Systems and methods for optimizing data storage among a plurality of storage drives

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016154591-A1
Application number	US-201615017071-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Oct 10, 2010
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A data storage device is presented that includes an interface system configured to communicate over an aggregated host link comprising Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interfaces to receive one or more write operations for storage of data by the data storage device. The data storage device includes plurality solid state drives (SSDs) each comprising drive PCIe interfaces coupled to the interface system. The interface system is configured to process the one or more write operations against storage allocation information to parallelize the data among the SSDs and transfer portions of the parallelized data to associated SSDs over corresponding drive PCIe interfaces.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A data storage device, comprising:
an interface system configured to communicate over an aggregated host link comprising Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interfaces to receive one or more write operations for storage of data by the data storage device; a plurality solid state drives (SSDs) each comprising drive PCIe interfaces coupled to the interface system; and the interface system configured to process the one or more write operations against storage allocation information to parallelize the data among the SSDs and transfer portions of the parallelized data to associated SSDs over corresponding drive PCIe interfaces.

2 . The data storage device of claim 1 , comprising:
each of the SSDs configured to receive an associated portion of the data to responsively store the portion of the data on associated solid state storage media.

3 . The data storage device of claim 1 , comprising:
the interface system configured to determine ones of the SSDs to apportion the data among based on at least a storage address received with the one or more write operations and the storage allocation information.

4 . The data storage device of claim 1 , comprising:
the interface system configured to vary an amount of aggregation for the aggregated host link based at least on utilization levels associated with the data storage device.

5 . The data storage device of claim 1 , comprising:
the interface system configured to communicate with the host system over the aggregated host link to receive one or more read operations for retrieving data previously stored by the data storage device; the interface system configured to process the one or more read operations against the storage allocation information to determine ones of the SSDs to handle the read operations, and transfer the read operations over the drive PCIe interfaces to associated ones of the SSDs; the SSDs configured to receive associated ones of the read operations, and in response, retrieve read data from the associated solid state storage media and transfer the read data to the interface system for transfer to the host system over the aggregated host link.

6 . The data storage system of claim 5 , comprising:
the interface system configured to process the read data received from ones of the SSDs against the storage allocation information to de-parallelize the read data into merged read data, and transfer the merged read data to the host system over the aggregated host link.

7 . The data storage device of claim 1 , comprising:
the interface system configured to parallelize the data among the SSDs by at least forming the data into at least partially redundant data for storage as the portions by an associated SSDs.

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

9 . The data storage device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a power control system configured to receive backup power from a backup power source, and detect an interruption in a primary power source and in response provide the backup power to the data storage device; and the interface 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 SSDs in response to the interruption in the primary power source.

10 . The data storage device of claim 9 , comprising:
the interface system configured to commit the storage allocation information to non-volatile memory responsive to the soft power down operation.

11 . A method of operating a data storage device, the method comprising:
in an interface system, communicating over an aggregated host link comprising Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interfaces to receive one or more write operations for storage of data by the data storage device on ones of a plurality of solid state drives (SSDs) each comprising drive PCIe interfaces coupled to the interface system; and in the interface system, processing the one or more write operations against storage allocation information to parallelize the data among the SSDs and transferring portions of the parallelized data to associated SSDs over corresponding drive PCIe interfaces.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
in each of the SSDs, receiving an associated portion of the data to responsively store the portion of the data on associated solid state storage media.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
in the interface system, determining ones of the SSDs to apportion the data among based on at least a storage address received with the one or more write operations and the storage allocation information.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
in the interface system, varying an amount of aggregation for the aggregated host link based at least on utilization levels associated with the data storage device.

15 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
in the interface system, communicating with the host system over the aggregated host link to receive one or more read operations for retrieving data previously stored by the data storage device; in the interface system, processing the one or more read operations against the storage allocation information to determine ones of the SSDs to handle the read operations, and transferring the read operations over the drive PCIe interfaces to associated ones of the SSDs; in the SSDs, receiving associated ones of the read operations, and in response, retrieving read data from the associated solid state storage media and transferring the read data to the interface system for transfer to the host system over the aggregated host link.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
in the interface system, processing the read data received from ones of the SSDs against the storage allocation information to de-parallelize the read data into merged read data, and transferring the merged read data to the host system over the aggregated host link.

17 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
in the interface system, parallelizing the data among the SSDs by at least forming the data into at least partially redundant data for storage as the portions by an associated SSDs.

18 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
in a configuration system, receiving a storage configuration over the aggregated host link, wherein the storage configuration indicates a quantity and arrangement of virtual volumes; in the interface system, applying the storage configuration to subdivide the SSDs into a plurality of virtual volumes; in the interface system, presenting the plurality of virtual volumes as separate drive volumes to a host system over the aggregated host link; wherein storage operations received over the aggregated ho

Assignees

• Liqid Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G06F3/0685

  Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

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

• G06F13/4022

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

• G06F3/0665

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

• G06F3/0613 Primary

  in relation to throughput · CPC title