Automatic expansion of hard disk drive capacity in a storage device

• US 7,681,007 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rustagi, Viresh, Wilson, Christopher S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Matt
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fishburn; John P
• Application Number:
  US11/106,840
• Publication Number:
  US 20050235128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,796 Days
• Field of Search: 711/170, 711/112, 715/765
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1008 Graphical user interface [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

At least a method and system of automatically expanding storage capacity in a data storage device are presented. In one method, the data storage device receives additional hard disk drives. Next, the data storage device receives an expansion option from a user by way of a user interface. The data storage device allocates one or more portions of one or more hard disk drives within the storage device, for use by one or more data pools, based on the expansion option. In one system for automatically expanding storage capacity in a data storage device, the system comprises a memory, one or more processors, and one or more software. One or more data pools are generated using one or more hard disk drives added to the data storage device.

Claims

1. A method of automatically expanding storage capacity in a data storage device, said data storage device comprising one or more first hard disk drives, said method comprising:

receiving one or more second hard disk drives by said data storage device;

generating a user interface to a user;

allocating one or more partitions of said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives based on an expansion option provided by said user interface; and

concatenating said one or more partitions of said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives, said concatenating resulting in one or more data pools, said partitions concatenated using one or more data pool information blocks that identify said partitions, each of said one or more data pool information blocks positioned at the beginning of each of said one or more partitions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said user interface is generated by said data storage device by way of executing one or more files using an application that identifies and selects said one or more files, said user interface generated at a computing device communicatively coupled to said data storage device, said identifying and said selecting performed by way of a mouse or keyboard.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of said one or more data pools comprises one or more shares.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said expansion option facilitates allocating one data pool to each of said one or more second hard disk drives.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said expansion option facilitates allocating one data pool over the total capacity provided by said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said expansion option facilitates allocating data from one data pool and its mirror image over the total capacity provided by said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said allocating is performed by inputting one or more parameters into said user interface.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said one or more parameters comprises hard disk drive capacities or sizes of said one or more first hard disk drives and/or said one or more second hard disk drives.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more portions comprises free disk space.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more portions comprises used disk space.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more portions comprises unallocated disk space.

12. A method of automatically configuring data storage capacity of a data storage device when one or more first hard disk drives are added to said data storage device, said data storage device containing one or more second hard disk drives, said method comprising:

first generating one or more data pools using said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives when a user selects an expansion option; and

second generating one or more shares using said one or more data pools, said one or more shares providing access to said one or more data pools, wherein authorization to a share of said one or more shares is obtained by way of receiving a password corresponding to said share from said user, said authorization performed at said data storage device, wherein said password is stored in a memory of said data storage device.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said expansion option specifies allocating one data pool per each of said one or more first hard disk drives.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said expansion option specifies allocating a single data pool using the maximum capacity provided by said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said single data pool comprises one corresponding share.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein said expansion option specifies allocating data from one data pool and its mirror image using the maximum capacity provided by said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said one data pool comprises one share.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein said one or more data pools comprises unallocated disk space.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein said one or more data pools comprises used disk space.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein said one or more data pools comprises free disk space.

21. A system of automatically expanding storage capacity in a data storage device, said data storage device comprising one or more first hard disk drives, said system comprising:

a memory;

a first software resident in said memory, said first software comprising one or more executable files;

one or more processors used to execute said first software;

one or more interfaces used to receive one or more second hard disk drives;

a second software residing in a computing device, said second software used to execute said one or more executable files, said first software capable of automatically reconfiguring data storage capacity of said one or more first and second hard disk drives after said one or more interfaces receives said one or more second hard disk drives, said first software capable of generating one or more data pools, wherein each of said one or more data pools comprises a partition from said one or more first hard disk drives and a partition from said one or more second hard disk drives.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein said first software is used to serve one or more pages from said data storage device using hypertext transfer protocol.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein said reconfiguring comprises repartitioning said one or more first and second hard disk drives.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein said repartitioning comprises adjusting used disk space of said one or more first and said one or more second hard disk drives.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein said repartitioning comprises adjusting free disk space of said one or more first and said one or more second hard disk drives.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein said repartitioning comprises adjusting unallocated disk space of said one or more first and said one or more second hard disk drives.

27. A method of automatically expanding storage capacity in a data storage device, said data storage device comprising one or more first hard disk drives, said method comprising:

first receiving one or more second hard disk drives by said data storage device;

generating a user interface to a user when said user executes one or more files;

second receiving an expansion option from said user by way of said user interface;

allocating one or more portions of said one or more first hard disk drives and/or said one or more second hard disk drives based on said expansion option; and

concatenating said one or more portions of said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives, said concatenating resulting in one or more data pools, each of said one or more data pools comprising one or more shares, wherein each of said one or more shares is cumulatively applied against the total space provided by each of said one or more data pools.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said one or more portions comprises free disk space.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein said one or more portions comprises used disk space.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein said one or more portions comprises unallocated disk space.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein said expansion option facilitates allocating one data pool to each of said one or more second hard disk drives.

32. The method of claim 27 wherein said expansion option facilitates allocating one data pool over the total capacity provided by said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives.

33. The method of claim 27 wherein said expansion option facilitates allocating data from one data pool and its mirror image over the total capacity provided by said one or more first hard disk drives and said one or more second hard disk drives.

34. The method of claim 27 wherein said allocating is performed by inputting one or more values into said user interface.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein said one or more values comprises hard disk drive capacities or sizes of said one or more first hard disk drives and/or said one or more second hard disk drives.

36. A user interface for automatically configuring data storage capacity of a data storage device when one or more hard disk drives are added to said data storage device comprising:

one or more visual indicators used for selecting an amount of used, unallocated, and free disk space allocated toward a data pool from a plurality of hard disks, said one or more visual indicators repositionable by use of a mouse, said one or more visual indicators used for adjusting storage capacity associated with said used, unallocated, and free disk space, said adjusting performable by way of pointing a cursor generated by said mouse over each of said one of said one or more visual indicators, and positioning said one or more visual indicators to a indicate a desired size representing used, unallocated, and free disk space, said each of said one of said one or more visual indicators associateable with a numerical value, said numerical value displayable on said user interface.