Virtual disk drive system and method

• US 9,047,216 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2013
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• 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:
  US14/052,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 596 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 system supporting a plurality of user volumes; and

a disk manager configured to;

classify each of a plurality of storage devices based on the cost;

maintain a pool of storage comprising a matrix of disk space blocks, each of the disk space blocks being an abstraction of data storage space from the plurality of data storage devices;

dynamically allocate free disk space blocks from the pool of storage to the plurality of user volumes;

check data on the storage devices to determine whether there is data to be moved from one classification of storage device to another; and

move data stored on one or more storage devices of one classification to one or more storage devices of another classification.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage system further comprises a combination of a plurality of RAID devices.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein data is moved to a lower cost storage device based on a decrease in the access pattern of the data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the cost of each storage device is based at least in part on efficiency of the storage device related to the other storage devices.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the cost of each storage device is based at least in part on storage capacity of the storage device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the cost of each storage device is based at least in part on physical cost of the storage device.

9. The disk system of claim 1, wherein data is moved to a higher cost storage device based on an increase in the access pattern of the data.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein data is moved to a lower cost storage device if a substantial portion of the storage space on the higher cost storage device is used up.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the disk manager determines whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of RAID devices comprise a plurality of RAID types, comprising at least one of RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, and RAID-10.

3. A method of dynamically allocating data of a data storage system, comprising the steps of:

classifying each of a plurality of data storage devices of the data storage system based on cost;

generating a plurality of user volumes of disk space blocks from the plurality of data storage devices;

managing a pool of storage comprising a matrix of disk space blocks, each of the disk space blocks being an abstraction of data storage space from the plurality of data storage devices;

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

checking data on the data storage devices to determine whether there is data to be moved from one classification of storage device to another; and

moving the data stored on one or more storage devices of one classification to one or more storage devices of another classification.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising setting a size of the disk space block as a default and changeable by a user.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of user volumes comprise a combination of disk space blocks from a plurality of RAID devices.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of RAID devices comprise a plurality of RAID types, comprising at least one of RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5, and RAID-10.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining whether additional disk drives for the data storage system are required, and sending a notification if the additional disk drives are required.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein the data is moved to a lower cost storage device based on a decrease in the access pattern of the data.

17. The method of claim 3, wherein data is moved to a higher cost storage device when data in the lower cost storage device starts to be used more frequently or otherwise becomes active.

18. The method of claim 3, wherein the cost of each storage device is based at least in part on efficiency of the storage device relative to the other storage devices.

19. The method of claim 3, wherein the cost of each storage device is based at least in part on storage capacity of the storage device.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein the cost of each storage device is based at least in part on physical cost of the storage device.