Global Storage Solution With Logical Cylinders and Capsules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016349997-A1
Application number	US-201514723005-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 27, 2015
Priority date	May 27, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Example apparatus and methods control a data storage system to store data in a self-describing logical data storage capsule using a logical cylindrical recording format. Example apparatus and methods assign a searchable, globally unique identifier to the capsule and associate the globally unique identifier with a user. The logical data storage capsule is migrated from a first data storage medium to a second data storage medium without translating or reformatting the data storage capsule. The data storage capsule contains information describing to a data storage device how to migrate the capsule without translating or reformatting the data storage capsule. Example apparatus and methods dynamically select an error correction approach for storing data in the data storage capsule, de-duplicate, and encrypt the data storage capsule. The data storage capsule may be local, or may be part of a cloud-based storage system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer control the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:
generating a self-describing logical data storage capsule on a first data storage device, where the data storage capsule employs a logical cylindrical recording format, and where the data storage capsule has a defined size; assigning a globally unique identifier (ID) to the data storage capsule; associating the globally unique ID with a user; storing data in the data storage capsule, where the data stored in the data storage capsule is smaller or equal to the defined size of the data storage capsule, and migrating the data storage capsule from the first data storage device to a second data storage device.

2 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , the method comprising:
generating, on the first data storage device, a self-describing logical data storage vessel; assigning a vessel identifier (VID) to the data storage vessel; grouping a plurality of data storage capsules into the logical data storage vessel, where the members of the plurality of data storage capsules are stored on the first data storage device, and migrating the data storage vessel from the first data storage device to the second data storage device.

3 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , the method comprising:
dynamically selecting an error correcting (EC) approach based, at least in part, upon a property of the first data storage device, a property of the second data storage device, or a property of the data storage capsule, and storing the data storage capsule using the selected EC approach.

4 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , where the EC approach is a hybrid rateless Reed-Solomon error correcting approach or a fountain code error correcting approach.

5 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , where the first data storage device is a first medium and where second data storage device is a second medium.

6 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , where the first medium is a disk drive, a tape drive, a solid state device (SSD), a random access memory (RAM), or a shingled magnetic recording (SMR) device.

7 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , where the second medium is a disk drive, a tape drive, an SSD, a RAM, or an SMR device.

8 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , where the first medium is a different medium than the second medium.

9 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , where the globally unique ID is a uniform resource locater (URL).

10 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , where the globally unique ID is searchable by a user.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , where the globally unique ID is retrievable by a web crawler, indexable by a web search engine, or able to be queried by a web search engine.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , where a self-describing logical data storage capsule comprises:
a data storage row comprising an alternating series of files and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes associated with the files, a map of entries in the row, and a CRC for the entire row; an error correcting code (ECC) row comprising an inline ECC associated with a data storage row, and metadata describing how to migrate the capsule between different data storage devices.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , where the number of ECC rows is based, at least in part, on a dynamically varying quality of service (QoS) approach, where the QoS approach is based, at least in part, on a property of the first data storage device, a property of the second data storage device, or a property of the data storage capsule.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , the method comprising de-duplicating a data storage row based, at least in part, on whether the CRC for the data storage row matches a CRC for a different data storage row.

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , where a data storage row is padded with redundant data to increase a likelihood that the CRC for the entire row will match the CRC of a different data storage row.

16 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer control the computer to perform a method for storing and migrating data between different electronic data storage media, the method comprising:
generating a self-describing logical data storage capsule on a first data storage medium, where the data storage capsule employs a logical cylindrical recording format, where the data storage capsule stores information describing how to migrate the data storage capsule from a first data storage medium to a second data storage medium, and where the data storage capsule has a defined size; assigning a globally unique identifier (ID) to the data storage capsule, where the globally unique ID is indexable and searchable by a web search engine; associating the globally unique ID with a user; dynamically selecting an inline error correcting (EC) approach based, at least in part, upon a property of the first data storage medium, or a property of the data storage capsule; storing a non-empty data set in the data storage capsule, where the non-empty data set stored in the data storage capsule is smaller or equal to the defined size of the data storage capsule, and where the non-empty data set is stored in the data storage capsule as rows of data; de-duplicating the non-empty data set stored in the data storage capsule, based, at least in part, on a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code of a row of data in the data storage capsule; encrypting the non-empty data set stored in the data storage capsule; and migrating the data storage capsule from the first data storage medium to a second data storage medium, where the second data storage medium is a different medium than the first data storage medium.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , where the property of the first data storage medium is an error rate data, a random access time data, a read latency time data, a data transfer rate data, a read performance data, a wear levelling data, an access frequency data, a firmware bug data, a data storage medium architecture data, or a memory type data.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , where the non-empty data set stored in the data storage capsule comprises data sub-blocks, and where the property of the data storage capsule is related to an order in which the sub-blocks are accessed, a sub-block reference count, a sub-block access frequency, a sub-block access group relationship, a sub-block accessing entity identity, a sub-block importance, or an indexing parameter.

19 . An apparatus, comprising:
a processor; a memory; a set of logics; and an interface that connects the processor, the memory, and the set of logics; the set of logics comprising:
a capsule logic that formats a data storage capsule on a first data storage medium using a logical cylindrical recording format, where the data storage capsule has a defined size, and where the data storage capsule

Assignees

• Quantum Corp

Inventors

• Saliba George

Classifications

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F3/0607

  by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device · CPC title

• G06F3/0667

  at data level, e.g. file, record or object virtualisation · CPC title

• G06F3/0685

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

• G06F11/1076 Primary

  Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems · CPC title