Managing data within a storage device based on file system metadata

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9639275-B2
Application number	US-201414453200-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2014
Priority date	Aug 6, 2014
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

Commands associated with one or more logical block addresses are received via a host interface of a storage device. Based on a timing and sequence of the commands, an extent of a file that contains the logical block addresses is determined, the file being stored on the storage device. The logical block addresses are managed internally as a unitary data structure based on determining an association between the logical block addresses and the file.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving commands via a host interface of a storage device, the commands associated with logical block addresses;
determining a histogram of activity over a period of time as a function of the logical block addresses based on the commands, wherein address ranges that show relatively high levels of activity in the histogram indicate regions of filesystem metadata;
determining, based on a timing and sequence of the commands associated with the regions of the filesystem metadata, an extent of a file that contains the logical block addresses, the file being stored on a persistent data storage medium of the storage device, wherein determining the extent of the file based on the timing and sequence of the commands comprises identifying the filesystem metadata and file space within the storage device based on a short access to the regions of the filesystem metadata followed by a longer access to another region used for the file space; and
managing storage of the logical block addresses to the persistent data storage medium as a unitary data structure based on determining an association between the logical block addresses and the file.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein managing the storage of the logical block addresses comprises one or more of storing the file in a selected media tier of the persistent data storage medium and compressing the file.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein managing the storage of the logical block addresses comprises determining a frequency of access of the file and storing the file in physical memory location of the persistent data storage medium suitable for the frequency of access.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the histogram is weighted based on size of access requests associated with the logical block addresses, such that relatively smaller access requests are assigned higher counts in the histogram.

5. A method comprising:
determining, via a controller of a storage device, a histogram of activity over a period of time as a function of logical block addresses of the storage device, the histogram being weighted based on sizes of access requests associated with the logical block addresses such that relatively smaller access requests are assigned higher counts in the histogram, wherein address ranges that show higher levels of activity the histogram indicate regions of filesystem metadata stored on persistent data storage media of the storage device;
receiving commands via a host interface of the storage device, the commands associated with one or more logical block addresses;
determining, based on the filesystem metadata, an extent of a file that contains the one or more logical block addresses, the file being stored on the storage device; and
managing storage of the one or more logical block addresses to the persistent data storage medium as a unitary data structure based on determining an association between the one or more logical block addresses and the file.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the filesystem metadata is further determined based on a master boot record stored on the storage device.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the filesystem metadata comprises a name of the file, and wherein the one or more logical block addresses are managed further based on a content type of the file, wherein the content type is determined based on the name of the file.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more logical block addresses are managed further based on a content type of the file, wherein the content type is determined based header data within the file.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein managing the storage of the one or more logical block addresses comprises one of more of storing the file in a selected media tier of the persistent data storage medium and compressing the file.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein managing the storage of the one or more logical block addresses comprises determining a frequency of access of the file and storing the file in physical memory location of the persistent data storage medium suitable for the frequency of access.

11. A storage device, comprising:
a controller configured to be coupled with a host interface and a persistent data storage medium, the controller configured with instructions to perform:
determining a histogram of activity over a period of time as a function of logical block addresses of the storage device, the histogram being weighted based on sizes of access requests associated with the logical block addresses such that relatively smaller access requests are assigned higher counts in the histogram, wherein address ranges that show higher levels of activity indicate regions of filesystem metadata stored on the storage medium;
receiving commands via the host interface, the commands associated with one or more logical block addresses;
determining, based on the filesystem metadata, an extent of a file that contains the one or more logical block addresses, the file being stored on the storage medium; and
managing storage of the one or more logical block addresses to the persistent data storage medium as a unitary data structure based on determining an association between the one or more logical block addresses and the file.

12. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the filesystem metadata is determined based on a master boot record stored on the storage device.

13. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the filesystem metadata comprises a name of the file, and wherein the one or more logical block addresses are managed further based on a content type of the file, wherein the content type is determined based on the name of the file.

14. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more logical block addresses are managed further based on a content type of the file, wherein the content type is determined based header data within the file.

15. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein managing the storage of the one or more logical block addresses comprises one or more of storing the file in a selected tier of the persistent data storage medium and compressing the file.

16. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein managing the storage of the one or more logical block addresses comprises determining a frequency of access of the file and storing the file in physical memory location of the persistent data storage medium suitable for the frequency of access.

17. A method comprising:
receiving commands via a host interface of a storage device, the commands associated with logical block addresses;
determining a histogram of activity over a period of time as a function of the logical block addresses based on the commands, wherein address ranges that show relatively high levels of activity in the histogram indicate regions of filesystem metadata and also indicate a region of virtual memory, wherein the region of virtual memory is distinguished from the filesystem metadata based on levels of activity during system startup;
determining, based on a timing and sequence of the commands associated with the regions of the filesystem metadata, an extent of a file that contains the logical block addresses, the file being stored on a persistent data storage medium of the storage device; and
managing storage of the logical block addresses to the persistent data storage medium as a unitary data structure based on determining an association between the logical block addresses and the file.

Assignees

• Seagate Technology Llc

Inventors

• Li Peng
• Bohn Richard Esten
• Tetzlaff David

Classifications

• G06F3/0616

  in relation to life time, e.g. increasing Mean Time Between Failures [MTBF] · CPC title

• G06F3/0643

  Management of files · CPC title

• G06F2003/0692

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/0674

  Disk device · CPC title

• G06F3/061 Primary

  Improving I/O performance · CPC title