Storage system fabric with multichannel compute complex

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10592144-B2
Application number	US-201816054980-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2018
Priority date	Aug 3, 2018
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

Example storage systems and methods provide multichannel communication among subsystems, including a compute complex. A plurality of storage devices, a host, and a compute complex are interconnected over an interconnect fabric. The storage system is configured with a host-storage channel for communication between the host and the plurality of storage devices, host-compute channel for communication between the host and the compute complex, and a compute-storage channel for communication between the compute complex and the storage devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage system, comprising:
a compute subsystem comprising:
a subsystem processor;
a subsystem operating memory; and
a host offload services module configured to use the subsystem processor and the subsystem operating memory to execute a host offload task received over a network interface from a host system, wherein the host offload task includes data-centric processing in addition to storage controller functions for a plurality of storage devices; and

an interconnect fabric interconnecting the plurality of storage devices, the network interface, and the compute subsystem, wherein the interconnect fabric comprises:
a network communication module configured for communication through the network interface to the host system; and
a device interconnect module configured for communication with at least the plurality of storage devices; and
a channel configuration comprising:
a host-storage channel configured for communication between the host system and the plurality of storage devices that bypasses the compute subsystem;
a host-compute channel configured for communication between the host system and the compute subsystem that bypasses the plurality of storage devices; and
a compute-storage channel configured for communication between the compute subsystem and the plurality of storage devices that bypasses the host system.

2. The storage system of claim 1 ,
wherein each storage device in the plurality of storage devices comprises:
a storage processor;
a storage operating memory;
at least one storage medium; and
an interconnect interface in communication with the interconnect fabric,
wherein the channel configuration further comprises a storage-storage channel configured for communication among the plurality of storage devices that bypasses the host system and the compute subsystem.

3. The storage system of claim 2 , wherein:
each storage device in the plurality of storage devices further comprises a storage remotely addressable memory configured for access through the interconnect fabric; and
the host-storage channel is further configured for data transfers between the host system and the plurality of storage devices using the storage remotely addressable memory.

4. The storage system of claim 2 , wherein:
each storage device in the plurality of storage devices further comprises an offload services module; and
the offload services module is configured to use the storage processor and the storage operating memory to execute an offload task received over the interconnect fabric from an offloading system selected from the host system or the compute subsystem.

5. The storage system of claim 4 , wherein the offload task does not use the at least one storage medium.

6. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the interconnect fabric supports at least one communication protocol selected from:
non-volatile memory over fabric (NVMe over Fabric);
peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe);
InfiniBand (IB);
Omni-Path;
remote direct memory access (RDMA) over converged ethernet (RoCE);
Fibre Channel over fabric; and
internet wide-area RDMA protocol (iWARP).

7. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein:
the compute subsystem further comprises a compute remotely addressable memory configured for access through the interconnect fabric; and
the compute-storage channel is further configured for data transfers between the compute subsystem and the plurality of storage devices using the compute remotely addressable memory.

8. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein:
the compute subsystem further comprises a compute remotely addressable memory configured for access through the network interface; and
the host-compute channel is further configured for data transfers between the compute subsystem and the host system using the compute remotely addressable memory.

9. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the host offload task is selected from:
a data query processing offload task;
a data content processing offload task; and
a data relationship processing offload task.

10. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the compute subsystem further comprises:
a storage services module configured to use the subsystem processor and the subsystem operating memory to execute at least one storage services task for managing the plurality of storage devices.

11. The storage system of claim 10 , wherein the storage services task is selected from:
a write buffering task;
a data serialization task;
a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) management task;
a host flash translation layer (FTL) management task; and
a host logical block address management task.

12. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the compute subsystem further comprises:
at least one interface protocol driver configured to use the subsystem processor and the subsystem operating memory to execute at least one communication protocol for at least one communication channel selected from the network interface or the interconnect fabric.

13. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
interconnecting a plurality of storage devices, a host system, and a compute subsystem for communication over an interconnect fabric, wherein the compute subsystem comprises a subsystem processor and a subsystem operating memory;
configuring a host-storage channel for communication over the interconnect fabric between the host system and the plurality of storage devices that bypasses the compute subsystem;
configuring a host-compute channel for communication over the interconnect fabric between the host system and the compute subsystem that bypasses the plurality of storage devices;
configuring a compute-storage channel for communication over the interconnect fabric between the compute subsystem and the plurality of storage devices that bypasses the host system;
executing a host storage operation from the host system to the plurality of storage devices, wherein host data is transferred through the host-storage channel; and
executing a host offload task using the subsystem processor and the subsystem operating memory, wherein:
the compute subsystem receives the host offload task over the interconnect fabric from the host system; and
the host offload task includes data-centric processing in addition to storage controller functions for the plurality of storage devices.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising:
configuring a storage-storage channel for communication over the interconnect fabric among the plurality of storage devices that bypasses the host system and the compute subsystem; and
executing a peer storage operation between a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices and a second storage device of the plurality of storage devices.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein each storage device in the plurality of storage devices comprises a storage processor, a storage operating memory, and at least one storage medium, and further comprising:
executing a host offload task using the storage processor and the storage operating memory, wherein the host offload task is received over the interconnect fabric from the host system.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising:
executing at least one storage services task using the subsystem processor and the subsystem operating memory, wherein the at least one storage services task manages the plurality of storage devices over the interconnect fabric.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , further comprising:
e

Assignees

• Western Digital Tech Inc

Inventors

• Roberts Adam
• Munnangi Sivakumar
• Scaramuzzo John

Classifications

• G06F2209/509

  Offload · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F13/385 Primary

  for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices · CPC title

• G06F3/0629

  Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems · CPC title

• G06F9/50

  Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title