Storage system architecture

• US 9,213,485 B1
• Filed: 02/10/2015
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Inventors: Hayes, John, Colgrove, John, Davis, John D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US14/618,999
• Time in Patent Office: 308 Days
• Field of Search: 711/103, 711/154, 711/156, 711/158, 711/170, 713/340, 714/6.2, 714/6.24, 714/6.32, 365/185.33
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1068 in sector programmable memories, e.g. flash disk G06F11/1072 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/108 Parity data distribution in semiconductor storages, e.g. in SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2092 Techniques of failing over between control units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/845 Systems in which the redundancy can be transformed in increased performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7206 Reconfiguration of flash memory system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7207 management of metadata or control data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• 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 3/0685 : Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 : Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 : Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/52 : Protection of memory contents; Detection of errors in memory contents
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/154 : Error and erasure correction, e.g. by using the error and erasure locator or Forney polynomial
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40169 : Flexible bus arrangements arrangements for maintenance or administration involving management of faults; events, alarms H04L41/06; automatic restoration of network faults H04L41/0654
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/10 : characterised by the switching fabric construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/111 : Switch interfaces, e.g. port details
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 : for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A storage system is provided. The storage system includes a plurality of storage units, each of the plurality of storage units having storage memory for user data and a plurality of storage nodes, each of the plurality of storage nodes configured to have ownership of a portion of the user data. The storage system includes a first pathway, coupling the plurality of storage units such that each of the plurality of storage units can communicate with at least one other of the plurality of storage units via the first pathway without assistance from the plurality of storage nodes.

Claims

1. A storage system, comprising:

a plurality of storage units, each of the plurality of storage units having storage memory for user data;

a plurality of storage nodes, each of the plurality of storage nodes configured to have ownership of a portion of the user data; and

a first pathway, coupling the plurality of storage units such that each of the plurality of storage units can communicate with at least one other of the plurality of storage units via the first pathway without assistance from the plurality of storage nodes.

2. The storage system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second pathway, coupling the plurality of storage nodes, such that each of the plurality of storage nodes can communicate with each other of the plurality of storage nodes via the second pathway.

3. The storage system of claim 1, further comprising:

a first portion of the first pathway coupling a first subset of the plurality of storage units; and

a second portion of the first pathway coupling a second subset of the plurality of storage units.

4. The storage system of claim 1, further comprising:

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of storage units to each other of the plurality of storage units; and

a second pathway coupling the plurality of storage nodes.

5. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the first pathway includes a network switch.

6. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the storage memory includes solid-state storage memory.

7. The storage system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of compute nodes;

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of storage units to each other of the plurality of storage units;

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of compute nodes to each other of the plurality of compute nodes;

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of compute nodes to each of the plurality of storage nodes;

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of storage nodes to each other of the plurality of storage nodes; and

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of storage nodes to each of the plurality of storage units.

8. A storage cluster, comprising:

a single chassis, having a plurality of slots, each slot configured to receive a storage node or a storage unit, each of which can occupy one or more of the plurality of slots;

a plurality of storage units in the single chassis;

each of the plurality of storage units having solid-state storage memory for user data;

a first pathway, in the single chassis and coupling the plurality of storage units such that no storage node intervenes in or assists communication via the first pathway from a first one of the plurality of storage units to a second one of the plurality of storage units.

9. The storage cluster of claim 8, further comprising:

a second pathway in the single chassis

a first storage node in the single chassis;

a second storage node in the single chassis, coupled to the first storage node via the second pathway;

a first one of the plurality of storage units and a second one of the plurality of storage units coupled to each other and to the first storage node via a portion of the first pathway; and

a second one of the plurality of storage units and a third one of the plurality of storage units coupled to each other and to the second storage node via a further portion of the first pathway.

10. The storage cluster in the single chassis of claim 8, further comprising:

the first pathway coupling each of the plurality of storage units to each other of the plurality of storage units;

a first storage node in the single chassis, coupled to a first one and a second one of the plurality of storage units via a portion of a second pathway; and

a second storage node in the single chassis, coupled to a third one and a fourth one of the plurality of storage units via a further portion of the second pathway.

11. The storage cluster of claim 8, further comprising:

at least one switch in the single chassis, the at least one switch including the first pathway;

a plurality of storage nodes in the single chassis, the at least one switch coupling the plurality of storage nodes.

12. The storage cluster of claim 8, further comprising:

one or more compute nodes in the single chassis;

each of the one or more compute nodes having one or more processor complexes; and

the first pathway coupling together each of the one or more processor complexes of each of the one or more compute nodes.

13. The storage cluster of claim 8, further comprising:

a switch in the single chassis, the switch including the first pathway;

one or more compute nodes in the single chassis;

one or more storage nodes in the single chassis; and

the switch coupling together each of the one or more compute nodes, each of the one or more storage nodes and each of the plurality of storage units.

14. The storage cluster of claim 8, further comprising:

one or more storage nodes or one or more compute nodes in the single chassis;

the first pathway coupling together the one or more storage nodes or the one or more compute nodes;

a further single chassis, having a further first pathway therein;

a further plurality of storage units in the further single chassis;

a further one or more storage nodes or a further one or more compute nodes in the further single chassis; and

the first pathway coupled to the further first pathway, such that each of the plurality of storage units, the one or more storage nodes or the one or more compute nodes, each of the further plurality of storage units, and the further one or more storage nodes or the further one or more compute nodes can communicate amongst themselves via the first pathway or the further first pathway, and can be configured as one or more storage clusters.

15. A storage system in a single chassis, comprising:

a plurality of storage units in the single chassis;

each of the plurality of storage units having solid-state storage memory for user data;

a first pathway in the single chassis, each of the plurality of storage units coupled to communicate with at least one other of the plurality of storage units via the first pathway;

a plurality of storage nodes in the single chassis, each of the plurality of storage nodes having a subset of the plurality of storage units therein and having ownership of a portion of the user data, wherein the plurality of storage nodes are non-participatory in direct communication between storage units; and

a second pathway in the single chassis, coupling the plurality of storage nodes.

16. The storage system in a single chassis of claim 15, further comprising:

the first pathway including a first bus coupling a first one and a second one of the plurality of storage units to each other and to a first one of the plurality of storage nodes;

the first pathway including a second bus coupling a third one and a fourth one of the plurality of storage units to each other and to a second one of the plurality of storage nodes; and

a switch, including the second pathway, the switch configured to couple to a network external to the single chassis.

17. The storage system in a single chassis of claim 15, further comprising:

the first pathway including a bus coupling the plurality of storage units, the bus not coupled to the plurality of storage nodes except through the plurality of storage units;

a first one of the plurality of storage nodes coupled to a first one and a second one of the plurality of storage units; and

a second one of the plurality of storage nodes coupled to a third one and a fourth one of the plurality of storage units.

18. The storage system in a single chassis of claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of storage units is coupled to communicate with each other of the plurality of storage units via the first pathway, with the storage nodes non-participatory in such direct communication between the storage nodes.

19. The storage system in a single chassis of claim 15, further comprising:

at least one switch, wherein the first pathway and the second pathway are included in the at least one switch.

20. The storage system in a single chassis of claim 15, further comprising:

one or more compute nodes in the single chassis, each having one or more processor complexes; and

at least one switch, the at least one switch including the first pathway and the second pathway, the at least one switch coupling together each of the one or more processor complexes of each of the one or more compute nodes, each of the plurality of storage nodes, and each of the plurality of storage units.