Logical region allocation with immediate availability

• US 9,423,981 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2013
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chambliss, David D., Garmiza, Ehood, Shalev, Leah, Weissbrem, Eliyahu
• Primary Examiner(s): THAI, TUAN V
• Application Number:
  US13/863,787
• Publication Number:
  US 20140310457A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,225 Days
• Field of Search: 711/100, 711/114, 711/154
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1028 Distributed, i.e. distributed RAID systems with parity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• 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 3/0665 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 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that enable a computer to receive a request to allocate one or more logical regions to a logical volume, and to verify, in response to the request, an availability on one or more storage devices of a number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more requested logical regions. In response to the verification, the one or more logical regions can be activated for write operations to a cache, so that any data written to the logical regions is stored to the cache. Subsequent to activating the one or more logical regions, one or more actual physical regions can be allocated to the logical volume. Upon allocating the one or more actual physical regions, any data stored in the cache can be destaged to the one or more actual physical regions.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor, a request to allocate one or more logical regions to a logical volume;

verifying, in response to the request, an availability on one or more storage devices of a number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more requested logical regions;

in response to the verification, activating the one or more logical regions for write operations; and

subsequent to activating the one or more logical regions, allocating, to the logical volume, one or more actual physical regions;

wherein verifying the number of the physical regions comprises calculating the number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more logical regions, and reserving the calculated number of physical regions on the one or more storage devices, and the one or more logical regions correspond to actual physical regions positioned on more than one of the storage devices, and wherein allocating the physical regions comprises serially allocating the actual physical regions on each of the storage devices.

2. The method according to claim 1, and comprising receiving, upon activating the one or more logical regions, a request to write data to one of the one or more logical regions, storing the data to a memory, and conveying an acknowledgement indicating a completion of the request.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the memory comprises a cache.

4. The method according to claim 3, and comprising destaging, from the cache, the data to the one or more actual physical regions.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the one or more storage devices is selected from a list comprising a hard disk drive and a solid state disk drive.

6. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more storage devices; and

a processor configured to receive a request to allocate one or more logical regions to a logical volume, to verify, in response to the request, an availability on the one or more storage devices of a number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more requested logical regions, to activate, in response to the verification, the one or more logical regions for write operations, and to allocate to the logical volume, subsequent to activating the one or more logical regions, one or more actual physical regions;

wherein the processor is configured to verify the number of the physical regions by calculating the number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more logical regions, and reserving the calculated number of physical regions on the one or more storage devices, and the one or more logical regions correspond to actual physical regions positioned on more than one of the storage devices, and wherein the processor is configured to allocate the physical regions by serially allocating the actual physical regions on each of the storage devices.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, an comprising a memory, and wherein the processor is configured, upon activating the one or more logical regions, to receive a request to write data to one of the one or more logical regions, to store the data to the memory, and to conveying an acknowledgement indicating a completion of the request.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the memory comprises a cache.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the processor is configured to destage, from the cache, the data to the one or more actual physical regions.

10. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein each of the one or more storage devices is selected from a list comprising a hard disk drive and a solid state disk drive.

11. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive a request to allocate one or more logical regions to a logical volume;

computer readable program code configured to verify, in response to the request, an availability on one or more storage devices of a number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more requested logical regions;

computer readable program code configured to activate, in response to the verification, the one or more logical regions for write operations; and

computer readable program code configured to allocate to the logical volume, subsequent to activating the one or more logical regions, one or more actual physical regions;

wherein the computer readable program code is configured to verify the number of the physical regions by calculating the number of physical regions corresponding to the one or more logical regions, and reserving the calculated number of physical regions on the one or more storage devices, and the one or more logical regions correspond to actual physical regions positioned on more than one of the storage devices, and wherein the processor is configured to allocate the physical regions by serially allocating the actual physical regions on each of the storage devices.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, and comprising computer readable program code configured to receive, upon activating the one or more logical regions, a request to write data to one of the one or more logical regions, to store the data to a memory, and to convey an acknowledgement indicating a completion of the request.

13. The computer program product according to claim 12, wherein the memory comprises a cache.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, and computer readable program code configured to destage, from the cache, the data to the one or more actual physical regions.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein each of the one or more storage devices is selected from a list comprising a hard disk drive and a solid state disk drive.