Lsi Logic Corporation

Netapp, Inc.

Lsi Corporation

Avago Technologies General IP (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Keith W Holt

Dennis E Gates

Bret S Weber

John R Kloeppner

Russell J Henry

Mahmoud K Jibbe

Rodney A DeKoning

Jeremy D Stover

Charles E Nichols

Scott Terrill

Pamela Delaney

Steven James Ralston

William Patrick Delaney

Mohamad H El-Batal

Kevin Lee Kidney

Martin Jess

John Logan

Jason M Stuhlsatz

Louis H Odenwald

John V Sherman

Stephen C Hagan

Andrew A Cottrell

Charles F Nichols

A system and method for improving the management of data input and output (I/O) operations for Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) devices in a network storage system is disclosed. The storage system includes a storage controller that receives a series of write requests for data blocks to be written to non-sequential addresses within a pool of SMR devices. The storage controller writes the data blocks from the series of write requests to a corresponding sequence of data clusters allocated within a first data cache of the storage controller for a thinly provisioned volume of the pool of SMR devices. Upon determining that a current utilization of the first data cache's data storage capacity exceeds a threshold, the sequence of data clusters including the data blocks from the first data cache are transferred to sequential physical addresses within the SMR devices.

Managing input/output operations for shingled magnetic recording in a storage system

A method, a computing device, and a non-transitory machine-readable medium for replacing an unreadable sector in a storage system is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes identifying a sector from a plurality of sectors in a physical memory of a storage device in a storage system as an unreadable sector. An unreadable sector is a sector that includes data that had been corrupted and cannot be recovered from data in the storage system. In some embodiments, the unreadable sector is recovered by receiving a copy of a sector identified as the unreadable sector from a cloud storage, where the copy of the sector stores readable data and the cloud storage is a separate storage from the storage system. The method then includes replacing the unreadable sector with the copy at the sector at a memory location in the physical memory occupied by the unreadable sector.

Recovering unreadable data for a vaulted volume

Methods and structure for online migration of data in a storage system comprising a plurality of storage devices. The method comprises redefining a volume of a storage system mapped according to a first mapping structure by defining a second mapping structure. The method further comprises quiescing processing of host I/O requests directed to the volume and transitioning control of the volume from a first to a second volume manager so as to utilize the benefits of the second mapping structure. The method further comprises commencing processing of host I/O requests directed to the volume wherein the volume is mapped according to the second mapping structure. The method further comprises migrating, via the second volume manager, volume data to any of a plurality of storage devices of the system, online, without interrupting processing of host I/O requests directed to the volume. This migrates volume data without significant downtime or wasted space.

Methods and structure for online migration of data in storage systems comprising a plurality of storage devices

A method for merging a source electronic memory storage cluster into a destination electronic memory storage cluster may include designating a source storage cluster having a first configuration; designating a destination storage cluster having a second configuration; receiving a configuration database including mapping information associated with the first configuration of the source storage cluster; merging the configuration database for the source storage cluster into the destination storage cluster; identifying a conflict between the source storage cluster configuration and the destination storage cluster configuration by comparing mapping information for the imported configuration database for the source storage cluster to mapping information for a configuration database associated with the second configuration of the destination storage cluster; resolving the identified conflict between the source storage cluster configuration and the destination storage cluster configuration; and merging the configuration database for the source storage cluster into the destination storage cluster after resolving the identified conflict.

Merging a storage cluster into another storage cluster

A controller system for detecting and matching link speeds. The present invention provides for a controller system. The controller system is a first controller and a first port. The first port is located in the first controller and has a first link speed. The first controller is adapted to match the first link speed to a second link speed of a second port of a first controlled device that is connectable to the first controller.

Devices and methods for matching link speeds between controllers and controlled devices

A method for offloading a cache memory is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) reading all of a plurality of cache lines from the cache memory in response to an assertion of a signal to offload of the cache memory, (B) generating a plurality of blocks by dividing the cache lines in accordance with a RAID configuration and (C) writing the blocks among a plurality of nonvolatile memories in the RAID configuration, wherein each of the nonvolatile memories has a write bandwidth less than a read bandwidth of the cache memory.

