Systems and methods for active raid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9430367-B1
Application number	US-201213450378-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 18, 2012
Priority date	Apr 18, 2011
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

A first RAID module is added to a first RAID controller and a second RAID module is added to a second RAID controller. An array of physical disks is partitioned into two partitions across the array of physical disks. The first partition is assigned to the first RAID module and the second partition is exposed to the second RAID module. Each of the RAID modules exposes their respective partitions to their associated RAID controller as a single array. Each RAID module further receives I/O from its respective RAID controller, and translates the I/O to access its associated partition.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of providing an active/active clustered redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID), comprising:
partitioning an array of physical disks into a volume comprising at least two sub-volumes, wherein each physical disk of the array is divided among each of the at least two sub-volumes;
providing a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller, a first RAID stack of the first RAID controller and a second RAID stack of the second RAID controller being unaware that they are part of a multi-controller array, wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller share the physical disks that comprise the volume;
providing a module within the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller that exposes a first sub-volume of the volume to the first RAID stack and a second sub-volume of the volume to the second RAID stack;
generating an input/output (I/O) request by one of the first RAID controller or the second RAID controller;
receiving the I/O request at the module associated with the one of the first RAID controller or the second RAID controller;
determining a physical location within the array of physical disks that corresponds to the I/O request; and
fulfilling the I/O request at the physical location, wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller are configurable to implement a different RAID level in the first and second sub-volumes of the volume, respectively.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing each of the sub-volumes with a same number of physical disks as in the array of physical disks.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each physical disk is divided into stripes of equal size, and sequentially divided among the first sub-volume and the second sub-volume.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein each physical disk is divided in half, wherein a top half is assigned to the first sub-volume, and wherein a bottom half is assigned to the second sub-volume.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a physical hot spare disk, wherein the physical hot spare disk is divided among the sub-volumes.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the module comprises plural layers, wherein a thin disk layer receives I/O requests made between a RAID stack and the array of physical disks and wherein the thin disk layer determines the physical location.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller concurrently serve I/O requests for the at least two sub-volumes.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the I/O requests are made to all physical disks in the volume.

9. A data storage system, comprising:
a storage server;
a physical storage device associated with storage server;
a processing unit associated with the storage server; and
one or more modules for execution on the processing unit, operable to partition an array of physical disks into a volume comprising at least two sub-volumes, wherein each physical disk of the array is divided among each of the at least two sub-volumes, provide a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller, provide a module within the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller that exposes a first sub-volume of the volume to a first RAID stack of the first RAID controller and a second sub-volume of the volume to a second RAID stack of the second RAID controller, generate an input/output (I/O) request by one of the first RAID controller or the second RAID controller, receive the I/O request at the module associated with the one of the first RAID controller or the second RAID controller, determine a physical location within the array of physical disks that corresponds to the I/O request, and fulfill the I/O request at the physical location,
wherein the first RAID stack and the second RAID stack are unaware that they are part of a multi-controller array, and the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller share the physical disks that comprise the volume, and wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller are configurable to implement a different RAID level in the first and second sub-volumes of the volume, respectively.

10. The data storage system of claim 9 , wherein each of the sub-volumes are provided with a same number of physical disks as in the array of physical disks.

11. The data storage system of claim 9 , wherein each physical disk is divided into stripes of equal size, and sequentially divided among the first sub-volume and the second sub-volume.

12. The data storage system of claim 9 , wherein each physical disk is divided in half, wherein a top half is assigned to the first sub-volume, and wherein a bottom half is assigned to the second sub-volume.

13. The data storage system of claim 9 , further comprising a physical hot spare disk, wherein the physical hot spare disk is divided among the sub-volumes.

14. The data storage system of claim 9 , wherein the module comprises plural layers, wherein a thin disk layer receives I/O requests made between a RAID stack and the array of physical disks and wherein the thin disk layer determines the physical location.

15. The data storage system of claim 9 , wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller concurrently serve I/O requests for the at least two sub-volumes.

16. The data storage system of claim 15 , wherein the I/O requests are made to all physical disks in the volume.

17. A non-transitory computer storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to:
partition an array of physical disks into a volume comprising at least two sub-volumes, wherein each physical disk of the array is divided among each of the at least two sub-volumes;
provide a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller, a first RAID stack of the first RAID controller and a second RAID stack of the second RAID controller being unaware that they are part of a multi-controller array, wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller share the physical disks that comprise the volume;
provide a module within the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller that exposes a first sub-volume of the volume to the first RAID stack and a second sub-volume of the volume to the second RAID stack;
generate an input/output (I/O) request by one of the first RAID controller or the second RAID controller;
receive the I/O request at the module associated with the one of the first RAID controller or the second RAID controller;
determine a physical location within the array of physical disks that corresponds to the I/O request; and
fulfill the I/O request at the physical location, wherein the first RAID controller and the second RAID controller are configurable to implement a different RAID level in the first and second sub-volumes of the volume, respectively.

18. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the module comprises plural layers, wherein a thin disk layer receives I/O requests made between a RAID stack and the array of physical disks, and wherein the thin disk layer further comprising instructions to determine the physical location.

Assignees

• Subramanian Srikumar
• Ramasamy Senthilkumar
• Ranganathan Loganathan
• Chatterjee Udita
• American Megatrends Inc

Inventors

• Subramanian Srikumar
• Ramasamy Senthilkumar
• Ranganathan Loganathan
• Chatterjee Paresh

Classifications

• G06F11/1076 Primary

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

• G06F11/2082

  Data synchronisation · CPC title

• G06F12/02 Primary

  Addressing or allocation; Relocation (program address sequencing G06F9/00; arrangements for selecting an address in a digital store G11C8/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/2089

  Redundant storage control functionality · CPC title

• G06F11/2094

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