Audible mapping of physical hard disk devices within a storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9972361-B2
Application number	US-201514968256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

Various embodiments for audibly mapping computing components in a computer storage system, by a processor device, are provided. In one embodiment, a method comprises creating a detectible audible pattern using an actuator arm and head assembly of a hard disk drive operating in the computer storage system for physically mapping the hard disk drive to a logical location within the computer storage system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for audibly mapping computing components in a computer storage system, by a processor device, comprising:
creating a detectible audible pattern using an actuator arm and head assembly of a hard disk drive operating in the computer storage system to physically map the hard disk drive to a logical location within the computer storage system by capturing the detectible audible pattern using a microphone of a handheld device placed in close proximity to the hard disk drive emitting the detectible audible pattern and recognizing the detectible audible pattern by an application executing on the handheld device; wherein the application creates the mapping between a physical location of the hard disk drive cross-referenced with the logical location in the computer storage system by communicating with the computer storage system during the emitting of the detectible audible pattern;
initiating a repeating pattern of read operations on the hard disk drive by the computer storage system for producing the detectible audible pattern;
identifying, by the computer storage system, logical block addresses (LBAs) on the hard disk drive which result in a farthest bidirectional traveling of the actuator arm and head assembly across platters of the hard disk drive when executing the repeating pattern of read operations;
determining an optimal read pattern of the identified LBAs that most effectively creates an audible signal from the hard disk drive;
cycling, by the computer storage system, the repeating pattern of read operations for producing the detectible audible pattern through a plurality of hard disk drives operating within the computer storage system;
stopping the cycling when the application executing on the handheld device placed in close proximity to the hard disk drive emitting the detectible audible pattern captures and recognizes the emitted detectible audible pattern; and
saving the physical location of the hard disk drive on a map.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including maintaining the map by one of the computer storage system and the application executing on the handheld device of the saved physical location.

3. A system for audibly mapping computing components in a computer storage system, comprising:
a handheld device; and
the computer storage system having at least one processor device, wherein the at least one processor device:
creates a detectible audible pattern using an actuator arm and head assembly of a hard disk drive operating in the computer storage system to physically map the hard disk drive to a logical location within the computer storage system by capturing the detectible audible pattern using a microphone of the handheld device placed in close proximity to the hard disk drive emitting the detectible audible pattern and recognizing the detectible audible pattern by an application executing on the handheld device; wherein the application creates the mapping between a physical location of the hard disk drive cross-referenced with the logical location in the computer storage system by communicating with the computer storage system during the emitting of the detectible audible pattern;
initiates a repeating pattern of read operations on the hard disk drive by the computer storage system for producing the detectible audible pattern;
identifies logical block addresses (LBAs) on the hard disk drive which result in a farthest bidirectional traveling of the actuator arm and head assembly across platters of the hard disk drive when executing the repeating pattern of read operations;
determines an optimal read pattern of the identified LBAs that most effectively creates an audible signal from the hard disk drive;
cycles the repeating pattern of read operations for producing the detectible audible pattern through a plurality of hard disk drives operating within the computer storage system;
stops the cycling when the application executing on the handheld device placed in close proximity to the hard disk drive emitting the detectible audible pattern captures and recognizes the emitted detectible audible pattern; and
saves the physical location of the hard disk drive on a map.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the at least one processor device maintains the map by one of the computer storage system and the application executing on the handheld device of the saved physical location.

5. A computer program product for audibly mapping computing components in a computer storage system by at least one processor device, the computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:
an executable portion that creates a detectible audible pattern using an actuator arm and head assembly of a hard disk drive operating in the computer storage system to physically map the hard disk drive to a logical location within the computer storage system by capturing the detectible audible pattern using a microphone of a handheld device placed in close proximity to the hard disk drive emitting the detectible audible pattern and recognizing the detectible audible pattern by an application executing on the handheld device; wherein the application creates the mapping between a physical location of the hard disk drive cross-referenced with the logical location in the computer storage system by communicating with the computer storage system during the emitting of the detectible audible pattern;
an executable portion that initiates a repeating pattern of read operations on the hard disk drive by the computer storage system for producing the detectible audible pattern;
an executable portion that identifies, by the computer storage system, logical block addresses (LBAs) on the hard disk drive which result in a farthest bidirectional traveling of the actuator arm and head assembly across platters of the hard disk drive when executing the repeating pattern of read operations;
an executable portion that determines an optimal read pattern of the identified LBAs that most effectively creates an audible signal from the hard disk drive;
an executable portion that cycles, by the computer storage system, the repeating pattern of read operations for producing the detectible audible pattern through a plurality of hard disk drives operating within the computer storage system;
an executable portion that stops the cycling when the application executing on the handheld device placed in close proximity to the hard disk drive emitting the detectible audible pattern captures and recognizes the emitted detectible audible pattern; and
an executable portion that saves the physical location of the hard disk drive on a map.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , further comprising an executable portion that maintains the map by one of the computer storage system and the application executing on the handheld device of the saved physical location.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Goldberg Itzhack
• Mcgregor Harry
• Moore Christopher B
• Sondhi Neil

Classifications

• G06F3/0614 Primary

  Improving the reliability of storage systems · CPC title

• G11B20/1217

  on discs · CPC title

• G11B2020/1241

  user area, i.e. the area of a disc where user data are to be recorded · CPC title

• H04R29/00

  Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements {(for hearing aids H04R25/30; detection of loudspeaker connection H04R5/04; sound-field adaptation dependent on speaker detection H04S7/308)} · CPC title

• G11B33/121 Primary

  the apparatus comprising a single recording/reproducing device · CPC title