Volume having tiers of different storage traits

• US 9,141,626 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rajpal, Shiv, Mehra, Karan, Herron, Andrew, Cong, Shi
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang, Dongming
• Application Number:
  US13/829,245
• Publication Number:
  US 20140279966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 922 Days
• Field of Search: 707/693
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

A volume system that presents a volume having an extent of logical addresses to a file system. A volume exposure system exposes the volume to the file system in a manner that the volume has multiple tiers, each offering storage of different traits. This is performed using multiple heterogenic underlying storage systems, each having different storage system-specific traits. Each underlying storage system may be hardware, software, or a combination thereof that permits each storage system to expose storage having the particular storage system-specific traits to the file system. The volume system supports each tier by mapping logical addresses of the tier to portions of underling storage systems that are consistent with the tier traits.

Claims

1. A computing system that includes a volume system that presents a plurality of logical storage address to a file system of the computing system, the computing system comprising:

at least one hardware processor; and

one or more storage device;

the computing system executing computer-executable instruction on the one or more storage device with the at least one processor to implement a file system and a volume exposure system that exposes up a volume to the file system using at least some of a plurality of underlying storage systems including at least a first storage system that exposes first storage that has a first set of traits to the file system and a second storage system that exposes second storage that has a second set of traits to the file system, the volume being exposed up to the file system in the form of a plurality of tiers including at least a first tier that includes a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the first set of traits of the first storage system, and a second tier that includes a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the second set of traits; and

a mapping system that maps each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier with physical storage locations of the first underlying storage system, and each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the second tier with physical storage locations of the second underlying storage systems, wherein the plurality of logical storage locations of at least the first tier are contiguous volume storage locations associated with a single namespace of the volume, the contiguous volume storage locations of the first tier being mapped by the mapping system to a plurality of different physical storage locations that are not contiguous.

2. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the plurality of logical storage locations of the second tier comprise a plurality of regions, each region being contiguous logical storage locations.

3. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

the plurality of underlying storage systems.

4. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first storage system comprises flash memory.

5. The computing system in accordance with claim 4, wherein the second storage system comprises a disk device.

6. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the mapping system maps each of all of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier with physical storage locations of the first underlying storage system.

7. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, the plurality of underlying storage systems including a third storage system that exposes third storage that has a third set of traits to the file system, a first tier including a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the third set of traits of the third storage system,

wherein the mapping system maps each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier with physical storage locations of the third underlying storage system.

8. The computing system in accordance with claim 7, wherein the first set of traits is the same as the third set of traits.

9. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the volume is a first volume and the file system is a first file system,

the volume exposure system also exposes up a second volume to a second file system using at least some of a plurality of underlying storage systems including at least the first storage system that exposes the first storage having the first set of traits to the first file system, the second volume being exposed up to the second file system in the form of a plurality of tiers including at least a first tier that includes a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the first set of traits of the first storage system;

and

the mapping system maps each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier of the second volume with physical storage locations of the first underlying storage system.

10. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises an identity of an underlying storage system.

11. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises a performant trait.

12. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises a resiliency property.

13. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises an encryption property.

14. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises a compression property.

15. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises a transience property.

16. The computing system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first set of traits comprises a write-limitation property.

20. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different physical storage locations that are not contiguous include at least one physical storage location of a first storage.

17. A method for exposing up a volume to the file system using at least some of a plurality of underlying storage systems including at least a first storage system that exposes first storage that has a first set of traits to the file system and a second storage system that exposes second storage that has a second set of traits to the file system, the method comprising:

an act of mapping each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier with physical storage locations of the first underlying storage system;

an act of mapping each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the second tier with physical storage locations of the second underlying storage systems;

an act of exposing a first tier of the volume to the file system, the first tier including a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the first set of traits of the first storage system; and

an act of exposing a second tier of the volume to the file system, the second tier including a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the second set of traits of the second storage system, wherein the plurality of logical storage locations of at least the first tier are contiguous volume storage locations associated with a single namespace of the volume, the contiguous volume storage locations of the first tier being mapped by the mapping system to a plurality of different physical storage locations that are not contiguous.

18. The method in accordance with claim 17, further comprising:

an act of mapping each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier with physical storage locations of a third underlying storage system that exposes third storage that has a third set of traits to the file system, the first tier including a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the third set of traits of the first storage system.

19. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable hardware storage devices having thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for exposing up a volume to the file system using at least some of a plurality of underlying storage systems including at least a first storage system that exposes first storage that has a first set of traits to the file system and a second storage system that exposes second storage that has a second set of traits to the file system, the method comprising:

an act of mapping each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the first tier with physical storage locations of the first underlying storage system;

an act of mapping each of at least some of the plurality of logical storage locations of the second tier with physical storage locations of the second underlying storage systems;

an act of exposing a first tier of the volume to the file system, the first tier including a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the first set of traits of the first storage system; and

an act of exposing a second tier of the volume to the file system, the second tier including a plurality of logical storage locations that have or are to have traits consistent with the second set of traits of the second storage system, wherein the plurality of logical storage locations of at least the first tier are contiguous volume storage locations associated with a single namespace of the volume, the contiguous volume storage locations of the first tier being mapped by the mapping system to a plurality of different physical storage locations that are not contiguous.