System and method for adjusting to drive specific criteria

• US 8,555,053 B1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CF DB EZ LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: Crossroads Systems (Texas) Incorporated (Crossroads Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gosha, Michael Baines, Vitalo, Michael Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, TAE K
• Application Number:
  US12/201,956
• Time in Patent Office: 1,866 Days
• Field of Search: 713/189, 713/193, 713/150, 713/153, 713/192, 380/37, 707/100, 710/62, 710/65, 710/66, 710/68
• US Class Current: 713/153
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/382 using universal interface adapter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/30 Compression, e.g. Merkle-Damgard construction

Abstract

Embodiments provide systems and methods for adjusting to drive specific criteria. Data blocks sent to a drive may be padded to a constant size over a period to ensure optimal drive performance. Systems for padding data blocks to a constant size over a period may include padding logic which may pad data blocks addressed to a drive to a constant size over a period. The padding logic may be contained in an appliance located upstream of the drive in a network. The appliance may be operable to intercept data blocks addressed to the drive over a period, pad the data blocks to a constant size and forward the data blocks to the drive such that the drive receives data blocks of a constant size over a period.

Claims

1. A system for adjusting to drive specific criteria, comprising:

one or more hosts operating on one or more machines, the one or more hosts being configured to send one or more data blocks over a network;

a media library coupled to the network and comprising a plurality of data storage devices including a destination drive configured to receive a plurality of data blocks over the network over a period of time;

a control logic residing on the network between the one or more hosts and the media library, the control logic including;

encryption logic configured to encrypt data in one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks received from the one or more hosts; and

padding logic configured to determine if data should be padded to a constant size which is specific to the destination drive and if so;

pad the plurality of data blocks to the constant size; and

write the plurality of padded data blocks to the destination drive over a small computer system interface (SCSI) to the destination drive in the media library using a SCSI variable write command.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the padding logic is further configured to monitor the size of the data blocks of the plurality of data blocks and adjust the padding to pad one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks to a size of a largest data block of the plurality of data blocks.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising compression logic configured to compress data in one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the padding logic is implemented as part of the encryption logic.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the control logic is implemented at an appliance.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the appliance is in-line between the one or more hosts and the destination drive.

7. A method for adjusting to drive specific criteria of a destination drive, comprising:

at an interface device between one or more hosts on one or more networks and one or more data storage devices which include the destination drive;

encrypting data in one or more data blocks of a plurality of data blocks to be sent to the destination drive, wherein the plurality of data blocks is from the one or more hosts on the one or more networks, wherein a control logic on the interface device performs the encrypting;

determining drive specific criteria that are specific to the destination drive, wherein the drive specific criteria include a constant size specific to the destination drive;

padding the one or more data blocks to the constant size specific to the destination drive over a period of time, wherein the control logic on the interface device performs the padding; and

writing the one or more padded data blocks to the destination drive over a small computer system interface (SCSI) to the destination drive in the media library using a SCSI variable write command.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising compressing data in data blocks of the plurality of data blocks sent to the destination drive.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating header information indicating a data block size in the one or more data blocks to include the padding.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more data blocks are padded to a size specified by a write command sent by an initiator.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more data blocks are padded to a size of a largest data block.

12. A software product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a set of computer instructions, the computer instructions executable by a computer processor at an interface device between one or more hosts on one or more networks and one or more data storage devices which include a destination drive, the computer instructions when executed by the computer processor at the interface device:

encrypt data in one or more data blocks of a plurality of data blocks to be sent to the destination drive, wherein the plurality of data blocks is from the one or more hosts on the one or more networks;

determine drive specific criteria that are specific to the destination drive, wherein the drive specific criteria include a constant size specific to the destination drive;

pad the one or more data blocks to the constant size specific to the destination drive over a period of time; and

write the one or more padded data blocks to the destination drive over a small computer system interface (SCSI) to the destination drive in the media library using a SCSI variable write command.

13. The software product of claim 12, further comprising computer instructions executable to compress data in data blocks of the plurality of data blocks sent to the destination drive.

14. The software product of claim 12, further comprising computer instructions executable to update header information indicating a data block size in the one or more data blocks to include the padding.

15. The software product of claim 12, wherein the computer instructions are further executable to pad the one or more data blocks to a size specified by a write command sent by an initiator.

16. The software product of claim 12, wherein the computer instructions are further executable to pad the one or more data blocks to a size of a largest data block.

17. An appliance operable to adjust data blocks to drive specific criteria, the appliance comprising:

transfer logic configured to intercept a plurality of data blocks being sent to a destination drive, the destination drive being in a media library having a plurality of data storage devices and connected to the appliance, wherein the plurality of data blocks is from one or more hosts on one or more networks connected to the appliance;

encryption logic configured to encrypt data in one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks from the one or more hosts on the one or more networks connected to the appliance;

padding logic configured to;

determine drive specific criteria that are specific to the destination drive, wherein the drive specific criteria include a constant size specific to the destination drive; and

pad the one or more data blocks to the constant size specific to the destination drive; and

additional logic configured to write the plurality of padded data blocks over a small computer system interface (SCSI) to the destination drive in the media library using a SCSI variable write command.

18. The appliance of claim 17, wherein the padding logic is further configured to monitor the size of the data blocks of the plurality of data blocks and to pad one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks to a size of a largest data block of the plurality of data blocks.

19. The appliance of claim 17, wherein the padding logic is further configured to pad the plurality of data blocks to a size of a write command sent by an initiator.

20. The appliance of claim 17, further comprising compression logic configured to compress data in one or more data blocks of the plurality of data blocks.