Method and System for Predicting Storage Device Failures

• US 20150074467A1
• Filed: 09/11/2013
• Published: 03/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Jacoby, Robert B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,223,230 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• 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 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices

Abstract

The invention pertains to a method and information handling system (IHS) for predicting storage device failures. An embodiment of the method of the present invention begins by obtaining data regarding input and output of the at least one storage device. Next, the obtained data is normalized to determine a duty cycle of the at least one storage device. Finally, using the normalized data, a likelihood of failure of the at least one storage device is determined. In another example embodiment, a failure indicator is associated with the at least one storage device based upon the determined likelihood of failure.

Claims

1. A method of predicting storage device failures, the method comprising:

obtaining data regarding input and output of at least one storage device;

normalizing the obtained data to determine duty cycle of the at least one storage device; and

determining a likelihood of failure of the at least one storage device using the normalized data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtained data includes device configuration information and the obtained data comprises at least one of:

a number of reads;

a number of writes;

a size of one or more reads;

a size of one or more writes;

a number of Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) sets;

a total number of disks;

a number of disks per RAID set; and

a full/partial stripe ratio.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

associating a high, medium, or low failure indicator with the at least one storage device based upon the determined likelihood of failure.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining pre-established failure data based upon one or more hardware characteristics of the at least one storage device; and

modifying the determined likelihood of failure of the at least one storage device using the obtained pre-established failure data.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

associating a high, medium, or low failure indicator with the at least one storage device based upon the likelihood of failure determined using the normalized data; and

modifying the associated failure indicator of the at least one storage device to be one of high-plus, medium-plus, or low-plus using the pre-established failure data.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the pre-established failure data based upon one or more hardware characteristics of the at least one storage device comprises at least one of:

storage device size;

storage device speed;

storage device class; and

RAID type.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the storage device comprises two or more storage devices and the method for each of the two or more storage devices:

obtains respective data regarding input and output of the storage device;

normalizes the obtained data to determine a respective duty cycle of the storage device; and

determines a respective likelihood of failure of the storage device using the normalized data.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising for each of the two or more storage devices:

obtaining respective pre-established failure data of the storage device, the pre-established failure data based upon one or more hardware characteristics of the storage device.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising for each of the two or more storage devices:

modifying the respective determination of the likelihood of failure of the storage device using the obtained respective pre-established failure data.

10. An information handling system (IHS) comprising:

a data module configured to obtain data regarding input and output of at least one storage device;

a normalizing module communicatively coupled to the data module and configured to normalize the obtained data to determine duty cycle of the at least one storage device; and

an assessment module configured to determine a likelihood of failure of the at least one storage device using the normalized data.

11. The IHS of claim 10 wherein the obtained data includes device configuration information and the obtained data comprises at least one of:

a number of reads;

a number of writes;

a size of one or more reads;

a size of one or more writes;

a number of Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) sets;

a total number of disks;

a number of disks per RAID set; and

a full/partial stripe ratio.

12. The IHS of claim 10 wherein the assessment module is further configured to:

associate a high, medium, or low failure indicator with the at least one storage device based upon the determined likelihood of failure.

13. The IHS of claim 10 wherein:

the data module is further configured to obtain pre-established failure data based upon one or more hardware characteristics of the at least one storage device; and

the assessment module is further configured to modify the determined likelihood of failure of the at least one storage device using the obtained pre-established failure data.

14. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the assessment module is further configured to:

associate a high, medium, or low failure indicator with the at least one storage device based upon the likelihood of failure determined using the normalized data; and

modify the associated failure indicator of the at least one storage device to be one of high-plus, medium-plus, or low-plus using the pre-established failure data.

15. The IHS of claim 13 wherein the pre-established failure data based upon one or more hardware characteristics of the at least one storage device comprises at least one of:

storage device size;

storage device speed;

storage device class; and

RAID type.

16. The IHS of claim 10 wherein:

the at least one storage device comprises two or more storage devices; and

for each of the two or more storage devices;

the data module is configured to obtain respective data regarding input and output of the storage device;

the normalizing module is configured to normalize the obtained data of the storage device to determine a respective duty cycle of the storage device; and

the assessment module is configured to determine a respective likelihood of failure of the storage device using the normalized data.

17. The IHS of claim 16 wherein for each of the two or more storage devices the data module is further configured to obtain respective pre-established failure data of the storage device, the pre-established failure data based upon one or more hardware characteristics of the storage device.

18. The IHS of claim 17 wherein for each of the two or more storage devices the assessment module is further configured to modify the respective determination of the likelihood of failure of the storage device using the obtained respective pre-established failure data.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when loaded and executed by a processor coupled to an apparatus, causes the apparatus to:

obtain data regarding input and output of at least one storage device;

normalize the obtained data to determine duty cycle of the at least one storage device; and

determine a likelihood of failure of the at least one storage device using the normalized data.