Live configurable storage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9600181-B2
Application number	US-201514645085-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2015
Priority date	Mar 11, 2015
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

A system for storing data in a dynamic fashion. The system includes a storage entity. The storage entity includes portions of a plurality of different persistent storage devices. Each storage device has a set of constraints. The storage entity is configured to store data in a dynamic fashion in a layout on the persistent storage devices of the storage entity that meets the different data requirements for the data while still being within the constraints for the persistent storage devices. The storage entity is configured to change the layout for a portion of the data as requirements related to at least one of performance or resiliency for a portion of the data change while the storage entity continues to provide the data from the storage entity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A persistent storage entity comprising:
a plurality of storage tiers, at least one storage tier comprising a first type of persistent storage device and at least one other storage tier comprising a second type of persistent storage device;
one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions;
one or more processors which, when executing the computer-executable instructions, cause the persistent storage entity to operate by dynamically changing a layout configuration for data stored at storage tiers of the persistent storage entity to allow for changing requirements regarding performance or resiliency of data that is stored at the persistent storage entity over time, in order to facilitate lower storage cost when using the persistent storage entity, and wherein operation of the storage entity comprises:
receiving a request to store data;
identifying requirements for storing the received data, wherein the requirements comprise at least one of performance relating to how quickly the data must be able to be accessed, or resiliency relating to maintaining availability within a specified statistical figure of the data in the event of a hardware failure at the persistent storage entity;
identifying an initial data layout used at the storage tiers, including identifying constraints of the persistent storage devices of the storage tiers;
in accordance with either or both of the performance and resilience requirements identified for the received data, changing the initial data layout of the at least one storage tier comprising the first type of persistent storage device while still being within the identified constraints for the persistent storage devices so that performance and resilience requirements of data already stored in the initial data layout is preserved; and
using the changed data layout of the at least one storage tier, storing the data at the persistent storage device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first type of persistent storage device comprises one or more hard disk drives (HDDs), and wherein the second type of persistent storage device comprises one or more solid state drives (SSDs).

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the initial data layout while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the initial data layout from simple to mirrored storage by copying existing data from one persistent storage device to another persistent storage device while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data from the first persistent storage device.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the initial data layout from simple to striped storage by copying at least a portion of existing data from one persistent storage device to another persistent storage device while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data from the first persistent storage device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the initial data layout from simple to parity storage by copying at least a portion of existing data from one persistent storage device to another persistent storage device while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data from the first persistent storage device.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the capacity of the storage entity while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the resiliency of at least a portion of data stored at the persistent storage entity while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the persistent storage entity dynamically changes the performance of at least a portion of data stored at the persistent storage entity while the persistent storage entity is storing and providing data.

10. A computer-implemented method of changing a layout configuration for data stored at storage tiers of a persistent storage entity to allow for changing requirements regarding performance or resiliency of data that is stored at the persistent storage entity over time, in order to facilitate lower storage cost when using the persistent storage entity, the computer-implemented method being performed by one or more processors executing computer executable instructions for the computer-implemented method, and the computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving at a persistent storage entity a request to store data, wherein the persistent storage entity has a plurality of storage tiers, at least one storage tier comprising a first type of persistent storage device and at least one other storage tier comprising a second type of persistent storage device;
identifying requirements for storing the received data, wherein the requirements comprise at least one of performance relating to how quickly the data must be able to be accessed, or resiliency relating to maintaining availability within a specified statistical figure of the data in the event of a hardware failure at the persistent storage entity;
identifying an initial data layout used at the storage tiers of the persistent storage entity, including identifying constraints of the persistent storage devices in one or more of the storage tiers of the persistent storage entity;
in accordance with either or both of the performance and resilience requirements identified for the received data, changing the initial data layout of the at least one storage tier comprising the first type of persistent storage device while still being within the identified constraints for the persistent storage devices so that performance and resilience requirements of data already stored in the initial data layout is preserved; and
using the changed data layout of the at least one storage tier, storing the data at the persistent storage device.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein dynamically changing the initial data layout for the data in the persistent storage entity comprises dynamically changing the initial data layout by converting the data from mirror to parity.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein changing the initial data layout for the data in the persistent storage entity comprises dynamically changing the initial data layout by converting the data from striped mirror to non-striped mirror.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein changing the initial data layout for the data in the persistent storage entity comprises dynamically changing the initial data layout by transferring the data from the persistent storage device of the first type to the persistent storage device of the second type.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein changing the initial data layout for the data in the persistent storage entity comprises dynamically changing the initial data layout by converting the data from a device that is resilient to a first number of device failures to a second different number of device failures.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein changing the initial data layout results in a dynamic change to the capacity of the persistent storage entity.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein changing the initial data layout results in a dynamic change to the performance of data access of the data.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein changing the initial data layout results in a dynamic change to the resiliency of the data.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Patel Sachin Chiman
• Rajpal Shiv
• Mehra Karan

Classifications

• G06F3/061

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title

• G06F3/0608 Primary

  Saving storage space on storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0604 Primary

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

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/0619

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title