Method, apparatus and computer program product for managing storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11048416-B2
Application number	US-201816223736-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2018
Priority date	Apr 28, 2018
Publication date	Jun 29, 2021
Grant date	Jun 29, 2021

Abstract

A storage system is associated with at least one part of multiple storage devices in a resource pool, a part of a storage space in a storage device being inaccessible to the storage system. Techniques involve: identifying an extent within the part of the storage space in the storage device as a free extent; selecting a group of storage devices each with a free extent from the multiple storage devices in response to determining a virtual address range in the storage system as specified by an access request is inaccessible; mapping the virtual address range to a physical address range of the free extents in the group of storage devices; and allocating a storage space specified by the physical address range to the storage system. Therefore, the expansion of the resource pool can be implemented more conveniently and rapidly, and performance of the storage system can be improved.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for managing a storage system, the storage system being associated with at least one part of multiple storage devices in a resource pool, at least one part of a storage space in a storage device among the multiple storage devices being inaccessible to the storage system, wherein the storage system is a storage system based on a Redundant Array of Independent Disks, the storage system comprising multiple slices, the method comprising:
identifying an extent within the at least one part of the storage space in the storage device that is inaccessible to the storage system as a free extent when the storage device is added to the storage pool during an expansion of the storage pool, wherein the extent is inaccessible to the storage system because a mapping between the storage system and the storage device is not completely built;
in response to receiving a slice access request for a slice among the multiple slices, determining an address range of the slice on the basis of a slice allocation table of the storage system;
determining a virtual address range in the storage system on the basis of the address range of the slice, at least in part by
determining an address of a bitmap associated with the address range of the slice, a corresponding bit in the bitmap indicating whether data in a corresponding slice among the multiple slices are zero, and
determining the virtual address range on the basis of the address of the bitmap;
selecting a group of storage devices each with a free extent from the multiple storage devices in response to determining that the virtual address range in the storage system is inaccessible;
mapping the virtual address range to a physical address range of the free extents in the group of storage devices; and
allocating a storage space specified by the physical address range to the storage system and selecting a storage space for the slice from the allocated storage space;
wherein each of the multiple slices comprises a storage unit having a size equal to a predefined value that is smaller than each of the multiple extents; and
wherein the bitmap comprises a total number of bits equal to a total number of slices in the storage system.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the storage system is a storage system based on a Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and wherein selecting a group of storage devices each with a free extent from the multiple storage devices comprises:
determining the number of storage devices in the group on the basis of configuration of the Redundant Array of Independent Disks; and
selecting the group of storage devices on the basis of the number.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein selecting the group of storage devices on the basis of the number comprises:
determining the free device number of storage devices with free extents from the multiple storage devices; and
in response to determining the free device number meets the number, selecting devices storage devices with free extents as the group of storage devices from the multiple storage.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein selecting the group of storage devices on the basis of the number further comprises:
moving, to the storage device, data in a first extent in a first storage device other than the storage device in response to determining the free device number does not meet the number;
identifying the first extent as a free extent; and
increasing the free device number.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
moving, to the storage device, data in a first extent in a first storage device other than the storage device; and
identifying the first extent as a free extent.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting a bitmap space for storing the bitmap from the allocated storage space; and
in response to determining the user access is a write operation,
writing target data specified by the write operation to the slice; and
setting a bit in the bitmap, which is associated with the slice, to indicate data in the slice are non-zero.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein
a physical address of at least one part of a storage space in the new storage device has not been built an address mapping relationship with the storage system.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
generating a slice access request for each slice among the multiple slices.

9. An apparatus for managing a storage system, comprising:
at least one processor;
a volatile memory; and
a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, causing the apparatus to perform acts for managing a storage system, the storage system being associated with at least one part of multiple storage devices in a resource pool, at least one part of a storage space in a storage device among the multiple storage devices being inaccessible to the storage system, wherein the storage system is a storage system based on a Redundant Array of Independent Disks, the storage system comprising multiple slices, the acts including:
identifying an extent within the at least one part of the storage space in the storage device that is inaccessible to the storage system as a free extent when the storage is added to the storage pool during an expansion of the storage pool, wherein the extent is inaccessible to the storage system because a mapping between the storage system and the storage device is not completely built,
in response to receiving a slice access request for a slice among the multiple slices, determining an address range of the slice on the basis of a slice allocation table of the storage system,
determining a virtual address range in the storage system on the basis of the address range of the slice, at least in part by
determining an address of a bitmap associated with the address range of the slice, a corresponding bit in the bitmap indicating whether data in a corresponding slice among the multiple slices are zero, and
determining the virtual address range on the basis of the address of the bitmap,
selecting a group of storage devices each with a free extent from the multiple storage devices in response to determining that the virtual address range in the storage system as specified by an access request is inaccessible,
mapping the virtual address range to a physical address range of the free extents in the group of storage devices, and
allocating a storage space specified by the physical address range to the storage system and selecting a storage space for the slice from the allocated storage space,
wherein each of the multiple slices comprises a storage unit having a size equal to a predefined value that is smaller than each of the multiple extents, and
wherein the bitmap comprises a total number of bits equal to a total number of slices in the storage system.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the storage system is a storage system based on a Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and wherein selecting a group of storage devices each with a free extent from the multiple storage devices comprises:
determining the number of storage devices in the group on the basis of configuration of the Redundant Array of Independent Disks; and
selecting the group of storage devices on the basis of the number.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein selecting the group of storage devices on the basis of the number comprises:
determining the free device number of storage devices with free extents from the multiple storage devices; and
in response to determining the free devic

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Liu Yousheng
• Xu Xinlei
• Yang Lifeng
• Gao Jian
• Li Xiongcheng

Classifications

• G06F3/0689 Primary

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title

• G06F3/0611

  in relation to response time · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title

• G06F12/0866

  for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache · CPC title