Data storage among a plurality of storage drives

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11366591-B2
Application number	US-202017019601-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2020
Priority date	Oct 10, 2010
Publication date	Jun 21, 2022
Grant date	Jun 21, 2022

Abstract

A data system includes a plurality of storage drives each comprising a multi-lane serial drive interface. The data system also includes a control system configured to receive, over a host link, a write operation for storage of data, process a storage address of the write operation against storage allocation information to apportion the data for storage among more than one target storage drive, and transfer corresponding portions of the data to the target storage drives.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data system, comprising:
a plurality of storage drives each comprising a multi-lane serial drive interface; and
a control system configured to receive, over a host link, a write operation for storage of data, process a storage address of the write operation against storage allocation information to apportion the data for storage among more than one target storage drive, and transfer corresponding portions of the data to the target storage drives.

2. The data system of claim 1 , wherein the host link and the drive interfaces each comprise multi-lane serial interfaces selected from among Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), InfiniBand, and FibreChannel.

3. The data system of claim 1 , comprising:
the target storage drives configured to receive the corresponding portions of the data and responsively store the corresponding portions on associated solid state storage media.

4. The data system of claim 1 , wherein apportioning the data for storage among the target storage drives comprises parallelizing the data for storage among the target storage drives.

5. The data system of claim 1 , comprising:
the control system configured to communicate with a host system over the host link to receive a read operation for retrieving data previously stored;
the control system configured to process at least a read address indicated by the read operation against storage locations indicated by the storage allocation information to determine ones of the storage drives to handle the read operation, and transfer read commands over corresponding drive interfaces to the ones of the storage drives;
the storage drives configured to receive associated ones of the read commands, and in response, retrieve read data from associated storage media and transfer the read data to the control system for delivery to the host system over the host link.

6. The data system of claim 5 , comprising:
based at least on the read data having been apportioned during storage over the target storage drives, the control system configured to process the read data received from the target storage drives against the storage allocation information to merge the read data into merged read data, and transfer the merged read data for delivery to the host system over the host link.

7. The data system of claim 1 , comprising:
the control system configured to apportion the data for storage among the target storage drives by at least forming the data into at least partially redundant data portions for storage.

8. The data system of claim 1 , comprising:
a configuration system configured to receive a storage configuration over the host link, wherein the storage configuration indicates at least a quantity and arrangement of virtual volumes;
the control system configured to apply the storage configuration to subdivide the storage drives into a plurality of virtual volumes;
the control system configured to present the plurality of virtual volumes as separate drive volumes to a host system over the host link;
wherein storage operations received over the host link comprise indicators of at least one of the drive volumes for handling of associated data; and
the control system configured to apportion the associated data for storage among the target storage drives which comprise indicated ones of the virtual volumes.

9. The data system of claim 1 , comprising:
a power control system configured to receive backup power, detect an interruption in a primary power, and in response provide the backup power to at least a portion of the data system;
the control system configured to perform a soft power down operation to commit at least pending write instructions and associated write data to at least one of the storage drives in response to the interruption in the primary power; and
the control system configured to commit the storage allocation information to non-volatile memory responsive to the soft power down operation.

10. A method comprising:
receiving, over a host link, a write operation for storage of data;
processing a storage address of the write operation against storage allocation information to apportion the data for storage among more than one target storage drive selected from a plurality of storage drives each comprising a multi-lane serial drive interface; and
transferring corresponding portions of the data to the target storage drives over corresponding drive interfaces.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the host link and the drive interfaces each comprise multi-lane serial interfaces selected from among Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), InfiniBand, and FibreChannel.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in the target storage drives, receiving the corresponding portions of the data and responsively storing the corresponding portions on associated storage media.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein apportioning the data for storage among the target storage drives comprises parallelizing the data for storage among the target storage drives.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in the control system, communicating with a host system over the host link to receive a read operation for retrieving data previously stored;
in the control system, processing at least a read address indicated by the read operation against storage locations indicated by the storage allocation information to determine ones of the storage drives to handle the read operation, and transferring read commands over corresponding drive interfaces to the ones of the storage drives; and
in the ones of the storage drives, receiving associated ones of the read commands, and in response, retrieving read data from the associated storage media and transferring the read data to the control system for delivery to the host system over the host link.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
based at least on the read data having been apportioned during storage over the target storage drives, in the control system, processing the read data received from the target storage drives against the storage allocation information to merge the read data into merged read data, and transferring the merged read data for delivery to the host system over the host link.

16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in the control system, apportioning the data for storage among the target storage drives by at least forming the data into at least partially redundant data portions for storage.

17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in a configuration system, receiving a storage configuration over the host link, wherein the storage configuration indicates at least a quantity and arrangement of virtual volumes;
in the control system, applying the storage configuration to subdivide the storage drives into a plurality of virtual volumes;
in the control system, presenting the plurality of virtual volumes as separate drive volumes to a host system over the host link;
wherein storage operations received over the host link comprise indicators of at least one of the drive volumes for handling of associated data; and
in the control system, apportioning the associated data for storage among target storage drives which comprise indicated ones of the virtual volumes.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in a power control system, receiving backup power, detecting an interruption in a primary power, and in response providing the backup power to the data storage device;
in the control system, performing a soft power down operation to commit at le

Assignees

• Liqid Inc

Inventors

• Breakstone Jason
• Gupta Alok
• Desai Himanshu
• Campos Angelo

Classifications

• G06F1/30

  Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations (for resetting only G06F1/24) · CPC title

• G06F3/0659

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title

• G06F3/0613 Primary

  in relation to throughput · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

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

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title