Extended file attributes for redundant data storage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9874915-B2
Application number	US-201514740031-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2015
Priority date	Jun 13, 2014
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

A mass data storage system includes a data manager that selects a subset of storage resources for storage of a data file and generates location metadata for the data file defining positions of each storage resource in the selected subset of storage resources. According to one implementation, the data manager further defines an extended file attribute associated with the location metadata.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data storage system comprising:
a data manager that identifies a subset of storage resources in the data storage system for redundant storage of a data file and generates location metadata for the data file defining physical and logical positions of each storage resource in the subset of storage resources, the location metadata referencing a physical position map defining physical positions of the plurality of storage resources with respect to one another.

2. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the data manager further generates an extended file attribute that acts as a pointer identifying a storage location of the location metadata.

3. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the data manager saves the location metadata as one or more extended file attributes associated with the data file.

4. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of storage resources are distributed across a number of different media units, each media unit including multiple drives with shared control electronics.

5. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the location metadata includes a world wide media unit identifier for a media unit associated with each storage resource of the subset of storage resources.

6. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the location metadata references a slot location within a particular rack for each storage resource of the subset of storage resources.

7. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the location metadata includes an index identifying a physical drive position within a particular media unit for each storage resource of the subset of storage resources.

8. The data storage system of claim 1 , wherein the location metadata includes a logical block address associated with each storage resource of the subset of storage resources.

9. A computer-readable storage media encoding a computer program for executing computer process on a computer system, the computer process comprising:
selecting a subset of hardware storage resources in a mass data storage system for redundant storage of a data file;
generating location metadata referencing positions of each of the selected hardware storage resources of the subset, the location metadata referencing a physical position map defining physical positions of the plurality of storage resources with respect to one another;
generating at least one extended file attribute for the data file associated with the location metadata; and
saving at least a portion of the data file on each storage resource of the subset of select hardware storage resources.

10. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9 , wherein the at least one extended file attribute is a pointer identifying a storage location of the location metadata.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9 , wherein the at least one extended file attribute includes the location metadata.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9 , wherein the subset of hardware storage resources are distributed across a number of different media units, each media unit including multiple drives with shared control electronics.

13. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9 , wherein the location metadata includes a world wide media unit identifier for a media unit associated with each storage resource of the subset of hardware storage resources.

14. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9 , wherein the location metadata references a slot location within a particular rack for each storage resource of the subset of hardware storage resources.

15. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9 , wherein the location metadata includes an index identifying a physical drive position within a particular media unit associated with each storage resource of the subset of hardware storage resources.

16. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10 , wherein the location metadata includes a logical block address associated with each storage resource of the subset of hardware storage resources.

17. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10 , wherein the location metadata includes a length indicator indicating a length of saved data for each storage resource of the subset of hardware storage resources.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media encoding a computer program for executing computer process on a computer system, the computer process comprising:
selecting a subset of storage resources in a mass data storage system for storage of a data file;
generating and saving location metadata describing positions of each storage resource of the subset of storage resources, the location metadata referencing a physical position map defining physical positions of the storage resources with respect to one another; and
generating an extended file attribute for the data file that acts as a pointer to the saved location metadata.

19. The computer-readable storage media of claim 18 , wherein the location metadata is distributed across multiple storage resources.

Assignees

• Seagate Technology Llc

Inventors

• Frick Guy David

Classifications

• G06F3/0689 Primary

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

• G06F1/3287

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title

• Y02B60/1246

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F11/2094

  Redundant storage or storage space (G06F11/2056 takes precedence) · CPC title