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 data storage subsystem;
a plurality of user volumes comprising storage space from the data storage subsystem; 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 matrix of virtual volumes of the data storage subsystem, each of the virtual volumes being an abstraction of multiple physical storage devices and having a predefined size;
dynamically allocate free virtual volumes from the matrix of virtual volumes to the plurality of user volumes; and
write data to the allocated virtual volumes.
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Accused Products
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.
231 Citations
28 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 data storage subsystem; a plurality of user volumes comprising storage space from the data storage subsystem; 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 matrix of virtual volumes of the data storage subsystem, each of the virtual volumes being an abstraction of multiple physical storage devices and having a predefined size; dynamically allocate free virtual volumes from the matrix of virtual volumes to the plurality of user volumes; and write data to the allocated virtual volumes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of dynamically allocating data of a data storage subsystem, comprising the steps of:
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generating a plurality of user volumes of storage space from a plurality of data storage devices of the data storage subsystem; managing a pool of storage comprising a matrix of virtual volumes of the data storage subsystem, each of the virtual volumes being an abstraction of multiple physical storage devices and having a predefined size; dynamically allocating free virtual volumes from the matrix of virtual volumes to the plurality of user volumes using the pool of storage; writing data to the allocated virtual volumes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification