Storage control interposers in data storage systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10866923-B2
Application number	US-201916553363-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2019
Priority date	Jun 10, 2016
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatuses, and architectures for storage interposers are provided herein. In one example, an apparatus includes a host connector configured to couple to one or more host systems over associated host Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interfaces, and PCIe switch circuitry configured to receive storage operations over the host connector that are issued by the one or more host systems. The PCIe switch circuitry is configured to monitor when ones of the storage operations correspond to an address range and responsively indicate the ones of the storage operations to a control module. The control module is configured to selectively direct delivery of the ones of the storage operations to corresponding storage areas among one or more storage devices based at least on addressing information monitored for the ones of the storage operations in the PCIe switch circuitry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a host connector configured to couple to one or more host systems over associated host Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interfaces;
PCIe switch circuitry configured to receive storage operations over the host connector that are issued by the one or more host systems;
the PCIe switch circuitry configured to monitor when ones of the storage operations correspond to an address range and responsively indicate the ones of the storage operations to a control module;
the control module configured to selectively direct delivery of the ones of the storage operations to corresponding storage areas among one or more storage devices based at least on addressing information monitored for the ones of the storage operations in the PCIe switch circuitry; and
responsive to detecting a power loss that affects the one or more storage devices, the control module configured to emulate one or more of the host systems to inject control traffic onto interfaces of the one or more storage devices to control a data commit process of the one or more storage devices.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising:
the PCIe switch circuitry configured to monitor addressing information associated with the storage operations to monitor when ones of the storage operations correspond to the address range.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising:
the PCIe switch circuitry configured to provide an address trap for the storage operations based at least on the address range associated with the storage operations, wherein when the ones of the storage operations correspond to the address trap, the PCIe switch circuitry directs ones of the storage operations to the interposer control module over the control interface.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , comprising:
the control module configured to provide host-to-host communication based at least in part on the ones of the storage operations directed to the control module using the address trap.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the host-to-host communication comprises resource locking communications for storage resource exclusivity among the one or more storage devices.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module is communicatively coupled to the one or more hosts via the PCIe switch circuitry and coupled to drive PCIe interfaces, and wherein the PCIe switch circuitry directs the storage operations to the one or more storage devices through the control module.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module is communicatively coupled to the one or more hosts via the PCIe switch circuitry and further PCIe switch circuitry that communicatively couples drive PCIe interfaces to the control module, and wherein the PCIe switch circuitry directs the storage operations to the one or more storage devices through the control module.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module comprises the PCIe switch circuitry, wherein the control module is communicatively coupled to the one or more hosts via the PCIe switch circuitry and coupled to drive PCIe interfaces via further PCIe switch circuitry separate from the control module, and wherein the control module directs the storage operations to the one or more storage devices through the further PCIe switch circuitry.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control module comprises the PCIe switch circuitry, wherein the control module is communicatively coupled to the one or more hosts via the PCIe switch circuitry, wherein the control module comprises further PCIe switch circuitry that couples the control module to drive PCIe interfaces, and wherein the control module directs the storage operations to the one or more storage devices through the further PCIe switch circuitry.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the storage operations are configured to pass through the control module before reaching the one or more storage devices; and comprising:
the control module further configured to apply one or more data functions to data included in the storage operations after receipt from the one or more host systems and prior to transfer of the storage operations to the one or more storage devices.

11. A method, comprising:
receiving storage operations over a host connector that are issued by at least two host systems and directed to one or more storage devices;
monitoring when ones of the storage operations correspond to an address range and responsively providing host-to-host communication based at least in part on the ones of the storage operations that correspond to the address range, wherein the host-to-host communication comprises resource locking communications for storage resource exclusivity among a shared storage space shared among the two host systems and provided by the one or more storage devices; and
responsive to detecting a power loss that affects the one or more storage devices, emulating one or more of the host systems to inject control traffic onto interfaces of the one or more storage devices to control a data commit process of the one or more storage devices.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
responsive to a first host system establishing a resource lock on the shared storage space, directing storage operations issued by the first host system to the shared storage space and blocking storage operations issued by a second host system from the shared storage space.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
responsive to the first host system releasing the resource lock on the shared storage space or the second host system establishing the resource lock on the shared storage space, directing storage operations issued by the second host system to the shared storage space and blocking storage operations issued by the first host system from the shared storage space.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
before directing the storage operations issued by the first host system to the shared storage space, applying one or more data functions to storage data included in the storage operations issued by the first host system.

15. A storage system, comprising:
one or more connectors for communication with at least two host systems;
one or more storage devices each comprising a device interface and storage media;
interface circuitry configured to receive storage operations over the one or more connectors that are issued by the at least two host systems and transfer the storage operations for storage by the one or more storage devices;
control circuitry configured to monitor the storage operations and selectively control delivery of first ones of the storage operations associated with a first host system to a first storage area of the one or more storage devices and second ones of the storage operations associated with a second host system to a second storage area of the one or more storage devices; and
responsive to detecting a power loss of the storage system, the control circuitry configured emulate one or more of the host systems to inject control traffic into the interface circuitry for transfer over associated device interfaces of the one or more storage devices to control a data commit process of the one or more storage devices.

16. The storage system of claim 15 , comprising:
the control circuitry configured to monitor the storage operations received by the interface circuitry to identify third ones of the storage operations transferred by the at least two host systems for communication between the at least two host systems, and responsively direct the third ones of the storage operations to a third st

Assignees

• Liqid Inc

Inventors

• Long Christopher R
• Clark Phillip
• Breakstone Jason
• Wang Huiji
• Puri Sumit

Classifications

• G06F13/4022

  using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network (G06F13/4009 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F2213/0026

  PCI express · CPC title

• G06F13/4282 Primary

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title

• G06F13/16

  for access to memory bus (G06F13/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F13/14

  Handling requests for interconnection or transfer · CPC title