Data storage system having segregated control plane and/or segregated data plane architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9575689-B2
Application number	US-201514751980-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

Data storage systems are provided having a segregated control plane architecture, a segregated data plane architecture, or a segregated control plane and segregated data plane architecture. For example, a data storage system includes a plurality of media nodes and a plurality of data nodes coupled to the media nodes. The media nodes control and manage persistent storage elements. Each data node includes at least one hardware processor configured to execute data plane functions and control plane functions, wherein at least one of (i) the data plane functions of a given one of the data nodes are segregated and executed by different hardware processors and (ii) the control plane functions of a given one of the data nodes are segregated and executed by different hardware processors.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data storage system, comprising:
a plurality of media nodes, wherein each media node is configured to control data access operations for storing or accessing data to and from one or more persistent storage elements associated therewith;
a plurality of data nodes coupled to the media nodes, wherein each data node comprises at least one hardware processor configured to execute data plane functions and control plane functions on data that is to be stored in one or more of the persistent storage elements;
a switch fabric configured to enable communication between the data nodes;
wherein at least one of (i) the data plane functions of at least a given one of the data nodes are segregated and executed by different hardware processors and (ii) the control plane functions of at least a given one of the data nodes are segregated and executed by different hardware processors; and
a control node in communication with the data nodes through the switch fabric, wherein the control node comprises a hardware processor configured to execute one or more virtual control plane functions on behalf of the data nodes, wherein the one or more virtual control plane functions comprise one or more global control plane functions that are segregated from other control plane functions executed on the data nodes.

2. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the different hardware processors include a first hardware processor and a second hardware processor, which are formed on different integrated circuit chips that are located on the given data node.

3. The data storage system of claim 2 , wherein the given data node comprises a network interface card, wherein the network interface card comprises the first hardware processor.

4. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the different hardware processors comprises a hardware accelerator.

5. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the different hardware processors are integrated on a system-on-chip.

6. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein at least one data node is directly coupled to an associated media node.

7. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein at least one media node is connected to the switch fabric to enable different data nodes to communicate with the at least one media node through the switch fabric.

8. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein at least one media node comprises a hardware processor configured to execute one or more control plane and data plane functions that are segregated from other control plane and data plane functions executed on at least one data node.

9. A data center comprising the data storage system of claim 1 .

10. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the data storage system comprises a converged infrastructure system that is integrated within a housing to provide a modular unit.

11. The data storage system of claim 10 , wherein the modular unit further comprises one or more interfaces to connect to and communicate with one or more direct attached storage nodes.

12. The data storage system of claim 10 , wherein the modular unit further comprises:
a plurality of communication ports configured to enable network connections to be data nodes;
wherein the switch fabric comprises a fabric plane and a fabric input/output controller, wherein the switch fabric is configured to enable peer-to-peer communication between the media nodes, the data nodes, and the control node over the fabric plane, and wherein the fabric input/output controller is configured to enable a scale-out connection and communication with another data storage system; and
wherein at least one media node comprises a hardware processor configured to execute one or more control plane and data plane functions that are segregated from other control plane and data plane functions executed on the data nodes.

13. The data storage system of claim 12 , wherein the switch fabric further comprises a redundant fabric, plane and a redundant fabric input/output controller.

14. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a data node, data to be stored on a media node;
executing one or more data plane functions on a first hardware processor of the data node to process the received data;
executing one or more data plane functions on a second hardware processor of the data node to process the received data;
executing, one or more control plane functions on the second hardware processor of the data node to control the one or more data plane functions executed on the first and second hardware processors of the data node;
storing the processed data on the media node; and
communicating with a control node, by the data node, to execute one or more virtual control plane functions on behalf of the data node wherein the one or more virtual control dare functions comprise one or more global control plane functions that are segregated from other control plane functions executed on the data node.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the first hardware processor comprises at least one hardware-based accelerator.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein storing the processed data on the media node comprises the data node communicating with the media node through a switch fabric.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising executing one or more control plane functions and data plane functions on a hardware processor of the media node, wherein the one or more control plane functions and data plane functions executed on the hardware processor of the media node are segregated from other control plane functions and data plane functions executed on the data node.

18. An article of manufacture comprising a processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code is executable by one or more hardware processor devices to
receive, by a data node, data to be stored on a media node;
execute one or more data plane functions on a first hardware processor of the data node to process the received data;
execute one or more data plane functions on a second hardware processor of the data node to process the received data;
execute one or more control plane functions on the second hardware processor of the data node to control the one or more data plane functions executed on the first and second hardware processors of the data node;
store the processed data on the media node; and
communicate with a control node, by the data node, to execute one or more virtual control plane functions on behalf of the data node, wherein the one or more virtual control plane functions comprise one or more global control plane functions that are segregated from other control plane functions executed on the data node.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18 , wherein the program code is executable by the one or more hardware processor devices to enable the data node to communicate with the media node through a switch fabric to store the processed data on the media node.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 18 , wherein the program code is executable by the one or more hardware processor devices to execute one or more control plane functions and data plane functions on a hardware processor of the media node, wherein the one or more control plane functions and data plane functions executed on the hardware processor of the media node are segregated from other control plane functions and data plane functions executed on the data node.

Assignees

• Emc Corp
• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Savic Dragan
• Robillard Michael
• Espy James

Classifications

• G06F3/0659 Primary

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0662

  Virtualisation aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/067 Primary

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F3/0608

  Saving storage space on storage systems · CPC title