Techniques for spare storage pool management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9235486-B1
Application number	US-201314042127-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2013
Priority date	Sep 30, 2013
Publication date	Jan 12, 2016
Grant date	Jan 12, 2016

Abstract

Techniques for spare storage pool management are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for spare storage pool management comprising receiving spare storage configuration information for a storage drive pool comprising a plurality of storage drives, maintaining spare storage mapping information to spare storage within the storage drive pool based at least in part on the spare storage configuration information, monitoring spare storage within the storage drive pool for detecting block failures within the storage drive pool, detecting a failure of a block in a first storage drive of the plurality of storage drives, and updating the spare storage mapping information associated with the failed block in the first storage drive to map to a spare block in a second storage drive of the plurality of storage drives.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for spare storage pool management comprising:
receiving spare storage configuration information for a storage drive pool comprising a plurality of storage drives;
maintaining spare storage mapping information to spare storage within the storage drive pool based at least in part on the spare storage configuration information;
monitoring spare storage within the storage drive pool for detecting block failures within the storage drive pool;
detecting a failure of a block in a first storage drive of the plurality of storage drives; and
updating the spare storage mapping information associated with the failed block in the first storage drive to map to a spare block in a second storage drive of the plurality of storage drives, wherein the updating further comprises determining that mapping to the spare block of the second storage drive provides a higher fault tolerance for the storage drive pool than a mapping to a second spare block of the first storage drive.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spare block comprises at least one flash memory cell of a solid-state drive, and wherein maintaining spare storage mapping information further comprises techniques for wear-leveling of a plurality of blocks from throughout the storage drive pool.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the spare storage mapping information further comprises mapping to a second spare block in accordance with a fault tolerance of a parity-based configuration of the storage drive pool.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spare storage configuration information comprises a number of spare blocks available in each storage drive of the plurality of storage drives.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the spare storage mapping information of the failed block further comprises:
determining that the first storage drive comprises a first number of spare blocks less than a threshold number of spare blocks; and
determining that the second storage drive comprises a second number of spare blocks greater than or equal to the threshold number of spare blocks.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising monitoring the plurality of storage drives within the storage drive pool to detect SMART indicators.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the first storage drive has entered a fault state, wherein the updated spare storage mapping to the spare block in the second storage drive enables continued use of the first storage drive.

8. A system for spare storage pool management comprising:
one or more processors communicatively coupled to a network; wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
maintain spare storage mapping information to spare storage within the storage drive pool based at least in part on the spare storage configuration information;
monitor spare storage within the storage drive pool for detecting block failures within the storage drive pool;
detect a failure of a block in a first storage drive of the plurality of storage drives; and
update the spare storage mapping information associated with the failed block in the first storage drive to map to a spare block in a second storage drive of the plurality of storage drives, wherein the update further comprises determining that mapping to the spare block of the second storage drive provides a higher fault tolerance for the storage drive pool than a mapping to a second spare block of the first storage drive.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the spare block comprises at least one flash memory cell of a solid-state drive, and wherein maintain spare storage mapping information further comprises techniques for wear-leveling of a plurality of blocks from throughout the storage drive pool.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein update the spare storage mapping information further comprises mapping to a second spare block in accordance with a fault tolerance of a parity-based configuration of the storage drive pool.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the spare storage configuration information comprises a number of spare blocks available in each storage drive of the plurality of storage drives.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
determine that the first storage drive comprises a first number of spare blocks less than a threshold number of spare blocks; and
determine that the second storage drive comprises a second number of spare blocks greater than or equal to the threshold number of spare blocks.

13. An article of manufacture for spare storage pool management, the article of manufacture comprising:
at least one non-transitory processor readable storage medium; and
instructions stored on the at least one medium;
wherein the instructions are configured to be readable from the at least one medium by at least one processor and thereby cause the at least one processor to operate so as to:
maintain spare storage mapping information to spare storage within the storage drive pool based at least in part on the spare storage configuration information;
monitor spare storage within the storage drive pool for detecting block failures within the storage drive pool;
detect a failure of a block in a first storage drive of the plurality of storage drives; and
update the spare storage mapping information associated with the failed block in the first storage drive to map to a spare block in a second storage drive of the plurality of storage drives, wherein the update further comprises determining that mapping to the spare block of the second storage drive provides a higher fault tolerance for the storage drive pool than a mapping to a second spare block of the first storage drive.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 13 , wherein the spare block comprises at least one flash memory cell of a solid-state drive, and wherein maintain spare storage mapping information further comprises techniques for wear-leveling of a plurality of blocks from throughout the storage drive pool.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 13 , wherein update the spare storage mapping information further comprises mapping to a second spare block in accordance with a fault tolerance of a parity-based configuration of the storage drive pool.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 13 , wherein the spare storage configuration information comprises a number of spare blocks available in each storage drive of the plurality of storage drives.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 13 , wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to operate further so as to:
determine that the first storage drive comprises a first number of spare blocks less than a threshold number of spare blocks; and
determine that the second storage drive comprises a second number of spare blocks greater than or equal to the threshold number of spare blocks.

Assignees

• Symantec Corp

Inventors

• Casaburi Jim
• Allen William

Classifications

• G06F11/2094 Primary

  Redundant storage or storage space (G06F11/2056 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F11/1084

  Degraded mode, e.g. caused by single or multiple storage removals or disk failures · CPC title

• G06F11/1612

  where the redundant component is persistent storage · CPC title

• G06F11/0727 Primary

  in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system (drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097) · CPC title

• G06F11/2053

  where persistent mass storage functionality or persistent mass storage control functionality is redundant (error detection or correction in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18) · CPC title