Data storage management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016306554-A1
Application number	US-201615096646-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 12, 2016
Priority date	Apr 17, 2015
Publication date	Oct 20, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a data storage management method and system that is configured to: to monitor access conditions of data stored in a plurality of storage devices, wherein the plurality of storage devices are divided into a plurality of storage device tiers based on their respective characteristics; determine active degrees of the respective data based on the access conditions of the respective data; control movement of the respective data among the plurality of storage device tiers based on the active degrees of the respective data, such that the respective data are stored in the storage device tiers adapted to their respective active degrees.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A data storage management system, comprising computer-executable logic operating in memory, wherein the computer-executable program logic is configured to enable execution across one or more processors configured to:
monitor access conditions of data stored in a plurality of storage devices, wherein the plurality of storage devices are divided into a plurality of storage device tiers based on their respective characteristics; determine active degrees of a respective data based on the access conditions of the respective data; control movement of the respective data among the plurality of storage device tiers based on the active degrees of the respective data, the respective data being stored in the storage device tiers adapted to their respective active degrees.

2 . The data storage management system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of storage device tiers comprise at least one from the group consisting of: a real-time processing storage tier, a high-performance storage tier, a large-capacity storage tier, and an archive storage tier ranked in a descending order, and configured to store relatively active data in a higher-tier storage device and store less active data in a lower-tier storage device.

3 . The data storage management system according to claim 2 , further configured to determine the active degrees of the respective data by determining most recently use (MRU) values of the respective data.

4 . The data storage management system according to claim 3 , further configured to:
when the data is written into the real-time processing storage tier, assign an initial value to the MRU value of the data; at least one of when the data stored in the real-time processing storage tier or the high-performance storage tier is accessed, decrease the MRU value of the data; at least one of when the data stored in the large-capacity storage tier or the archive storage tier is accessed, increase the MRU value of the data; and when the data stored in the large-capacity storage tier is not accessed in a predetermined time period, decrease the MRU value of the data.

5 . The data storage management system according to claim 3 , wherein based on the MRU values, the active degrees are at least divided into “hot,” “warm,” “cold,” and “archive”.

6 . The data storage management system according to claim 5 , further configured to:
when the active degree of the data is “hot,” retain the data stored in real-time at the real-time processing storage tier; when the active degree of the data is changed to “warm,” store the data at the high-performance storage tier; when the active degree of the data is changed to “cold,” store the data at the large-capacity storage tier; and when the active degree of the data is changed to “archive,” store the data at the archive storage tier.

7 . The data storage management system according to claim 1 , further configured to: when data is written into a higher storage device tier, synchronously or asynchronously copy all write operations on the data to a lower storage device tier.

8 . The data storage management system according to claim 1 , further configured to monitor utilization of a plurality of storage devices in the plurality of storage device tiers, and to control movement of the respective data among the different storage device tiers further based on utilization of the plurality of storage devices in the plurality of storage device tiers.

9 . The data storage management system according to claim 7 , further configured to: when utilization of a storage device in a storage device tier reaches a predetermined use threshold, move the data with the lowest active degree in the storage device tier to a lower storage device tier.

10 . The data storage management system according to claim 1 , wherein the data access monitor includes a plurality of access interceptors for corresponding tiers in the plurality of storage device tiers, and the plurality of access interceptors monitor access conditions of the data in respective storage device tiers by monitoring the data input/output in respective tiers.

11 . A data storage management method, the method comprising:
monitoring access conditions of data stored in a plurality of storage devices, wherein the plurality of storage devices are divided into a plurality of storage device tiers based on their respective characteristics; determining active degrees of a respective data based on the access conditions of the respective data; controlling movement of the respective data among the plurality of storage device tiers based on the active degrees of the respective data, such that the respective data are stored in the storage device tiers adapted to their respective active degrees.

12 . The data storage management method according to claim 11 , wherein the plurality of storage device tiers at least at least one from the group consisting of a real-time processing storage tier, a high-performance storage tier, a large-capacity storage tier, and an archive storage tier ranked in a descending order; and relatively active data is stored in a higher-tier storage device while less active data is stored in a lower-tier storage device.

13 . The data storage management method according to claim 12 , wherein the determining active degrees of the respective data based on access conditions of respective data comprises determining most recently use (MRU) values of the respective data.

14 . The data storage management method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
when the data is written into the real-time processing storage tier, assigning an initial value to the MRU value of the data; at least one of, when the data stored in the real-time processing storage tier or the high-performance storage tier is accessed, decreasing the MRU value of the data; at least one of, when the data stored in the large-capacity storage tier or the archive storage tier is accessed, increasing the MRU value of the data; and when the data stored in the large-capacity storage tier is not accessed in a predetermined time period, decreasing the MRU value of the data.

15 . The data storage management method according to claim 13 , wherein the active degrees are at least divided into “hot,” “warm,” “cold,” and “archive” based on the MRU values.

16 . The data storage management method according to claim 15 , the method further comprising:
when the active degree of the data is “hot,” retaining the data at the real-time processing storage tier in real time; when the active degree of the data is changed to “warm,” storing the data at the high-performance storage tier; when the active degree of the data is changed to “cold,” storing the data at the large-capacity storage tier; and when the active degree of the data is changed to “archive,” storing the data at the archive storage tier.

17 . The data storage management method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
when data is written into a higher storage device tier, synchronously or asynchronously copying all write operations on the data to a lower storage device tier.

18 . The data storage management method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
monitoring utilizations of a plurality of storage devices in the plurality of storage device tiers, and controlling movement of the respective data among the different storage device tiers further based on the utilizations of the plurality of storage devices in the plurality of storage device tiers.

19 . The data storage manage

Assignees

• Emc Corp

Inventors

• Li Sanping
• Cao Yu
• Liu Hui
• Guo Xiaoyan
• Dong Zhe
• Tao Jun
• Gao Vivian Wenwen

Classifications

• G06F3/0653

  Monitoring storage devices or systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0604 Primary

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

• G06F3/0685

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

• G06F3/061

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G06F3/0649

  Lifecycle management · CPC title