Storage apparatus provided with a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage media and storage control method
First Claim
1. A storage control method for a storage apparatus including a storage controller and a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units, each including a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips, each of the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips including a plurality of blocks, the method comprising the steps of:
- managing life length information based on at least erasing frequency of the plurality of blocks and providing logical storage regions corresponding to the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips;
writing data to a nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit that is a basis of a logical storage region of a write destination of a plurality of logical storage regions;
sending a request to each of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage units for acquiring the life length information;
sending the life length information to the storage controller in response to the request;
identifying, based on the life length information, a first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit, and a second nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit that has a remaining length of life longer than a remaining length of life of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit;
transferring data from a first logical storage region of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit to a second logical storage region of the second nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit;
determining whether the remaining life length of a particular nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit is shorter than a remaining guarantee period;
moving, when it is determined that the remaining life length of the particular nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit is shorter than the remaining guarantee period, data to a hard disk drive (HDD) that is free of an upper limit of rewriting, wherein;
the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units configure a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups,a plurality of HDDs configure a HDD RAID group, anddata is moved between the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups and the HDD RAID group in a unit of an extent;
determining whether the remaining life length of a first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group is shorter than a remaining guarantee period of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group;
moving, when it is determined that the remaining life length of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group is shorter than the remaining guarantee period of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group, data to a second nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group having a remaining life length that is longer than a remaining guarantee period of the second nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group;
determining whether the remaining life length of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups is shorter than a remaining guarantee period of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups; and
moving, when it is determined that the remaining life length of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups is shorter than the remaining guarantee period of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups, data to the HDD RAID group.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A storage apparatus is provided with a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage media and a storage controller that is a controller that is coupled to the plurality of semiconductor storage media. The storage controller identifies a first semiconductor storage unit that is at least one semiconductor storage media and a second semiconductor storage unit that is at least one semiconductor storage media and that is provided with a remaining length of life shorter than that of the first semiconductor storage unit based on the remaining life length information that has been acquired. The storage controller moreover identifies a first logical storage region for the first semiconductor storage unit and a second logical storage region that is provided with a write load higher than that of the first logical storage region for the second semiconductor storage unit based on the statistics information that indicates the statistics that is related to a write for every logical storage region. The storage controller reads data from the first logical storage region and the second logical storage region, and writes data that has been read from the first logical storage region to the second logical storage region and/or writes data that has been read from the second logical storage region to the first logical storage region.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A storage control method for a storage apparatus including a storage controller and a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units, each including a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips, each of the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips including a plurality of blocks, the method comprising the steps of:
-
managing life length information based on at least erasing frequency of the plurality of blocks and providing logical storage regions corresponding to the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips; writing data to a nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit that is a basis of a logical storage region of a write destination of a plurality of logical storage regions; sending a request to each of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage units for acquiring the life length information; sending the life length information to the storage controller in response to the request; identifying, based on the life length information, a first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit, and a second nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit that has a remaining length of life longer than a remaining length of life of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit; transferring data from a first logical storage region of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit to a second logical storage region of the second nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit; determining whether the remaining life length of a particular nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit is shorter than a remaining guarantee period; moving, when it is determined that the remaining life length of the particular nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit is shorter than the remaining guarantee period, data to a hard disk drive (HDD) that is free of an upper limit of rewriting, wherein; the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units configure a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups, a plurality of HDDs configure a HDD RAID group, and data is moved between the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups and the HDD RAID group in a unit of an extent; determining whether the remaining life length of a first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group is shorter than a remaining guarantee period of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group; moving, when it is determined that the remaining life length of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group is shorter than the remaining guarantee period of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group, data to a second nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group having a remaining life length that is longer than a remaining guarantee period of the second nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group; determining whether the remaining life length of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups is shorter than a remaining guarantee period of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups; and moving, when it is determined that the remaining life length of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups is shorter than the remaining guarantee period of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups, data to the HDD RAID group. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
2. A storage apparatus, comprising:
-
a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units, each including a memory controller and a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips, each of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips including a plurality of blocks as a unit of data erasing, the memory controller being configured to manage life length information based on at least erasing frequency of the plurality of blocks and provide logical storage regions corresponding to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory chips; and a storage controller coupled to the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units, wherein; the storage controller is configured to write data to a nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit that is a basis of a logical storage region of a write destination of a plurality of logical storage regions, the storage controller is configured to send a request to each of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage units for acquiring the life length information, the memory controller of each of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage units is configured to send the life length information to the storage controller in response to the request, the storage controller is configured to identify, based on the life length information, a first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit, and a second nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit that has a remaining length of life longer than a remaining length of life of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit, the storage controller is configured to transfer data from a first logical storage region of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit to a second logical storage region of the second nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit, the storage controller is configured to determine whether the remaining life length of a particular nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit is shorter than a remaining guarantee period, and move, when it is determined that the remaining life length of the particular nonvolatile semiconductor storage unit is shorter than the remaining guarantee period, data to a hard disk drive (HDD) that is free of an upper limit of rewriting, wherein the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage units configure a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups, the plurality of HDDs configure a HDD RAID group, the storage controller is configured to move data between the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups and the HDD RAID group in a unit of an extent, the storage controller is configured to determine whether the remaining life length of a first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group is shorter than a remaining guarantee period of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group, and move, when it is determined that the remaining life length of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group is shorter than the remaining guarantee period of the first nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group, data to a second nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group having a remaining life length that is longer than a remaining guarantee period of the second nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID group, and the storage controller is configured to determine whether the remaining life length of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups is shorter than a remaining guarantee period of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups, and move, when it is determined that the remaining life length of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups is shorter than the remaining guarantee period of all of the nonvolatile semiconductor storage RAID groups, data to the HDD RAID group.
-
Specification