International Business Machines Corporation

Barry Douglas Whyte

William James Scales

Robert Bruce Nicholson

Paul Nicholas Cashman

Carlos Francisco Fuente

David John Carr

Ian David Judd

Michael John Jones

Reginald Beer

Robert Frank Maddock

Paul Hooton

Andrew Key

Geoff Lane

Lee Jason Sanders

Stephen Peter Legg

Nicholas Michael O'Rourke

Neil Morris

Amadeo Asco

Gregory Dalton

Tommy Rickard

Gordon Douglas Hutchison

Bruce McNutt

Simon Walsh

David Adam Sinclair

Alistair Laesk Symon

Peter John Deacon

Ian Frederick Godwin

Steven Michael Hurley

Rober James Marris

A plurality of functions to configure a unit of a storage volume is maintained, wherein each of the plurality of functions, in response to being applied to the unit of the storage volume, configures the unit of the storage volume differently. Statistics are computed on growth rate of data and access characteristics of the data stored in the unit of the storage volume. A determination is made as to which of the plurality of functions to apply to the unit of the storage volume, based on the computed statistics.

Automated selection of functions to reduce storage capacity based on performance requirements

A data storage system comprises a controller, a first lower performance storage medium and a second higher performance storage medium. The controller is connected to the storage mediums and is arranged to control Input/Output (IO) access to the storage mediums. In operation, the controller is arranged to store an image on the first storage medium, initiate a copy function from the first storage medium to the second storage medium, direct all IO access for the image to the second storage medium, and periodically age data from the second storage medium to the first storage medium.

Data storage and moving of relatively infrequently accessed data among storage of different types

A storage management method for use in a storage area network is provided. The storage area network comprises a plurality of host data processors coupled to a virtualization engine, which is coupled to a plurality of physical storage media. Each physical storage media is assigned a tier level. The method comprises storing a threshold storage access value associated with each tier level, presenting virtual disk(s) to a host data processor and receiving I/O requests to the virtual disk from the host data processor. Additionally, metadata is stored which identifies the tier level of the physical storage to which the block corresponds, mappings between the block and blocks of a virtual disk, and an access rate to the data. The access value is periodically compared to at least one threshold rate associated with its tier level. Depending on the result, storage block(s) may be marked for migration to another tier level.

Virtualization engine and method, system, and computer program product for managing the storage of data

A data storage system comprises a controller, a first lower performance storage medium and a second higher performance storage medium. The controller is connected to the storage mediums and is arranged to control I/O access to the storage mediums. The controller is further arranged to store an image on the first storage medium, initiate a copy function from the first storage medium to the second storage medium, direct all I/O access for the image to the second storage medium, periodically age data from the second storage medium to the first storage medium, create a new empty bitmap for each period, and in response to an I/O access for data in the image, update the latest bitmap to indicate that the data has been accessed and update the previous bitmaps to indicate that the data has not been accessed.

Data storage using bitmaps

There are provided a method, a system and a computer program product for minimizing data transfer latency between redundant storage controllers in a network-based storage controller system that utilizes adaptive data throttling. Each corresponding redundant storage controller calculates average time latency for round trip communications between the corresponding redundant storage controller and the other redundant storage controllers during a fixed monitoring period. The corresponding redundant storage controller, at the end of each fixed monitoring period, compares the average time latency to a fixed latency. The corresponding redundant storage controller selectively throttles data transfer between the corresponding redundant storage controller and a server and data transfer between the corresponding redundant storage controller and a back-end storage, based on the comparison.

Adaptive data throttling for storage controllers

An apparatus for real-time performance management of a virtualized storage system operable in a network having managed physical storage and virtual storage presented by an in-band virtualization controller comprises: a monitoring component operable in communication with the network for acquiring performance data from the managed physical storage and the virtual storage; and a cache controller component responsive to the monitoring component for adjusting cache parameters for the virtual storage. The apparatus may further comprise a queue controller component responsive to the monitoring component for adjusting queue parameters for the managed physical storage. The monitoring component, the cache controller component and the queue controller component may be configured to operate periodically during operation of the virtualized storage system.

Virtualized storage performance controller

A method, and system for employing the method, for virtual data storage migration providing a plurality of data storage devices communicating with at least one computer system. A plurality of data being managed by the computer system and an archive data storage device is selected from the plurality of data storage devices. Specified data is selected for archiving in the archive data storage device when the archive data meets a specified archive criteria. After the archived specified data is accessed in the archive data storage device at a predetermined frequency, the archive data is migrated to an active data storage device in a powered up state. The archive data storage device is then powering down.

Virtual storage migration technique to minimize spinning disks

A method for minimizing latency of data transfer between the redundant storage controllers in a network-based storage controller system that utilizes adaptive data throttling. Each redundant storage controller monitors latency for round trip communications between the redundant controllers by calculating a time required to mirror a write to the other controller and receive a write acknowledge. An average latency for round trip communications between the redundant controllers during a fixed monitoring period is calculated, and at the end of each fixed monitoring period, the average latency is compared to a fixed latency to access the average time latency for mirroring writes is good, acceptable or unacceptable. If the average time latency is good, the one controller reduces or disables throttling for data transfers between the one controller and the server, and between the one controller and back-end storage, increasing a number of this type of data transfer that can be executed in parallel. If the average time latency is acceptable, the one controller does not adjust throttling for data transfers between the one controller and the server, and between the one controller and back-end storage. If the average time latency is unacceptable, the one controller increases data throttling for data transfers between the one controller and the server, and between the controller and the back-end storage, decreasing a number of this type of data transfer that can be executed in parallel.

The present invention provides for a method, system, and computer program product for managing the storage of data. Data is selectively compressed based on a pre-defined compression policy and metadata is stored for physical storage blocks. A stored compression policy identifies at least one criterion for compression, and physical blocks of data meeting the compression policy are identified. A physical block is selected as a source block for data compression, and one or more physical locations are selected as target locations. Data is read from the source block, compressed, and written to the target locations. Metadata is updated to indicate a mapping between the target locations and the virtual blocks previously mapped to the source block. Extra storage capacity can be freed up until more physical storage is ordered and installed, while more important data, such as recently or frequently accessed data, is retained in an uncompressed and accessible state.

Method, system and computer program product for managing the storage of data

Growing community of inventors

Eastleigh, United Kingdom

Barry Douglas Whyte