Virtual disk drive system and method

• US 9,021,295 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2013
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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:
  US14/047,152
• Publication Number:
  US 20140040546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• Field of Search: 714 1- 57
• 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 storage space, the disk drive system comprising:

a RAID subsystem comprising a plurality of storage devices having different classes and a plurality of RAID devices of different RAID type configured on the storage devices, each RAID device broken into a set of pages;

a plurality of user data storage volumes, each comprising allocated storage space from the RAID subsystem;

a matrix of virtual volumes, comprising a plurality of virtual volumes, each virtual volume being a predetermined abstraction of multiple RAID devices, comprising a set of pages from the plurality of RAID devices; and

a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller;

wherein the matrix of virtual volumes and the disk manager are configured to;

maintain a list of free pages from the virtual volumes; and

dynamically allocate free pages from the virtual volumes based on I/O requests from the user data storage volumes.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the RAID subsystem and the disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the disk manager manages a plurality of disk storage system controllers.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a plurality of redundant disk storage system controllers to cover failure of an operated disk storage system controller.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the RAID subsystem comprises a combination of at least two of RAID types RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, and RAID-10.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising at least one of RAID types RAID-3, RAID-4, RAID-6, and RAID-7.

7. A method of dynamically allocating data storage space of a RAID storage system, the method comprising:

providing a RAID subsystem comprising a plurality of storage devices having different classes and a plurality of RAID devices of different RAID type configured on the storage devices, each RAID device broken into a set of pages;

providing a plurality of user data storage volumes, each comprising allocated storage space from the RAID subsystem;

generating a matrix of virtual volumes, comprising a plurality of virtual volumes, each virtual volume being a predetermined abstraction of multiple RAID devices, comprising a set of pages from the plurality of RAID devices;

maintaining a list of free pages from the virtual volumes; and

dynamically allocating free pages from the virtual volumes based on I/O requests from the user data storage volumes.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising setting a size of the virtual volumes as a default and changeable by a user.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising setting a size of the pages as a default and changeable by a user.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the RAID subsystem comprises a combination of at least two of RAID types RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, and RAID-10.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the RAID subsystem further comprises at least one of RAID types RAID-3, RAID-4, RAID-6, and RAID-7.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining whether additional storage devices for the RAID subsystem are required; and

providing a notification if additional storage devices are required.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing the notification via email.