International Business Machines Corporation

Netapp, Inc.

Lsi Corporation

Ganesh Sivaperuman

Dhaval Kiritbhai Shah

Gaurav Chhaunker

Senthil Kannan

Hariharan Kamalavannan

Muthu A Muthiah

Satish Subramanian

Suresh Dhanarajan

Physical storage devices are configured as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID). As such, storage space of the physical storage devices is allocated to the RAID, and each physical storage device is part of the RAID. Where a portion of the storage space of the physical storage devices is not allocated to the RAID, this portion of the storage space is configured so that it is usable and is not wasted.

Using unused portion of the storage space of physical storage devices configured as a RAID

Physical storage devices are configured as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID). As such, storage space of the physical storage devices is allocated to the RAID, and each physical storage device is part of the RAID. Where a portion of the storage space of the physical storage devices is not allocated to the RAID, this portion of the storage space from a mixed drive capacity is configured so that it is usable and is not wasted.

Disclosed is a low power consumption storage array. Read and write cycles are separated so that a multiple disk array can be spun down during periods when there are no write requests. Cooling fans are operated with a pulse-width modulated signal in response to cooling demand to further reduce energy consumption.

Low power consumption storage array

Disclosed is a method of improving storage reliability comprising receiving an indicator of an impending failure of a first storage device in a RAID group. In response to the indicator, writing data to the first storage device is ceased. A first block of data directed to be written on the first storage device is written to a memory device. Data stored on the first storage device is copied to a second storage device. The first block of data is copied from the memory device to the second storage device. The RAID group is operated with the second storage device functioning in place of the first storage device. Data is read from said second storage device.

Growing community of inventors

Chennai, India

Ganesh Sivaperuman