Power handling in a scalable storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9678910-B2
Application number	US-201514694578-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2015
Priority date	Apr 25, 2014
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatuses, and software for data storage systems are provided herein. In one example, a data storage assembly is provided. The data storage assembly includes a plurality of storage drives each comprising a PCIe host interface and solid state storage media, with each of the storage drives configured to store and retrieve data responsive to storage operations received over an associated PCIe host interface. The data storage assembly includes a PCIe switch circuit coupled to the PCIe host interfaces of the storage drives and configured to receive the storage operations issued by one or more host systems over a shared PCIe interface and transfer the storage operations for delivery to the storage drives over selected ones of the PCIe host interfaces. The data storage assembly includes holdup circuitry configured to provide power to at least the storage drives after input power is lost to the data storage assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data storage assembly, comprising:
at least one assembly connector configured to interface with at least one mating connector of a storage system chassis;
a plurality of storage drives each comprising a drive Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface and solid state storage media, with each of the plurality of storage drives configured to store and retrieve data responsive to storage operations received over the associated drive PCIe interface;
a PCIe switch circuit coupled to the drive PCIe interfaces of the plurality of storage drives and configured to receive the storage operations issued by one or more host systems over a shared PCIe interface carried by the at least one assembly connector, and transfer the storage operations for delivery to the plurality of storage drives over selected ones of the drive PCIe interfaces;
holdup circuitry configured to provide power to at least the plurality of storage drives after input power is lost to the data storage assembly over the at least one assembly connector;
based at least on the input power being lost due to removal of the data storage assembly from the at least one mating connector of the storage system chassis, controller circuitry configured to bleed excess power into a load circuit of the data storage assembly responsive to commit of in-flight write operations for the plurality of storage drives; and
based at least on the input power being lost without removal of the data storage assembly from the at least one mating connector of the storage system chassis, the controller circuitry configured to direct the excess power over the at least one assembly connector for use by at least one other data storage assembly in the storage system chassis.

2. The data storage assembly of claim 1 , further comprising:
the controller circuitry configured to receive power from the holdup circuitry after the input power is lost; and
the controller circuitry configured to identify when the input power is lost and instruct the holdup circuitry to provide the power to at least the plurality of storage drives.

3. The data storage assembly of claim 1 , comprising:
the controller circuitry configured to monitor the plurality of storage drives to determine a state of at least write operations among the storage operations and selectively power down ones of the plurality of storage drives according to completion of associated write operations for the ones of the plurality of storage drives.

4. The data storage assembly of claim 1 , comprising:
the controller circuitry configured to determine when a voltage provided by the holdup circuitry falls below a threshold voltage level, and responsively disable a voltage converter associated with the holdup circuitry.

5. The data storage assembly of claim 1 , comprising:
the controller circuitry configured to bleed the excess power into the load circuit of the data storage assembly comprising a light-emitting diode (LED) that bleeds the excess power while indicating that the excess power remains in the data storage assembly.

6. The data storage assembly of claim 1 , comprising:
the controller circuitry configured to receive management instructions received over the at least one assembly connector that indicate when to redistribute the holdup power over the at least one assembly connector when the input power is lost.

7. A method of operating a data storage assembly having at least one assembly connector configured to interface with at least one mating connector of a storage system chassis, the method comprising:
in a plurality of storage drives each comprising a drive Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface and solid state storage media, storing and retrieving data responsive to storage operations received over an associated drive PCIe interface;
in a PCIe switch circuit coupled to the drive PCIe interfaces of the plurality of storage drives, receiving the storage operations issued by one or more host systems over a shared PCIe interface carried by the at least one assembly connector and transferring the storage operations for delivery to the plurality of storage drives over selected ones of the drive PCIe interfaces;
in holdup circuitry, providing power to at least the plurality of storage drives after input power is lost to the data storage assembly over the at least one assembly connector;
based at least on the input power being lost due to removal of the data storage assembly from the at least one mating connector of the storage system chassis, bleeding excess power into a load circuit of the data storage assembly responsive to commit of in-flight write operations for the plurality of storage drives; and
based at least on the input power being lost without removal of the data storage assembly from the at least one mating connector of the storage system chassis, directing the excess power over the at least one assembly connector for use by at least one other data storage assembly in the storage system chassis.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving power for controller circuitry of the data storage assembly from the holdup circuitry after the input power is lost, and identifying, in the controller circuitry, when the input power is lost and instructing the holdup circuitry to provide the power to at least the plurality of storage drives.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
monitoring the plurality of storage drives to determine a state of at least write operations among the storage operations and selectively powering down ones of the plurality of storage drives according to completion of associated write operations for the ones of the plurality of storage drives.

10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining when a voltage provided by the holdup circuitry falls below a threshold voltage level, and responsively disabling a voltage converter associated with the holdup circuitry.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
bleeding the excess power into the load circuit of the data storage assembly comprising a light-emitting diode (LED) that bleeds the excess power while indicating that the excess power remains in the data storage assembly.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
in controller circuitry, receiving management instructions over the at least one assembly connector that indicate when to redistribute the holdup power over the at least one assembly connector when the input power is lost.

13. A data storage module insertable into a computing system chassis, comprising:
at least one module connector configured to interface with at least one mating connector of the computing system chassis;
a plurality of storage drives each configured to store and retrieve data responsive to storage operations received over associated host interfaces;
communication circuitry coupled to the host interfaces of the plurality of storage drives and configured to receive the storage operations issued by one or more host systems over a shared interface carried by the at least one module connector, and transfer the storage operations for delivery to the plurality of storage drives over selected ones of the host interfaces;
power control circuitry configured to provide holdup power to at least the plurality of storage drives after input power is lost to the data storage module over the at least one module connector;
based at least on the input power being lost due to removal of the data storage module from the at least one mating connector of the computing system chassis, the power control circuitry configured to bleed excess power into a load circuit of the dat

Assignees

• Liqid Inc

Inventors

• Breakstone Jason
• Long Christopher

Classifications

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title

• G06F13/4022 Primary

  using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network (G06F13/4009 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F13/4221

  being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus · CPC title

• G05B11/01

  electric · CPC title

• G06F3/0658

  Controller construction arrangements · CPC title