Method of storage allocation, electronic device, storage system and computer program product

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11106376-B2
Application number	US-202016811530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 6, 2020
Priority date	Jan 18, 2018
Publication date	Aug 31, 2021
Grant date	Aug 31, 2021

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method of storage allocation, an electronic device, a storage system and a computer program product. The method of storage allocation includes: obtaining respective wear levels of a plurality of disks associated with a redundant array of independent disks (RAID). The method further includes: determining respective spare extents in disk extents of the plurality of disks based on the obtained wear levels, such that a number of spare extents in a disk is positively correlated with the wear level of the disk. The method also includes: selecting, from disk extents other than the spare extents, a predetermined number of disk extents for creating RAID extents for the RAID, the predetermined number of disk extents being from different disks of the plurality of disks. Through the embodiments of the present disclosure, a life cycle of a disk is prolonged, frequent replacement of worn disks with new disks is avoided, and data loss is reduced.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
defining a pool of storage drives for storing data in accordance with a mapped redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrangement;
determining wear levels of respective ones of the storage drives in the pool; and
allocating different numbers of spare extents to different ones of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on their respective wear levels;
wherein the method is performed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting particular extents other than the allocated spare extents from particular ones of the storage drives for use in the mapped RAID arrangement.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a first one of the storage drives having a relatively high wear level is allocated a higher number of spare extents than a second one of the storage drives having a relatively low wear level.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the numbers of spare extents allocated to respective ones of the storage drives are positively correlated with the respective wear levels of those storage drives.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the storage drives in the pool comprises a plurality of drive extents with each such drive extent comprising a fixed-sized, non-overlapping segment of a storage space of the storage drive and wherein the plurality of drive extents of a given one of the storage drives comprises the spare extents allocated to that storage drive and other ones of the drive extents selected for utilization in the mapped RAID arrangement.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the mapped RAID arrangement comprises a plurality of RAID extents with each such RAID extent comprising a fixed-sized, non-overlapping segment of the mapped RAID arrangement and wherein a given one of the RAID extents comprises a designated number of drive extents selected from different ones of the storage drives.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein allocating different numbers of spare extents to different ones of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on their respective wear levels comprises:
determining an average wear level of storage drives in the pool;
determining an average number of spare extents of the storage drives in the pool; and
allocating a particular number of spare extents to a given one of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on the average wear level, the average number of spare extents and the wear level of the given storage drive.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein allocating a particular number of spare extents to the given storage drive comprises:
in response to the wear level of the given storage drive being equal to the average wear level, determining the number as equal to the average number of spare extents;
in response to the wear level of the given storage drive being greater than the average wear level, determining the number as greater than the average number of spare extents; and
in response to the wear level of the given storage drive being less than the average wear level, determining the number as less than the average number of spare extents.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein determining the average number of spare extents of the storage drives in the pool comprises:
determining a total capacity of the spare extents based on a difference between a total capacity of the storage drives and a capacity required for the mapped RAID arrangement;
determining a total number of the spare extents based on a ratio of the total capacity of the spare extents to a capacity of a single extent; and
determining the average number of spare extents based on a ratio of the total number of the spare extents to a total number of the storage drives.

10. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory;
said at least one processing device being configured:
to define a pool of storage drives for storing data in accordance with a mapped redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrangement;
to determine wear levels of respective ones of the storage drives in the pool; and
to allocate different numbers of spare extents to different ones of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on their respective wear levels.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising selecting particular extents other than the allocated spare extents from particular ones of the storage drives for use in the mapped RAID arrangement.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein a first one of the storage drives having a relatively high wear level is allocated a higher number of spare extents than a second one of the storage drives having a relatively low wear level.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the numbers of spare extents allocated to respective ones of the storage drives are positively correlated with the respective wear levels of those storage drives.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein allocating different numbers of spare extents to different ones of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on their respective wear levels comprises:
determining an average wear level of storage drives in the pool;
determining an average number of spare extents of the storage drives in the pool; and
allocating a particular number of spare extents to a given one of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on the average wear level, the average number of spare extents and the wear level of the given storage drive.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code, when executed by at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory, causes said at least one processing device:
to define a pool of storage drives for storing data in accordance with a mapped redundant array of independent disks (RAID) arrangement;
to determine wear levels of respective ones of the storage drives in the pool; and
to allocate different numbers of spare extents to different ones of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on their respective wear levels.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the program code when executed by said at least one processing device further causes said at least one processing device to select particular extents other than the allocated spare extents from particular ones of the storage drives for use in the mapped RAID arrangement.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein a first one of the storage drives having a relatively high wear level is allocated a higher number of spare extents than a second one of the storage drives having a relatively low wear level.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the numbers of spare extents allocated to respective ones of the storage drives are positively correlated with the respective wear levels of those storage drives.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein allocating different numbers of spare extents to different ones of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on their respective wear levels comprises:
determining an average wear level of storage drives in the pool;
determining an average number of spare extents of the storage drives in the pool; and
allocating a particular number of spare extents to a given one of the storage drives in the pool based at least in part on the average wear level, the average number of s

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Xu Xinlei
• Gao Jian
• Jia Ruiyong
• Li Liam
• Liu Yousheng
• Gao Hongpo

Classifications

• G06F3/0689 Primary

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

• G06F3/0629

  Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0613

  in relation to throughput · CPC title

• G06F11/3442

  for planning or managing the needed capacity · CPC title

• G06F3/0616

  in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF] · CPC title