Exposing a geometry of a storage device

• US 9,547,441 B1
• Filed: 06/23/2015
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Inventors: Kirkpatrick, Peter E., Colgrove, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Bertram, Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): KWONG, EDMUND H
• Application Number:
  US14/747,842
• Publication Number:
  US 20160378351A1
• Time in Patent Office: 574 Days
• Field of Search: 711/103, 711/156
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Exposing a geometry of a storage device, including: sending, by the storage device, information describing the layout of memory in the storage device; receiving, by the storage device, a write request, the write request associated with an amount of data sized in dependence upon the layout of memory in the storage device; and writing, by the storage device, the data to a memory unit, the data written to a location within the memory unit in dependence upon the layout of memory in the storage device.

Claims

1. A method of exposing a geometry of a storage device, the method comprising:

determining, by the storage device, a triggering event for sending, to a storage array controller, information describing a layout of memory in the storage device;

responsive to determining the triggering event for sending the information describing the layout of memory to the storage array controller, sending, by the storage device to the storage array controller, information describing the layout of memory in the storage device including a size of a writeable memory unit in the storage device;

receiving, by the storage device from the storage array controller, a write request that includes a size of data to be written and a physical address within the storage device, the physical address received from the storage array controller without address translation by the storage device, wherein the physical address is selected in dependence upon the information describing the layout of memory in the storage device and a size of data to be written is selected in dependence upon the size of the writeable memory unit in the storage device; and

writing, by the storage device, data to the physical address received from the storage array controller, wherein the physical address specifies a location in a memory unit of the storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the information describing the layout of memory in the storage device includes information describing a size of an erasable memory unit in the storage device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein writing the data to the memory unit further comprises writing the data to an unused portion of the memory unit.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein writing the data to the memory unit further comprises writing the data to an unused memory unit.

5. A storage device, the storage device configured to carry out the steps of:

determining, by the storage device, a triggering event for sending, to a storage array controller, information describing a layout of memory in the storage device;

responsive to determining the triggering event for sending the information describing the layout of memory to the storage array controller, sending, by the storage device to the storage array controller, information describing the layout of memory in the storage device including a size of a writeable memory unit in the storage device;

receiving, by the storage device from the storage array controller, a write request that includes a size of data to be written and a physical address within the storage device, the physical address received from the storage array controller without address translation by the storage device, wherein the physical address is selected in dependence upon the information describing the layout of memory in the storage device and a size of data to be written is selected in dependence upon the size of the writeable memory unit in the storage device; and

writing, by the storage device, data to the physical address received from the storage array controller, wherein the physical address specifies a location in a memory unit of the storage device.

6. The storage device of claim 5 wherein the information describing the layout of memory in the storage device includes information describing a size of an erasable memory unit in the storage device.

7. The storage device of claim 5 wherein writing the data to the memory unit further comprises writing the data to an unused portion of the memory unit.

8. The storage device of claim 5 wherein writing the data to the memory unit further comprises writing the data to an unused memory unit.

9. A computer program product, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of:

determining, by the storage device, a triggering event for sending, to a storage array controller, information describing a layout of memory in the storage device;

responsive to determining the triggering event for sending the information describing the layout of memory to the storage array controller, sending, by the storage device to the storage array controller, information describing the layout of memory in the storage device including a size of a writeable memory unit in the storage device;

receiving, by the storage device from the storage array controller, a write request that includes a size of data to be written and a physical address within the storage device, the physical address received from the storage array controller without address translation by the storage device, wherein the physical address is selected in dependence upon the information describing the layout of memory in the storage device and a size of data to be written is selected in dependence upon the size of the writeable memory unit in the storage device; and

writing, by the storage device, data to the physical address received from the storage array controller, wherein the physical address specifies a location in a memory unit of the storage device.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the information describing the layout of memory in the storage device includes information describing a size of an erasable memory unit in the storage device.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein writing the data to the memory unit further comprises writing the data to an unused portion of the memory unit.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein writing the data to the memory unit further comprises writing the data to an unused memory unit.