EVENT PROCESSING IN A FLASH MEMORY-BASED OBJECT STORE

• US 20110283045A1
• Filed: 04/11/2011
• Published: 11/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SanDisk Enterprise IP LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: KRISHNAN, Manavalan, Dinker, Darpan, O'Krafka, Brian W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5018 Thread allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

Approaches for processing an event in an objects store, such as an MySQL database management system or a memcached caching system, that are maintained on one or more solid state devices. A plurality of threads may be instantiated. Each of the threads may be configured to retrieve items from a queue of items. Each item in the queue of items may be associated with a particular event occurring within the object store. Each event is a message that indicates an activity requiring work has occurred within the object store. When a particular thread retrieves an item from the queue of items, the particular thread processes the particular event associated with the item retrieved by the particular thread. In this way, event handling in object stores such as MySQL and memcached may be performed more efficiently on a solid state device.

Claims

1. A method for processing an event in a MySQL database management system that is stored on one or more solid state devices, comprising:

instantiating a plurality of threads that are each configured to retrieve items from a queue of items, wherein each item in the queue of items is associated with a particular event occurring within the MySQL database management system, and wherein the particular event is a message that indicates an activity requiring work has occurred within the MySQL database management system; and

in response to a particular thread, of the plurality of threads, retrieving an item from the queue of items, the particular thread processing the particular event associated with the item retrieved by the particular thread.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular event is related to a second event, and wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the event dispatcher adding an item associated with the second event to the queue of items, preventing any thread other than the particular thread from processing the item associated with the second event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of connections to the MySQL database management system is different than the number threads in the plurality of threads.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular event is a network based interrupt.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein data blocks, which store data for the MySQL database management system, have a configurable size.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular event is a request to change the data block size for a data block in the MySQL database management system.

7. A method for processing a message in a memcached caching system implemented on one or more solid state devices, comprising:

on a solid state device, instantiating a plurality of threads that are each configured to retrieve messages from a queue of messages, wherein each message in the queue of messages is associated with an event occurring within the memcached caching system, and wherein each event indicates an activity requiring work which has occurred within the memcached caching system; and

in response to a particular thread, of the plurality of threads, retrieving a message from the queue of items, the particular thread processing the event associated with the message retrieved by the particular thread.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the particular event is related to a second event, and wherein the method further comprises:

preventing any thread other than the particular thread from processing the message associated with the second event.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein data blocks, which store data for the memcached caching system, have a configurable size.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the particular event is a request to change the data block size for a data block in the memcached caching system.

11. A machine readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for processing an event in a MySQL database management system that is stored on one or more solid state devices, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes:

instantiating a plurality of threads that are each configured to retrieve items from a queue of items, wherein items are added to the queue of items by an event dispatcher, wherein each item in the queue of items is associated with a particular event occurring within the MySQL database management system, and wherein the particular event is a message that indicates an activity requiring work has occurred within the MySQL database management system; and

in response to a particular thread, of the plurality of threads, retrieving an item from the queue of items, the particular thread processing the particular event associated with the item retrieved by the particular thread.

12. The machine readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the particular event is related to a second event, and wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions further causes:

in response to the event dispatcher adding an item associated with the second event to the queue of items, preventing any thread other than the particular thread from processing the item associated with the second event.

13. The machine readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the number of connections to the MySQL database management system is different than the number threads in the plurality of threads.

14. The machine readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the particular event is a network based interrupt.

15. The machine readable storage medium of claim 11, which store data for the MySQL database management system, have a configurable size.

16. The machine readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the particular event is a request to change the data block size for a data block in the MySQL database management system.

17. A machine readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for processing a message in a memcached caching system implemented on one or more solid state devices, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions machine readable storage medium causes:

on a solid state device, instantiating a plurality of threads that are each configured to retrieve messages from a queue of messages, wherein each message in the queue of messages is associated with an event occurring within the memcached caching system, and wherein each event indicates an activity requiring work which has occurred within the memcached caching system; and

in response to a particular thread, of the plurality of threads, retrieving a message from the queue of items, the particular thread processing the event associated with the message retrieved by the particular thread.

18. The machine readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the particular event is related to a second event, and wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions further causes:

preventing any thread other than the particular thread from processing the message associated with the second event.

19. The machine readable storage medium of claim 17, which store data for the memcached caching system, have a configurable size.

20. The machine readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the particular event is a request to change the data block size for a data block in the memcached caching system.

21. A method for servicing a request for performance of a database operation, comprising:

upon determining that a particular database client connection is requesting the performance of a database operation against a MySQL database, determining which worker thread, of a pool of worker threads, should perform the database operation,

wherein the worker thread is not dedicated to performing all work requested by the particular database client connection.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

persistently maintaining a per-connection state for the particular database client connection while the particular database client connection exists,

wherein the per-connection state includes any database per-transaction state; and

upon the particular database client connection being serviced by a different worker thread than a current worker thread currently performing work for the particular database client connection, the different worker thread accessing the per-connection state prior to performing work for the particular database client connection.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the particular database client connection is currently being serviced by a current worker thread, and further comprising:

determining whether certain work requested by the particular database client connection is a sequential request or a non-sequential request;

upon determining that the certain work requested by the particular database client connection is a sequential request, then dispatching the certain work to the current worker thread; and

upon determining that the certain work requested by the particular database client connection is a non-sequential request, then dispatching the certain work to a different worker thread than the current worker thread.