Storage systems having differentiated storage pools

• US 7,937,551 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2004
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Schott, Eric R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan; Duc T
• Application Number:
  US10/761,884
• Publication Number:
  US 20040153606A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,660 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1824 implemented using Network-attached Storage [NAS] architecture distributed or networked storage systems G06F3/067; protocols for distributed storage of data in a network H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1012 Load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• 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 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1017 based on a round robin mechanism
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1034 Reaction to server failures by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies

Abstract

The systems and methods described herein include among other things, systems for providing a block level data storage service. More particularly, the systems and methods of the invention provide a block level data storage service that provides differentiated pools of storage on a single storage device. To this end, the systems and methods described herein leverage the different performance characteristics across the logical block name (LBN) space of the storage device (or devices). These different performance characteristics may be exploited to support two or more classes of storage on a single device.

Claims

1. A system for providing differentiated classes of storage, comprising:

a storage device having a plurality of storage locations and a logical block name space for organizing logical block names of the storage locations,

a performance process configured to determine a level of performance for the plurality of storage locations and partition the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of regions as determined by their different levels of performance,

a performance measurement system configured to scan storage locations of the storage device and determine the different levels of performance for the storage locations, and specifically wherein the performance measurement system performs experimental read and write operations and determines the different levels of performance from experimental data collected in the read and write operations,

a mapping process configured to map the partitioned regions of the storage locations and aggregate the logical block names of the storage locations of the storage device in the partitioned regions having an identical level of performance to a selected section of the logical block name space,

a RAID controller, for assigning a first RAID level configuration to a first set of aggregated logical block names of the storage device, and assigning a second RAID level configuration to a second set of aggregated logical block names of the storage device, the first and second RAID level configurations being different from each other; and

the system thereby providing differentiated classes of storage having two or more differentiated RAID level configurations of the same storage device to one or more clients accessing the system.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein:

the performance process separates the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of categories as determined by their different levels of performance.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a process configured to employ the storage system to provide a file system service.

4. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a process configured to provide a storage volume service.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the mapping process creates multiple storage volumes at a selected level of performance on the storage device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein a level of performance includes a data access time, or a reliability of a storage location, or a combination thereof.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage device is a single storage disk.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping process performs mapping and aggregating when the storage system is designed.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping process performs mapping and aggregating during operation of the storage device.

10. A performance process for providing differentiated classes of storage based on determined levels of performance of a plurality of storage locations of a storage device, the process comprising the steps of:

providing a storage device having a plurality of storage locations and a logical block name space for organizing logical block names of the storage locations,

determining a level of performance of the plurality of storage locations,

partitioning the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of regions as determined by their different levels of performance,

wherein the different levels of performance are further determined by performing experimental read and write operations and determining the level of performance from experimental data collected in the experimental read and write operations,

mapping partitioned regions of the storage locations,

aggregating the logical block names of the storage locations in the partitioned regions having an identical level of performance to a selected section of the logical block name space,

assigning a first RAID level configuration to a first set of aggregated logical block names,

assigning a second RAID level configuration to a second set of aggregated logical block names, the first RAID level configuration and second RAID level configuration being different from one another, and

the storage device thereby providing differentiated classes of RAID level storage to one or more clients.

11. A process according to claim 10, further including the step of separating the plurality of storage locations into a plurality of categories as determined by their different levels of performance.

12. A process according to claim 10, wherein mapping creates multiple storage volumes at a selected level of performance.

13. The process of claim 10, wherein a level of performance includes a data access time, or a reliability of a storage location, or a combination thereof.

14. The process of claim 10, wherein mapping and aggregating are performed when a storage system that implements the process is designed.

15. The process of claim 10, wherein mapping and aggregating are performed during operation of a storage system that implements the process.

16. A system for providing differentiated classes of storage, comprising

a storage device having a plurality of storage locations, a logical block name space for organizing logical block names of the storage locations, and performance parameters of the storage locations that vary across the storage device;

a partitioning process configured to partition the storage locations into regions and aggregate the logical block names of the storage locations in the partitioned regions having an identical level of performance to a selected section of the logical block name space, thereby providing two or more differentiated classes of storage on the storage device to one or more clients accessing the system;

a RAID controller, for assigning different RAID level techniques to respective ones of the two or more differentiated classes of storage; and

a performance measurement system that scans storage locations of the storage device and determines the level of performance of the storage locations, wherein determining performance further comprises performing experimental read and write operations and determining the level of performance from experimental data collected in the experimental read and write operations.

17. A system according to claim 16, wherein the partitioning process selects a fixed set of partitions as a function of a selected configuration of system components.