Member replacement in an array of information storage devices

• US 9,519,556 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2014
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Joshi, Neeraj, Karrotu, Vishnu M., Chakkravarthy, Kavi K.
• Primary Examiner(s): GUYTON, PHILIP A
• Application Number:
  US14/481,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20160070628A1
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• 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 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0629 Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

An information handling system includes a method for detecting a predictive failure indication for a predictive failure indicated physical disk of a disk group, determining an amount of used storage capacity of a lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, and comparing a replacement physical disk storage capacity of a replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity. When the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the used storage capacity even if the replacement physical disk capacity is less than a lowest storage capacity of the lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, replacing the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a predictive failure indication for a predictive failure indicated physical disk of a disk group in an information storage subsystem;

determining an amount of used storage capacity of a lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group;

comparing a replacement physical disk storage capacity of a replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity;

when the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the used storage capacity even if the replacement physical disk capacity is less than a lowest storage capacity of the lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, replacing the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk; and

when a higher capacity replacement physical disk having a higher capacity than the lowest storage capacity becomes available, replacing the replacement physical disk with the higher capacity replacement physical disk.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when the replacement physical disk capacity is not greater than or equal to the used storage capacity, preventing replacement of the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

comparing the replacement physical disk storage capacity to the lowest storage capacity; and

when the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the lowest storage capacity, replacing the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the replacement physical disk is of a compatible type exhibiting compatibility with a type of the predictive failure indicated physical disk; and

when the replacement physical disk is not of the compatible type exhibiting compatibility with the type of the predictive failure indicated physical disk, preventing replacement of the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacing the replacement physical disk with the higher capacity replacement physical disk is performed in absence of a fault indication for the replacement physical disk.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the comparing the replacement physical disk storage capacity to the lowest storage capacity is performed before the comparing the replacement physical disk storage capacity of the replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity.

7. An information handling system comprising:

a disk group comprising an array of physical disks, the physical disks comprising a predictive failure indicated physical disk and a lowest capacity physical disk; and

a disk controller coupled to the disk group, the disk controller configured to detect a predictive failure indication for the predictive failure indicated physical disk of the disk group, to determine an amount of used storage capacity of the lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, to compare a replacement physical disk storage capacity of a replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity, and, when the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the used storage capacity even if the replacement physical disk capacity is less than a lowest storage capacity of the lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, to replace the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk, wherein the disk controller is configured to compare the replacement physical disk storage capacity to the lowest storage capacity before comparing the replacement physical disk storage capacity of the replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity.

8. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the disk controller is further configured, when the replacement physical disk capacity is not greater than or equal to the used storage capacity, to prevent replacement of the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

9. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the disk controller is further configured to compare the replacement physical disk storage capacity to the lowest storage capacity, and, when the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the lowest storage capacity, to replace the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

10. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the disk controller is further configured to determine whether the replacement physical disk is of a compatible type exhibiting compatibility with a type of the predictive failure indicated physical disk, and, when the replacement physical disk is not of the compatible type exhibiting compatibility with the type of the predictive failure indicated physical disk, to prevent replacement of the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

11. The information handling system of claim 7, wherein the disk controller is further configured, when a higher capacity replacement physical disk having a higher capacity than the lowest storage capacity becomes available, to replace the replacement physical disk with the higher capacity replacement physical disk.

12. The information handling system of claim 11, wherein disk controller is configured to replace the replacement physical disk with the higher capacity replacement physical disk in absence of a fault indication for the replacement physical disk.

13. A nontransitory computer readable medium comprising instruction code executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

detect a predictive failure indication for a predictive failure indicated physical disk of a disk group in an information storage subsystem;

determine an amount of used storage capacity of a lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group;

compare a replacement physical disk storage capacity of a replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity;

when the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the used storage capacity even if the replacement physical disk capacity is less than a lowest storage capacity of the lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, to replace the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk; and

when a higher capacity replacement physical disk having a higher capacity than the lowest storage capacity becomes available, to replace the replacement physical disk with the higher capacity replacement physical disk.

14. The nontransitory computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising instruction code executable by the processor to cause the processor, when the replacement physical disk capacity is not greater than or equal to the used storage capacity, to prevent replacement of the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

15. The nontransitory computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising instruction code executable by the processor to cause the processor to compare the replacement physical disk storage capacity to the lowest storage capacity, and, when the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the lowest storage capacity, to replace the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

16. The nontransitory computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising instruction code executable by the processor to cause the processor to determine whether the replacement physical disk is of a compatible type exhibiting compatibility with a type of the predictive failure indicated physical disk, and, when the replacement physical disk is not of the compatible type exhibiting compatibility with the type of the predictive failure indicated physical disk, to prevent replacement of the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk.

17. The nontransitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instruction code executable by the processor to cause the processor to replace the replacement physical disk with the higher capacity replacement physical disk is performed in absence of a fault indication for the replacement physical disk.