Using foster slice strategies for increased power efficiency

• US 9,733,853 B2
• Filed: 11/04/2016
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wozniak, Ethan S., Resch, Jason K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): STILTNER, WEIWEI YE
• Application Number:
  US15/343,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20170052728A1
• Time in Patent Office: 284 Days
• Field of Search: 709213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units 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 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/22 Detection or location of defective computer hardware by testing during standby operation or during idle time, e.g. start-up testing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2221 to test input/output devices or peripheral units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/28 by checking the correct order of processing G06F11/08 - G06F11/26 take precedence; monitoring patterns of pulse trains H03K5/19
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• 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 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/80 in storage media based on magnetic or optical technology, e.g. disks with sectors preventing unauthorised reproduction or copying of disc-type recordable media G11B20/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/033 Test or assess software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/034 Test or assess a computer or a system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2129 : Authenticate client device independently of the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 : Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 : Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 : in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 : Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 : Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 : Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 : Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 : Monitoring storage devices or systems
• 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: H03M 13/1515 : Reed-Solomon codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/16 : in which the return channel carries supervisory signals, e.g. repetition request signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 : Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 : by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 : Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 : Access control lists [ACL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 : Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 : Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 : specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 : 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/085 : Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 : Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 : comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers 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: H04N 21/23116 : involving data replication, e.g. over plural servers synchronization of replicated data G06F11/1658; error detection or correction by means of data replication G06F11/2053; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/10; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/27; replication or mirroring of data in data networks H04L67/1095
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/232 : Content retrieval operation locally within server, e.g. reading video streams from disk arrays storage management G06F3/0604; details of querying and searching of video data from a database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/274 : Storing end-user multimedia data in response to end-user request , e.g. network recorder

Abstract

A method for a dispersed storage network (DSN) begins by selecting a first subset of storage units for temporary deactivation based on a write threshold number. The method continues by issuing a request message to temporarily deactivate the selected first subset storage units as deactivated storage units and, while the first subset of storage units are deactivated, maintaining a write threshold number of encoded data slices for each set of encoded data slices of data in remaining storage units and detecting, as new data is stored to the remaining storage units, a storage imbalance between the remaining storage units and the deactivated storage units. The method continues by selecting a second subset of storage units for temporary deactivation, issuing a request message to the deactivated storage units to reactivate the deactivated storage units as reactivated storage units, facilitating storage rebalancing and temporarily deactivating the second subset of storage units.

Claims

1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

selecting a first subset of storage units of a storage unit set for temporary deactivation based on a write threshold number;

issuing a request message to the first subset of storage units to temporarily deactivate the selected first subset storage units as deactivated storage units;

maintaining, while the first subset of storage units are deactivated, a write threshold number of encoded data slices for each set of encoded data slices of data in remaining storage units;

detecting, as new data is stored to the remaining storage units, a storage imbalance between the remaining storage units and the deactivated storage units;

selecting a second subset of storage units for temporary deactivation;

issuing a request message to the deactivated storage units to reactivate the deactivated storage units as reactivated storage units;

facilitating storage rebalancing by storing slices in the reactivated storage units; and

issuing a request message to the second subset of storage units to temporarily deactivate the second subset of storage units.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting a first subset of storage units of the storage unit set for temporary deactivation is based on a power savings mode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting is any of:

random, predetermined, a request, a schedule, round robin, or interpreting storage unit info to identify power usage.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the issuing includes issuing storage unit information that includes a de-activation request.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintaining includes generating and storing for new data or rebuilding for slice errors to a write threshold number.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting includes any of detecting:

a difference between storage utilization that is greater than a difference threshold level, that a storage timeframe has expired, or interpreting an error message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the issuing includes generating another storage unit information message that includes a request to reactivate.

8. A computing device of a group of computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the computing device comprises:

an interface;

a local memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the interface and the local memory, wherein the processing module functions to;

select a first subset of storage units of a storage unit set for temporary deactivation based on a write threshold number;

issue a request message to the first subset of storage units to temporarily deactivate the selected first subset storage units as deactivated storage units;

maintain, while the first subset of storage units are deactivated, a write threshold number of encoded data slices for each set of encoded data slices of data in remaining storage units;

detect, as new data is stored to the remaining storage units, a storage imbalance between the remaining storage units and the deactivated storage units;

select a second subset of storage units for temporary deactivation;

issue a request message to the deactivated storage units to reactivate the deactivated storage units as reactivated storage units;

facilitate storage rebalancing by storing slices in the reactivated storage units; and

issue a request message to the second subset of storage units to temporarily deactivate the second subset of storage units.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the select a first subset of storage units of the storage unit set for temporary deactivation is based on a power savings mode.

10. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the selecting is based on any of:

random, predetermined, a request, a schedule, round robin, or interpreting storage unit info to identify power usage.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the issuing includes issuing storage unit information that includes a de-activation request.

12. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the maintaining includes any of:

generating and storing for new data or rebuilding for slice errors to a write threshold number.

13. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the detecting includes any of detecting:

a difference between storage utilization that is greater than a difference threshold level, that a storage timeframe has expired, or interpreting an error message.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the issuing includes generating another storage unit information message that includes a request to reactivate.