Atomic write operations for storage devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9304937-B2
Application number	US-201414163913-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2014
Priority date	Oct 23, 2013
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Atomic write operations for storage devices are implemented by maintaining the data that would be overwritten in the cache until the write operation completes. After the write operation completes, including generating any related metadata, a checkpoint is created. After the checkpoint is created, the old data is discarded and the new data becomes the current data for the affected storage locations. If an interruption occurs prior to the creation of the checkpoint, the old data is recovered and any new is discarded. If an interruption occurs after the creation of the checkpoint, any remaining old data is discarded and the new data becomes the current data. Write logs that indicate the locations affected by in progress write operation are used in some implementations. If neither all of the new data nor all of the old data is recoverable, a predetermined pattern can be written into the affected locations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
after receiving, at a storage controller, an indication of a write command that indicates a target location in storage associated with the storage controller and writing data of the write command into a first plurality of cache blocks of cache of the storage controller, determining a second plurality of cache blocks of the cache that correspond to storage locations to which the first plurality of cache blocks also correspond;
for each…

Assignees

• Netapp Inc
• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Achilles Greg William
• Hulpieu Gordon
• Humlicek Donald Roman
• Parrish Martin Oree
• Prosch Kent
• Stewart Alan

Classifications

• G06F12/0873

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F11/1471

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F12/0815

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F12/0891 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic