Dynamic use of RAID levels responsive to predicted failure of a data storage device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9286173-B2
Application number	US-201514680235-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 7, 2015
Priority date	Nov 30, 2010
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

Data associated with a workload is stored in a first composite array of data storage devices, and is automatically stored in a second composite array in response to predicting failure of one of the data storage devices in the first composite array. The data may be stored in the second composite array by either converting the first composite array or migrating the data to the second composite array. One of the data storage devices may predict its own failure and issue a predictive failure alert.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
storing data associated with a workload in a first composite array of data storage devices configured as a redundant array of inexpensive disks configured at a first level; and
automatically storing the data associated with the workload in a second composite array of data storage devices in response to predicting failure of one of the data storage devices in the first composite array, wherein the second composite array is a redundant array of inexpensive disks configured at a second level that is different than the first level, wherein storing the data associated with the workload in a second composite array of data storage devices in response to predicting failure of one of the data storage devices, includes converting the first composite array into the second composite array, and wherein the second composite array has a higher resilience than the first composite array.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first composite array differs from the second composite array in one or more parameters selected from level of striping, mirroring, parity, and nesting.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data storage device predicted to fail is included in the second composite array.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
a systems management agent instructing a redundant array of inexpensive disks controller to convert the first composite array into the second composite array in response to the system management agent receiving a predictive failure alert for a data storage device in the first composite array.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the systems management agent is running on an operating system, a systems management controller, or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
one of the data storage devices predicting its own failure and issuing a predictive failure alert to the redundant array of inexpensive disks controller.

7. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
storing data associated with a workload in a first composite array of data storage devices; and
automatically storing the data associated with the workload in a second composite array of data storage devices in response to predicting failure of one of the data storage devices in the first composite array, wherein the first composite array is a redundant array of inexpensive disks configured at a first level and the second composite array is a redundant array of inexpensive disks configured at a second level, wherein storing the data associated with the workload in a second composite array of data storage devices in response to predicting failure of one of the data storage devices, includes converting the first composite array into the second composite array, and wherein the second composite array has a higher resilience than the first composite array.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the first composite array differs from the second composite array in one or more parameters selected from level of striping, mirroring, parity, and nesting.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the data storage device predicted to fail is included in the second composite array.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , the method further comprising:
a systems management agent instructing a redundant array of inexpensive disks controller to convert the first composite array into the second composite array in response to the system management agent receiving a predictive failure alert for a data storage device in the first composite array.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the systems management agent is running on an operating system, a systems management controller, or a combination thereof.

12. The computer program product of claim 7 , the method further comprising:
one of the data storage devices predicting its own failure and issuing a predictive failure alert to the redundant array of inexpensive disks controller.

Assignees

• Lenovo Entpr Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Nolterieke Michael H
• Pagan William G
• Snyder Devon D

Classifications

• G06F3/061

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G06F3/0631

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title

• G06F3/0685

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

• G06F3/0614 Primary

  Improving the reliability of storage systems · CPC title