memory component;

calculating a rate of change of the storage capacity;

calculating a moving average of the rate of change of the remaining storage capacity;

predicting when the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed based on a ratio of the remaining storage capacity to the calculated rate of change of the storage capacity; and

predicting an amount of time before the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed based on a ratio of the remaining storage capacity to the moving average of the rate of change of the remaining storage capacity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring a first amount of consumed storage capacity of a memory component at a first time to produce a first storage measurement;

measuring a second amount of consumed storage capacity of the memory component at a second time to produce a second storage measurement, wherein the difference between the second time and the first time comprises a time interval, and wherein the remaining storage capacity of the memory component comprises the difference between a total storage capacity of the memory component and the second storage measurement; and

wherein calculating a rate of change of the storage capacity, comprises;

calculating a rate of change of the storage capacity based on the first storage measurement, the second storage measurement, and the time interval.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an action indicator, based on the prediction as to when the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed, wherein the action indicator indicates an action to be taken to prevent the remaining storage capacity of the memory component from being fully consumed.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

automatically increasing the capacity of the memory component, in response to the action indicator, before the capacity of the memory component is fully consumed.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a message comprising;

a warning indicator which indicates an amount of time remaining until the storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the message further comprises:

a remedy indicator which indicates at least one action to be taken to address the capacity issues before the storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory component comprises a database component comprising a logical grouping of database files.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory component comprises an Operating System (OS) disk drive,

wherein the remaining capacity of the memory component comprises the amount of free disk space available.

9. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

10. An application programming interface comprising computer executable modules for carrying out the steps of claim 1.

11. An application programming interface for instructing a processing unit to perform the method of claim 1.

12. A memory management system stored on a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable modules, comprising:

a predictor module which determines remaining storage capacity of the memory component, calculates a rate of change of the storage capacity, and estimates when the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed based on a ratio of the remaining storage capacity to the calculated rate of change of the storage capacity, wherein the predictor module calculates a moving average of the rate of change of the remaining storage capacity, and estimates when the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed based on a ratio of the remaining storage capacity to the moving average of the rate of change of the remaining storage capacity.

13. The memory management system of claim 12, further comprising:

a measurement module which measures a first amount of consumed storage capacity of a memory component at a first time to produce a first storage measurement, and measures a second amount of consumed storage capacity of the memory component at a second time to produce a second storage measurement, wherein the difference between the second time and the first time comprises a time interval, and wherein the remaining storage capacity of the memory component comprises the difference between a total storage capacity of the memory component and the second amount of consumed storage measurement, and

wherein the predictor module calculates the rate of change of the storage capacity based on the first amount of consumed storage measurement, the second amount of consumed storage measurement, and the time interval, and estimates when the remaining storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed based on a ratio of the remaining storage capacity to the rate of change of the storage capacity.

14. The memory management system of claim 12, further comprising:

a message generator module which generates a warning indicator which indicates an amount of time remaining until the storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed.

15. The memory management system of claim 13, wherein the message generator further generates a remedy indicator which indicates at least one action to be taken to address the capacity issues before the storage capacity of the memory component will be consumed.

16. The memory management system of claim 12, wherein the memory component comprises a file group.

17. The memory management system of claim 12, wherein the memory component comprises disk drive, and wherein the remaining capacity of the memory component comprises the amount of free disk space available.