System for optimizing the performance and reliability of a storage controller cache offload circuit

The present invention is directed to a method and system for disk drive data recovery utilizing CRC information and RAID parity. CRC meta data is compared with either the CRC generated from the data read from the disk drive or the CRC generated from the data reconstructed from the parity drive. If the CRC metadata matches the CRC generated from the data read from the disk drive, the data from the disk drive is accepted as valid. Otherwise, another comparison is made between the CRC generated from data reconstructed from RAID parity and the CRC metadata. If there is a match, the reconstructed data is used as the valid data; otherwise, the data read from the disk drive is used as valid data.

Method for using CRC as metadata to protect against drive anomaly errors in a storage array

A method and system for facilitating communication between computer subnets are provided. One embodiment of the present invention comprises presetting buffers in an internal subnet, wherein the buffers help route external commands to a plurality of devices within the internal subnet. When a command from an external subnet is received by the internal subnet, the command is translated and sent to the proper internal device, as determined by the buffers. The command is then performed by the proper internal device. In another embodiment of the present invention, translation mapping are established for the internal subnet. When a command is received from an external subnet, the destination address associated with the command is translated to the address of the appropriate internal device, and the command is then sent directly to the internal device, which performs the command. By using either the buffer or translation mappings, the internal subnet appears to be a single device to the external subnet.

Infiniband isolation bridge merged with architecture of an infiniband translation bridge

The present invention is an apparatus and method for protecting against drive anomaly errors while optimizing random read performance. Data block persistency is explicitly verified when a data block is written. Data block integrity and location checks are performed by reading data from a single drive. Through such a process, reading of metadata from a second drive is not required, thus decreasing the drive I/O workload. In an example of the invention, a combination of a CRC and a location tag interleaved as metadata along with user data on a single drive may be employed to perform a read operation in accordance with the present invention.

Optimized read performance method using metadata to protect against drive anomaly errors in a storage array

Systems and methods for handling I/O requests from a host system to a storage system. A system includes an I/O module for processing I/O requests from a host system, a virtualized storage element, and a communication medium coupling the I/O module to the virtualized storage elements. The virtualized storage element includes a mapping table for translating virtual storage locations into physical storage locations and a plurality of physical storage locations. The virtualized storage element generates base virtual addresses using the mapping table to communicate the base virtual addresses to the I/O module. The I/O module generates specific virtual addresses using the base virtual addresses and using information derived from the I/O requests. The I/O module uses the specific virtual addresses in communication with the virtualized storage element to identify the physical storage locations in the virtualized storage element.

Method and apparatus for handling storage requests

A hardware assisted searching mechanism is provided that offloads the processor from searching operations. In a preferred embodiment, the hardware assisted searching mechanism performs a binary search of an associated 32 bit register against a binary search table that is set up by the firmware of the storage system. From this binary search table, an index into other structures stored in firmware is obtained that may be used to identify a target device. For example, when a search is to be performed due to receipt of an I/O operation, the firmware, i.e. software instructions stored in the persistent memory chip that are executed by the system processor, writes a 32 bit value to a hardware register that is used by the hardware assisted searching mechanism of the present invention. The hardware assisted searching mechanism performs a binary search of a binary search table based on the contents of the hardware register and returns an index of the entry in another hardware register. This index is then used to index into a storage device mapping structure stored in the firmware that are indexed in the same manner as the binary search table. The index provides a starting point in the storage device mapping structure and from this starting point, the logical unit number is used to identify a particular storage array and logical unit number for the destination of the I/O operation.

Method and apparatus for performing a high speed binary search in time critical environments

The present invention is a method and system for associating metadata with user data in a storage array in a manner that provides independence between metadata management and a storage controller's cache block size. Metadata may be associated with user data according to multiple fashions in order to provide a desired performance benefit. In one example, the metadata may be associated according to a segment basis to maximize random I/O performance and may be associated according to a stripe basis to maximize sequential I/O performance.

Method for loosely coupling metadata and data in a storage array

Structures and methods for non-intrusive testing of communication signals exchanged between two circuit boards via an intermediate interconnect board. In one aspect hereof, the functional signal normally exchanged between the circuits is latched during the exchange of test signals and the latched functional signal is utilized within the circuit that normally receives the functional signal to continue normal operations. In another aspect hereof, the test signals are exchanged over a dedicated test signal path between the two circuits. In another aspect hereof, the test signals are exchanged over the functional signal paths as out of band signals.

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Wichita, KS, United States of America

Keith W Holt