Estimating data storage device lifespan

• US 9,436,571 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2014
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Slik, David
• Primary Examiner(s): MASKULINSKI, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US14/276,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20150331775A1
• Time in Patent Office: 847 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0703 Error or fault processing not based on redundancy, i.e. by taking additional measures to deal with the error or fault not making use of redundancy in operation, in hardware, or in data representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2058 using more than 2 mirrored copies
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; 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], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3089 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3471 Address tracing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/855 Details of asynchronous mirroring using a journal to transfer not-yet-mirrored changes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• 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

Abstract

In at least one embodiment, a method of metering lifespan consumption of data storage devices in a multiple-data-storage-devices enclosure is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a storage access request; identifying a first data storage device within the enclosure as being targeted by the storage access request, wherein the enclosure includes two or more data storage devices; accessing the first data storage device in response to the storage access request; and in response to the identifying or the accessing, updating a record of a lifespan consumption meter assigned to the first data storage device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a storage access request;

identifying a data storage device within an enclosure as being targeted by the storage access request, wherein the enclosure includes a plurality of data storage devices;

accessing the data storage device in response to the storage access request;

in response to the identifying or the accessing, updating a record of a lifespan consumption meter associated with the data storage device;

determining, by a processing component of the enclosure, a risk factor for failure based, at least in part, on the record, wherein the risk factor is associated with the data storage device; and

sending the risk factor from the enclosure to a storage front-end system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the risk factor is in response to receiving the storage access request from the storage front-end system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying an activation schedule for the data storage device based, at least in part, on the risk factor.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the risk factor surpasses a threshold; and

in response to determining that the risk factor surpasses a threshold, performing a data protection process that includes the data storage device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data protection process comprises migrating or replicating data from the data storage device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage access request is a write request, wherein updating the record comprises updating a write access counter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage access request is a read request, wherein updating the record comprises updating a read access counter.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the record comprises updating a written data size counter based, at least in part, on an amount of data associated with the storage access request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the record comprises updating a read data size counter based, at least in part, on an amount of data associated with the storage access request.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

activating the data storage device;

wherein updating the record comprises updating an activation counter in response to activating the data storage device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising deactivating the data storage device after executing the storage access request;

wherein updating the record comprises updating a deactivation counter in response to deactivating the data storage device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

activating the data storage device; and

deactivating the data storage device after continuous operation of the data storage device since the activating of the data storage device;

wherein updating the record comprises updating a total uptime counter based, at least in part, on a time of the continuous operation.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the record to a storage front-end system.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a plurality of data storage devices; and

a machine-readable medium having instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to;

receive, from a storage front-end system, a storage access request;

identify a data storage device of the plurality of data storage devices based, at least in part, on the storage access request;

access the data storage device in response to the storage access request;

in response to the identifying or the accessing of the data storage device, update a record of a lifespan consumption meter associated with the data storage device; and

send at least one of the record or a risk factor to a storage front-end system, wherein the risk factor is based, at least in part, on the record, wherein the risk factor is associated with the data storage device.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to send at least one of the record or the risk factor occur in response to receipt of the storage access request from the storage front-end system.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the storage access request is a write request;

wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update the record comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update a write access counter.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the storage access request is a read request, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update the record comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update a read access counter.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update the record comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update a written data size counter based, at least in part, on an amount of data associated with the storage access request.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update the record comprises instructions executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to update a read data size counter based, at least in part, on an amount of data associated with the storage access request.

20. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media having program code for metering a lifespan of data storage devices stored therein, the program code to:

receive, from a storage front-end system, a storage access request;

identify a data storage device of a plurality of data storage devices based, at least in part, on the storage access request;

access the data storage device in response to the storage access request;

in response to the identifying or the accessing of the data storage device, update a record of a lifespan consumption meter associated with the data storage device; and

send at least one of the record or a risk factor to a storage front-end system, wherein the risk factor is based, at least in part, on the record, wherein the risk factor is associated with the data storage device.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable media claim 20, wherein the program code to send at least one of the record or the risk factor occurs in response to receipt of the storage access request from the storage front-end system.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable media claim 20, wherein the storage access request is a write request;

wherein the program code to update the record comprises program code to update a write access counter.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable media claim 20, wherein the storage access request is a read request, wherein the program code to update the record comprises program code to update a read access counter.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable media claim 20, wherein the program code to update the record comprises program code to update a written data size counter based, at least in part, on an amount of data associated with the storage access request.