Storing data in multi-region storage devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9880913-B2
Application number	US-201514968285-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus comprises a storage controller coupled to at least one multi-region storage device. The at least one multi-region storage device comprises two or more storage regions, the two or more storage regions comprising a first storage region associated with a first set of failure characteristics and at least a second storage region associated with a second set of failure characteristics different than the first set of failure characteristics. The storage controller is configured to replicate in the second storage region at least a portion of data that is stored in the first storage region.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a storage controller coupled to at least one multi-region storage device;
wherein the at least one multi-region storage device comprises two or more storage regions, the two or more storage regions comprising a first storage region associated with a first set of failure characteristics and at least a second storage region associated with a second set of failure characteristics different than the first set of failure characteristics;
wherein the storage controller is configured to replicate in the second storage region at least a portion of data that is stored in the first storage region; and
wherein the storage controller is configured to replicate in the second storage region at least a portion of the data that is stored in the first storage region responsive to detecting a failure in a third storage region of the at least one multi-region storage device, the third storage region having a third set of failure characteristics similar to the first set of failure characteristics.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the two or more storage regions of the at least one multi-region storage device are predefined.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the two or more storage regions of the at least one multi-region storage device are defined by analyzing a physical structure of the multi-region storage device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the two or more storage regions of the at least one multi-region storage device are defined by analyzing failure patterns of the multi-region storage device.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the failure patterns are obtained by the storage controller from a Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) monitoring system of the at least one multi-region storage drive.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the storage controller is further configured:
to detect a failure in the first storage region; and
to reconstruct at least a portion of the data stored in the first storage region in a fourth storage region of the at least one multi-region storage device utilizing the replicated data stored in the second storage region.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first set of failure characteristics and the second set of failure characteristics comprise information indicating susceptibility to different types of failure.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the different types of failure comprise one or more of:
failure of one or more recording heads of the at least one multi-region storage device; and
degradation of a surface coating of a storage medium of the at least one multi-region storage device.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the storage controller is configured to utilize respective ones of the two or more storage regions as storage volumes in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID).

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one multi-region storage device comprises:
a first multi-region storage device having a first plurality of storage regions associated with respective different sets of failure characteristics; and
a second multi-region storage device having a second plurality of storage regions associated with respective different sets of failure characteristics.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first storage region and the second storage region are both part of the first multi-region storage device.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first storage region is part of the first multi-region storage device and the second storage region is part of the second multi-region storage device.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first storage region comprises at least a portion of a first surface of a disk platter of the at least one multi-region storage device; and
the second storage region comprises at least a portion of a second surface of the disk platter of the at least one multi-region storage device.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first storage region comprises at least a portion of a first area of one or more disk platters of the at least one multi-region storage device accessed via a first recording head of the at least one multi-region storage device; and
the second storage region comprises at least a portion of a second area of the one or more disk platters of the at least one multi-region storage device accessed via a second recording head of the at least one multi-region storage device.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the first storage region comprises at least a portion of a first disk platter of the at least one multi-region storage device; and
the second storage region comprises at least a portion of a second disk platter of the at least one multi-region storage device.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one multi-region storage device comprises a hybrid hard drive comprising a hard disk drive and a flash memory;
the first storage region comprises at least a portion of the hard disk drive; and
the second storage region comprises at least a portion of the flash memory.

17. A computing system comprising at least one processing device coupled to the apparatus of claim 1 .

18. A method comprising:
defining two or more storage regions of at least one multi-region storage device, the two or more storage regions comprising a first storage region associated with a first set of failure characteristics and at least a second storage region associated with a second set of failure characteristics different than the first set of failure characteristics; and
replicating in the second storage region at least a portion of data that is stored in the first storage region;
wherein replicating in the second storage region at least a portion of the data that is stored in the first storage region is responsive to detecting a failure in a third storage region of the at least one multi-region storage device, the third storage region having a third set of failure characteristics similar to the first set of failure characteristics.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium for storing computer readable program code which, when executed, causes a computer:
to define two or more storage regions of at least one multi-region storage device, the two or more storage regions comprising a first storage region associated with a first set of failure characteristics and at least a second storage region associated with a second set of failure characteristics different than the first set of failure characteristics; and
to replicate in the second storage region at least a portion of data that is stored in the first storage region;
wherein replicating in the second storage region at least a portion of the data that is stored in the first storage region is responsive to detecting a failure in a third storage region of the at least one multi-region storage device, the third storage region having a third set of failure characteristics similar to the first set of failure characteristics.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the two or more storage regions of the at least one multi-region storage device are defined by analyzing failure patterns of the multi-region storage device.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Abali Bulent
• Banikazemi Mohammad
• Chainer Timothy J
• Hafner James L
• Poff Dan E
• Surugucchi Krishnakumar Rao

Classifications

• G06F11/2069 Primary

  Management of state, configuration or failover · CPC title

• G06F3/0619

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

• G06F11/2087

  with a common controller · CPC title

• G06F3/0689

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

• G06F2201/805

  Real-time · CPC title