System and method for datacenters disaster recovery

• US 9,697,091 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2016
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: StorONE, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: StorONE, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kipnis, Tal, Loewenberg, Guy, Gordon, Raz
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehne, Charles
• Application Number:
  US15/237,253
• Publication Number:
  US 20160357644A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/885 Monitoring specific for caches

Abstract

Method and system for asynchronously dispersing Disaster Recovery (DR) enabling data between a plurality of storage sites. The method comprises: receiving, at a primary storage site, a written block and a write frequency counter associated with the written block. In case the write frequency counter is below a threshold: receiving information dispersal parameters including number indicative of a size difference between said written block and DR enabling data based on said written block; number of slices to slice said DR enabling data into and data indicative of DR storage sites of said plurality of storage sites for storing said slices. Further calculating DR enabling data based on written block, wherein DR enabling data is larger than said written block by size difference; slicing DR enabling data in accordance with number of slices; and dispersing slices in accordance with data indicative of DR storage sites.

Claims

1. A method for asynchronously dispersing Disaster Recovery (DR) enabling data between a plurality of storage sites, the method comprising:

receiving, at a primary storage site of said plurality of storage sites, a written block and a write frequency counter associated with said written block, wherein said write frequency counter is indicative of a number of writes to said written block within a certain time window;

in case the write frequency counter is below a threshold, performing the following;

receiving information dispersal parameters including;

(a) a number indicative of a size difference between said written block and DR enabling data based on said written block (b) a number of slices to slice said DR enabling data into and (c) data indicative of DR storage sites of said plurality of storage sites for storing said slices, wherein at least one of said DR storage sites is a remote storage site and wherein said DR storage sites are associated with said primary storage site;

calculating said DR enabling data based on said written block, wherein said DR enabling data is larger than said written block by said size difference;

slicing said DR enabling data in accordance with said number of slices; and

dispersing said slices in accordance with said data indicative of said DR storage sites.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in case the write frequency indicator is above said threshold, caching said written block at said primary storage site and increasing an overwrite counter associated with said written block.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

receiving an indication of available bandwidth between said primary storage site and at least one of said DR storage sites;

selecting a cached block to disperse to said at least one of said DR storage sites;

dispersing slices of DR enabling data based on said cached block to said at least one of said DR storage sites, respectively, based on said data indicative of said DR storage sites of said plurality of storage sites for storing said slices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said cached block is associated with the lowest overwrite counter.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said primary storage site comprises a plurality of cached blocks and wherein the method further comprising:

receiving a cache flush request;

dispersing slices of DR enabling data based on each of said plurality of cached blocks to said DR storage sites, respectively.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

receiving acknowledgements indicative of write success from each of said DR storage sites;

upon receipt of acknowledgements from each of said DR storage sites, sending a consistent generation number notification to said primary storage site and to said DR storage sites, wherein said consistent generation number notification is indicative of a generation number for which said primary storage site and said DR storage sites are consistent.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a Service Level Specification (SLS) including DR requirements, wherein said information dispersal parameters are calculated also based on said SLS in order to enable dispersing said slices while meeting said SLS.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising recalculating said information dispersal parameters upon breach of said SLS.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold is pre-determined or calculated.

10. A computer node configured to asynchronously disperse Disaster Recovery (DR) enabling data between a plurality of storage sites, said computer node comprising at least one processing resource configured to:

receive, at a primary storage site of said plurality of storage sites, a written block and a write frequency counter associated with said written block, wherein said write frequency counter is indicative of a number of writes to said written block within a certain time window;

in case the write frequency counter is below a threshold, performing the following;

receive information dispersal parameters including;

(a) a number indicative of a size difference between said written block and DR enabling data based on said written block (b) a number of slices to slice said DR enabling data into and (c) data indicative of DR storage sites of said plurality of storage sites for storing said slices, wherein at least one of said DR storage sites is a remote storage site and wherein said DR storage sites are associated with said primary storage site;

calculate said DR enabling data, based on said written block wherein said DR enabling data is larger than said written block by said size difference;

slice said DR enabling data in accordance with said number of slices; and

disperse said slices in accordance with said data indicative of said DR storage sites.

11. The computer node of claim 10, wherein said at least one processing resource is further configured, in case the write frequency indicator is above said threshold, to cache said written block at said primary storage site and increase an overwrite counter associated with said written block.

12. The computer node of claim 11, wherein said at least one processing resource is further configured to:

receive an indication of available bandwidth between said primary storage site and at least one of said DR storage sites;

select a cached block to disperse to said at least one of said DR storage sites;

disperse slices of DR enabling data based on said cached block to said at least one of said DR storage sites, respectively, based on said data indicative of said DR storage sites of said plurality of storage sites for storing said slices.

13. The computer node of claim 12, wherein said cached block is associated with the lowest overwrite counter.

14. The computer node of claim 11, wherein said primary storage site comprises a plurality of cached blocks and wherein said at least one processing resource is further configured to:

receive a cache flush request;

disperse slices of DR enabling data based on each of said plurality of cached blocks to said DR storage sites, respectively.

15. The computer node of claim 14, wherein said at least one processing resource is further configured to:

receive acknowledgements indicative of write success from each of said DR storage sites;

upon receipt of acknowledgements from each of said DR storage sites, send a consistent generation number notification to said primary storage site and to said DR storage sites, wherein said consistent generation number notification is indicative of a generation number for which said primary storage site and said DR storage sites are consistent.

16. The computer node of claim 10, wherein said at least one processing resource is further configured to receive a Service Level Specification (SLS) including DR requirements, wherein said information dispersal parameters are calculated also based on said SLS in order to enable dispersing said slices while meeting said SLS.

17. The computer node of claim 16, wherein said at least one processing resource is further configured to recalculate said information dispersal parameters upon breach of said SLS.

18. The computer node of claim 10, wherein the threshold is pre-determined or calculated.