System and method for cache management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9547591-B1
Application number	US-201213630957-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 28, 2012
Priority date	Sep 28, 2012
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

A method, computer program product, and computing system for associating a heatmap file with a multi-portion data file located on a data array. The heatmap file is configured to monitor the usage of each portion of the multi-portion data file. At least one portion of the multi-portion data file is used via a virtual machine executed on a first physical machine. The heatmap file is updated to reflect the usage of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
associating a heatmap file with a multi-portion data file located on a data array, wherein the heatmap file is configured to monitor the usage of each portion of the multi-portion data file;
using at least one portion of the multi-portion data file via a virtual machine executed on a first physical machine of a plurality of physical machines;
associating a tracking file with the multi-portion data file, wherein the tracking file includes an identification of which physical machine of the plurality of physical machines modified each portion of the multi-portion data file;
updating the heatmap file to reflect the usage of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file including incrementing a unique indicator of the heatmap file associated with the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file each time the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is written to and read from;
prefetching data that is predicted to be required at a particular time for a cache system associated with the first physical machine based, at least in part, upon the heatmap file;
migrating the virtual machine from the first physical machine to a second physical machine, and migrating the virtual machine from the second physical machine back to the first physical machine; and
processing the tracking file to determine if at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine, wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file was not modified by a host other than the first physical machine, and wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file in the cache system associated with the first physical machine matches the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file on the data array.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
prefetching data for a cache system associated with the second physical machine based, at least in part, upon the heatmap file.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the heatmap file is stored on the data array.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the heatmap file is locally cached on the first physical machine.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the data array includes a non-volatile, electro-mechanical memory system.

6. A computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
associating a heatmap file with a multi-portion data file located on a data array, wherein the heatmap file is configured to monitor the usage of each portion of the multi-portion data file;
using at least one portion of the multi-portion data file via a virtual machine executed on a first physical machine of a plurality of physical machines;
associating a tracking file with the multi-portion data file, wherein the tracking file includes an identification of which physical machine of the plurality of physical machines modified each portion of the multi-portion data file;
updating the heatmap file to reflect the usage of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file including incrementing a unique indicator of the heatmap file associated with the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file each time the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is written to and read from;
prefetching data that is predicted to be required at a particular time for a cache system associated with the first physical machine based, at least in part, upon the heatmap file;
migrating the virtual machine from the first physical machine to a second physical machine, and migrating the virtual machine from the second physical machine back to the first physical machine; and
processing the tracking file to determine if at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine, wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file was not modified by a host other than the first physical machine, and wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file in the cache system associated with the first physical machine matches the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file on the data array.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 further comprising instructions for:
prefetching data for a cache system associated with the second physical machine based, at least in part, upon the heatmap file.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the heatmap file is stored on the data array.

9. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the heatmap file is locally cached on the first physical machine.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the data array includes a non-volatile, electro-mechanical memory system.

11. A computing system comprising:
at least one processor device; and
at least one memory architecture coupled with the at least one processor device;
wherein the at least one processor device is further configured to perform operations comprising;
associating a heatmap file with a multi-portion data file located on a data array, wherein the heatmap file is configured to monitor the usage of each portion of the multi-portion data file;
using at least one portion of the multi-portion data file via a virtual machine executed on a first physical machine of a plurality of physical machines;
associating a tracking file with the multi-portion data file, wherein the tracking file includes an identification of which physical machine of the plurality of physical machines modified each portion of the multi-portion data file;
updating the heatmap file to reflect the usage of the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file including incrementing a unique indicator of the heatmap file associated with the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file each time the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is written to and read from;
prefetching data that is predicted to be required at a particular time for a cache system associated with the first physical machine based, at least in part, upon the heatmap file;
migrating the virtual machine from the first physical machine to a second physical machine, and migrating the virtual machine from the second physical machine back to the first physical machine; and
processing the tracking file to determine if at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine, wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file was not modified by a host other than the first physical machine, and wherein the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file is valid for the first physical machine if the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file in the cache system associated with the first physical machine matches the at least one portion of the multi-portion data file on the data array.

12. The computing system of claim 11 further configured to perform operations comprising:
prefetching data for a cache system associated with

Assignees

• Emc Corp
• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Natanzon Assaf
• Derbeko Philip
• Eyal Anat

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F12/10

  Address translation · CPC title

• G06F3/06

  Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers {, e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers} · CPC title

• G06F12/08 Primary

  in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems · CPC title

• G06F9/4893

  taking into account power or heat criteria (power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206) · CPC title