Virtual disk drive system and method
First Claim
1. A disk drive system, capable of dynamically allocating data in a pool of storage, comprising:
- a RAID subsystem;
a plurality of virtual volumes comprising disk space blocks from the RAID subsystem, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of virtual volumes each comprise disk space blocks from a plurality of RAID devices; and
a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller;
wherein the disk manager is configured to;
maintain a pool of storage comprising a list of free disk space blocks of the RAID subsystem;
dynamically allocate the free disk space blocks to the plurality of virtual volumes; and
write data to the allocated disk space blocks.
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Abstract
A disk drive system and method capable of dynamically allocating data is provided. The disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem having a pool of storage, for example a page pool of storage that maintains a free list of RAIDs, or a matrix of disk storage blocks that maintain a null list of RAIDs, and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across the pool of storage and a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocation and data progression allow a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed. Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume pool of storage, instant data replay and data instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A disk drive system, capable of dynamically allocating data in a pool of storage, comprising:
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a RAID subsystem; a plurality of virtual volumes comprising disk space blocks from the RAID subsystem, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of virtual volumes each comprise disk space blocks from a plurality of RAID devices; and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller; wherein the disk manager is configured to; maintain a pool of storage comprising a list of free disk space blocks of the RAID subsystem; dynamically allocate the free disk space blocks to the plurality of virtual volumes; and write data to the allocated disk space blocks. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 20)
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7. A method of dynamically allocating data of a RAID storage system, comprising the steps of:
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generating a plurality of virtual volumes of disk space blocks from a plurality of RAID devices, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of virtual volumes each comprise disk space blocks from more than one of the plurality of RAID devices; managing a page pool of storage that maintains a list of free disk space blocks of the plurality of RAID devices; dynamically allocating the disk space blocks of the plurality of RAID devices to the plurality of virtual volumes using the page pool of storage; and writing data to the allocated disk space blocks. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification