Techniques for automated storage management

• US 8,239,584 B1
• Filed: 12/16/2010
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Rabe, Bruce R., Parenti, Mark A
• Primary Examiner(s): Nam, Hyun
• Application Number:
  US12/928,661
• Time in Patent Office: 600 Days
• Field of Search: 710/8, 711/170
• US Class Current: 710/8
• 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]

Abstract

Described are techniques for performing automated data storage configuration. A plurality of I/O operations are received on a data path. The I/O operations are analyzed and analysis information is determined. In accordance with the analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations is determined. One or more configuration options are determined which are customized in accordance with the application. A portion of data storage in a data storage system is configured for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options.

Claims

1. A method for performing automated data storage configuration comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining, in accordance with said analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the application; and

configuring a portion of data storage in a data storage system for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options, and wherein hint information is provided in any of a data storage configuration command over a control path and at least a first of the plurality of I/O operations, said hint information being used in connection with said configuring a portion of data storage for use by the application.

2. Time method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting an application profile of customized configuration options for the application based on the analysis information, wherein said application profile includes said one or more configuration options used in said configuring.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of I/O operations includes hint information, identifying said application.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said hint information of each of the plurality of I/O operations includes information characterizing data of said each I/O operation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said hint information of each of the plurality of I/O operations includes any of a type of data, a security indicator, a data sensitivity indicator, and a data usage indicator.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said method is performed by code executing in the data storage system without any user interaction.

4. A method for performing automated storage configuration comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining, in accordance with said analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the application; and

configuring a portion, of data storage in a data storage system for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options, wherein each of the plurality of I/O operations includes hint information, the hint information including information identifying said application, wherein said hint information includes a window of time indicating when said application is expected to perform I/O activity identified in the hint information.

7. A method for performing automated data storage configuration comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining, in accordance with said analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the application; and

,

configuring a portion of data storage in a data storage system for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options, and the method further comprising;

selecting an application profile of customized configuration options for the application based on the analysis information wherein said application profile includes said one or more configuration options used in said configuring, wherein said application profile includes information identifying one or more customized configuration options including any of a RAID (redundant array of independent disks) protection level, a RAID layout configuration including a number of data members and parity members, one or more data storage tiers to be used in connection with storing data for the application, an indicator as to whether data for the application may be automatically migrated between storage tiers, an indicator as to whether to data for the application is stored on a thin device, an indicator as to whether to perform compression when storing data of the application, an indicator as to whether to perform encryption when storing data of the application, and an indicator as to whether to perform deduplication when storing data of the application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the application profile includes information regarding data protection and indicates any one or more of a protection schedule and a technology for providing data protection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said technology for providing data protection includes any of a snapshot, device cloning or replication, and remote data replication.

10. A method for performing automated data storage configuration comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining, in accordance with said analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the application; and

configuring a portion of data storage in a data storage system for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options, wherein the method further comprises;

determining, for a defined time period, one or more mettles regarding said plurality of I/O operations;

determining, in accordance with said one or more metrics, an observed I/O pattern; and

determining that said application issued the plurality of I/O operations based on the observed I/O pattern.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the observed I/O pattern matches a predetermined I/O pattern expected for the application.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said one or more metrics including any of a total number of I/O operations/time period, a number of read operations/time period, a number of write operations/time period, a ratio of read to write operations, an average size of an I/O operation determined for a time period, an average size of a read operation determined for a time period, and an average size of a write operation determined for a time period.

14. A method for performing automated data storage configuration comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining, in accordance with said analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the application; and

configuring a portion of data storage in a data storage system for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options wherein hint information is sent to the data storage system over a control path in a data storage configuration command, said hint information including information identifying a second application, a portion of data storage to which the hint information applies, a target window of time as to when the hint information applies, a hint classification, and hint details.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the hint classification identifies an expected workload and the hint details identifying workload characteristics including any of type of I/O operation and expected intensity level.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon for performing automated data storage configuration, the computer readable medium comprising code, which when executed, performs a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the analysis information; and

configuring a portion of data storage in a data storage system for use in accordance with the one or more configuration options, and wherein hint information is provided in any of a data storage configuration command over a control path and at least a first of the plurality of I/O operations, said hint information being used in connection with said configuring a portion of data storage for use by an application.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon for performing automated data storage configuration, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code, which when executed, performs a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the analysis information; and

configuring a portion of data storage in a data storage system for use in accordance with the one or more configuration options, wherein the method further comprises;

determining, for a defined time period, one or more metrics regarding said plurality of I/O operations;

determining, in accordance with said one or more metrics, an observed I/O pattern in accordance with one or more of an I/O operation type, an I/O operation frequency, and an I/O operation size; and

determining said one or more configuration options based on the observed I/O pattern.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more configuration options include any of a RAID (redundant array of independent disks) protection level, a RAID layout configuration including a number of data members and parity members, one or more data storage tiers to be used in connection with storing data used in connection with the plurality of I/O operations.

19. A method for performing automated data storage configuration comprising:

receiving a plurality of I/O (input/output) operations on a data path;

analyzing said plurality of I/O operations and determining analysis information;

determining, in accordance with said analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations;

determining one or more configuration options customized in accordance with the application; and

performing, in accordance with the one or more configuration options, an action in connection with data storage configuration, and wherein hint information is provided in any of a data storage configuration command over a control path and at least a first of the plurality of I/O operations, said hint information being used in connection with said action to configure a portion of data storage for use by the application.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said action includes any of providing one or more input parameters to a software module that performs automated storage tiering management including data migration between different defined storage tiers, and creating a data protection schedule using a data protection service identified in the one or more configuration options.