Virtual disk drive system and method

• US 8,555,108 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2011
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell International LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Compellent Technologies Incorporated (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Soran, Philip E., Guider, John P., Aszmann, Lawrence E., Klemm, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US13/104,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20110258385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 882 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6.11, 714/6.12, 714/6.2, 714/6.21, 714/6.22, 714/6.23, 714/6.24, 714/6.3, 714/6.32, 714 13- 15
• US Class Current: 714/6.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/108 Parity data distribution in semiconductor storages, e.g. in SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2089 Redundant storage control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/02 Addressing or allocation; Relocation program address sequencing G06F9/00; arrangements for selecting an address in a digital store G11C8/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• 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 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

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.

Claims

1. A disk drive system, capable of dynamically allocating data in a pool of storage, comprising:

a data storage subsystem supporting a plurality of user volumes; and

a disk manager configured to;

maintain a pool of storage comprising a matrix of data storage blocks, each of the data storage blocks being an abstraction of multiple physical storage devices and having a predefined size;

dynamically allocate free blocks from the matrix of data storage blocks to the plurality of user volumes; and

write data to the allocated blocks.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage subsystem further comprises a combination of at least one of RAID types RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, and RAID-10.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the pool of data storage blocks is an abstraction of multiple RAID devices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the disk manager is not limited by a single specific computer file system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the predefined size of a data storage block is a default size and is changeable by a user.

6. A method of dynamically allocating data of a data storage subsystem, comprising the steps of

maintaining a plurality of user volumes of storage space from the data storage subsystem;

managing a pool of storage comprising a matrix of data storage blocks, each of the data storage blocks being an abstraction of multiple physical storage devices and having a predefined size;

dynamically allocating free blocks from the pool of storage to the plurality of user volumes; and

writing data to the allocated blocks.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predefined size of a data storage block is a default size and is changeable by a user.