Data device grouping across data storage device enclosures for synchronized data maintenance

• US 9,430,152 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2014
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Slik, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Gu, Shawn X
• Application Number:
  US14/276,649
• Publication Number:
  US 20150331610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• 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

Techniques for operating a storage front-end system are disclosed. The techniques include identifying a synchronous group of data storage devices across two or more enclosures, each of which comprise a plurality of data storage devices. Data across the data storage devices is accessible by a storage front-end system as an aggregate memory space. The techniques further include sending an activation request to the enclosures to synchronously activate the data storage devices in the synchronous group and performing a data maintenance task in the aggregate memory space of the data storage devices.

Claims

1. A method of operating a storage front-end system, comprising:

identifying a deduplication group of data storage devices across two or more enclosures, wherein each of the enclosures comprises a plurality of data storage devices, wherein data across the data storage devices is accessible by the storage front-end system as an aggregate memory space;

queuing a deduplication task;

determining that the deduplication group should be activated based, at least in part, on a cyclical schedule;

in response to determining that the deduplication group should be activated, transmitting a request to the enclosures to synchronously activate the data storage devices;

receiving an indication from each of the enclosures indicating that the data storage devices have been activated; and

in response to receiving the indications from each of the enclosures, dequeuing the deduplication task; and

deduplicating at least a portion of the data in the aggregate memory space.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a write request with payload data, wherein identifying the deduplication group is in response to receiving the write request, wherein deduplicating includes deduplicating the payload data across the aggregate memory space.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the deduplication group is in response to determining, based at least in part on a data maintenance schedule, that deduplication should be performed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the request includes transmitting the request to a superset of enclosures that includes the enclosures, wherein the request includes a group identifier or data storage device identifiers of the deduplication group.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the deduplication group includes accessing a group identity storage in the storage front-end system, the group identity storage including a group identifier associated with identifiers of the data storage devices.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising associating the group identifier with the identifiers of the data storage devices when performing deduplication binning of payload data from a write request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the deduplication group includes accessing a group identity storage in the storage front-end system, the group identity storage including a group identifier associated with identifiers of the enclosures.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising associating the group identifier with the identifiers of the enclosures when performing deduplication binning of payload data from a write request.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating a data operation directed at a data storage device of the deduplication group; and

requesting that the enclosures activate the deduplication group in response to initiating the data operation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data storage devices in the deduplication group share a common attribute across the enclosures.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the common attribute is a common enumeration according to the enclosures.

12. A method of operating a storage front-end system, comprising:

queuing a data maintenance task that requires access to at least a first data storage device;

determining that a synchronous group of data storage devices should be activated based, at least in part, on a cyclical schedule, wherein the data storage devices of the synchronous group are located across two or more enclosures, wherein the synchronous group comprises the first data storage device, wherein data across the data storage devices is accessible by the storage front-end system as an aggregate memory space;

in response to determining that the synchronous group of data storage devices should be activated, sending an activation request to the enclosures to synchronously activate the data storage devices in the synchronous group;

receiving an indication from each of the data storage devices of the synchronous group indicating that the data storage devices of the synchronous group have been activated; and

in response to receiving the indications, dequeuing and performing the data maintenance task in the aggregate memory space of the data storage devices.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the data maintenance task is a deduplication process.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the data maintenance task is associated with a read request or a write request.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein sending the activation request includes sending the activation request to a superset of enclosures that includes the enclosures, wherein the activation request identifies the synchronous group of the data storage devices.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage memory having executable instructions stored thereon, that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

queue a data maintenance task;

determine that a synchronous group of data storage devices should be activated based, at least in part, on a cyclical schedule, wherein the data storage devices of the synchronous group are located across two or more enclosures, wherein data across the data storage devices is accessible by a storage front-end system as an aggregate memory space;

in response to a determination that the synchronous group of data storage devices should be activated, send an activation request to the enclosures to synchronously activate the data storage devices in the synchronous group;

receive an indication from each of the data storage devices of the synchronous group indicating that the data storage devices of the synchronous group have been activated; and

in response to receipt of the indications, dequeue and perform the data maintenance task in the aggregate memory space of the data storage devices.

17. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions are operable to further cause the processor to:

initiate the data maintenance task before sending the activation request, wherein the data maintenance task requires access to at least a first data storage device; and

identify the synchronous group as comprising the first data storage device.

18. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein the executable instructions are operable to further cause the processor to:

request data fragments from the data storage devices in the synchronous group;

receive and cache the data fragments from the enclosures; and

perform the data maintenance task based, at least in part, on the data fragments.

19. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 16, wherein the data maintenance task is a deduplication process.