Netapp, Inc.

Network Appliance, Inc.

Loellyn Jane Cassell

Susan M Coatney

Linda Ann Riedle

Scott A Schoenthal

Sandeep Nirmale

Mayank Saxena

Kyle Diggs Sterling

Sunitha Sunil Sankar

Deepan Natesan Seeralan

Daniel Curtis Wilson

Atul Goel

David Brittain Bolen

James Leong

Brian Christopher Parkison

Edward Barron

John DeGraaf

Rajesh Sundaram

Angel B Aviles

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for storage device health status synchronization. For example, a first health status registry is maintained for a first storage controller at a first storage site. The first storage controller stores storage device health status information of storage devices currently owned by or assigned to the first storage controller within the first health status registry. A second health status registry is maintained for a second storage controller at a second storage site. The second storage controller stores storage device health status information of storage device currently owned by or assigned to the second storage controller within the second health status registry. The first health status registry and the second health status registry are synchronized during operation of the first storage site and the second storage site and/or are merged between the first storage site and the second storage site after disaster recovery.

Storage device health status synchronization

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for generating a macroscopic cluster view of storage devices, as opposed to merely an isolated view from an individual node. For example, nodes within a node cluster may be queried for storage device reports comprising storage device information regarding storage devices with which the nodes are respectively connected (e.g., I/O performance statistics, path connections, storage device attributes, status, error history, etc.). The storage device reports may be aggregated together to define one or more storage device data structures (e.g., a storage device data structure comprising one or more tables that may be populated with storage device information). In this way, the cluster view may be generated based upon querying one or more storage device data structures (e.g., an error cluster view, a storage device cluster view, a node summary cluster view, etc.).

Cluster view for storage devices

This invention provides a system and method for selecting and communicating a single disk (a 'coredump disk') for use in a coredump procedure by a failed file server (or filer). A selection method on the failed filer determines the 'best candidate' coredump disk according to a predetermined set of criteria. For example, the available disks that can receive coredump data are located and ordered so as to prefer disks that best match the coredump data size requirement, are least likely to be needed for normal service by the server; and require the least preparation to receive coredump data. Appropriate attributes on the selected coredump disk are written to indicate that a coredump is in progress, and the location of the coredump data. Upon reboot of the failed filer (or takeover by a cluster partner), the coredump disk is identified and the coredump data recovered by reading back appropriate attributes.

System and method of selection and communication of a disk for storage of a coredump

A multiple node storage system cluster that allows for a takeover by a takeover node simultaneously with a failing node resetting its storage adapters is provided. A takeover monitor on the failing node initiates a 'coredump' procedure by selecting a coredump disk. After selecting the coredump disk, the failing node determines the world wide name (WWN) of that disk and sends this information in a message across the cluster interconnect to the takeover node. In response to receipt of this message, the takeover node begins takeover procedures with respect to all disks except for the coredump disk. The failing node simultaneously resets its storage adapters and writes is memory to the coredump disk. The failing node later updates a completion header on that disk. The takeover node completes the takeover without waiting for the storage adapter reset, and subsequently reads the completion header and copies coredump information into its memory.

System and method for rapid indentification of coredump disks during simultaneous take over

A technique manages the addition of disks to a volume of a storage system. A disk addition procedure is encapsulated into a DISKADD object conforming to a configuration management framework used to implement a RAID subsystem of the storage system. The DISKADD object is responsible for determining a set of available disks required to satisfy a disk addition request issued by an operator through a user interface of a storage operating system executing on the storage system. Furthermore, the DISKADD object is responsible for monitoring the state of the disks, including preparation/initialization of the disks (e.g., disk zeroing) and possible disk failures, as well as placing those disks into RAID groups of the volume once preparation completes. Persistent storage of the state of a pending disk addition is then accomplished using an implementation of the configuration management framework.

Technique for managing addition of disks to a volume of a storage system

A query-based spares management technique enables a storage operating system of a storage system to select disks to be added to one or more RAID groups of a volume. The spares management technique includes an attributes-based disk selection procedure that is performed by the storage operating system in response to an operator-initiated request to add disks to the volume or in response to a demand-driven request resulting from a requirement imposed by the system to add disks to the volume. The disks that are added to the RAID groups of the volume are retrieved from one or more spare pools of disks maintained by the storage system.

Query-based spares management technique

A method and system for rapidly recovering data from a failed disk in a RAID disk group are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a RAID-based storage system identifies a particular disk in a RAID disk group as a 'dead' disk (e.g., incapable of servicing client-initiated requests in a timely manner). Accordingly, a spare disk is allocated to replace the 'dead' disk and client-initiated read/write requests are directed to the spare disk for servicing. In addition, a disk-to-disk copy operation is initiated. Without overwriting valid data on the target disk with stale data from the &#x201c;dead&#x201d; disk, the disk-to-disk copy operation copies data from the &#x201c;dead&#x201d; disk to the target by directly reading data from the &#x201c;dead&#x201d; disk while reconstructing only the data that cannot be read directly from the &#x201c;dead&#x201d; disk.

Method and system for rapidly recovering data from a 'dead' disk in a RAID disk group

A storage system with redundant mass storage device arrays determines that a mass storage device is non-responsive, and individually offlines the specific mass storage device for a temporary period. Reads to the offline mass storage device may be temporarily prevented from reaching the mass storage device, and may be serviced by a redundant array. Write to the offline mass storage device may also be temporarily prevented from reaching the mass storage device, and may be serviced with a temporary storage management that tracks and/or stores write transactions. The mass storage device can be synchronized with the write transactions on the basis of the tracking.

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Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

Loellyn Jane Cassell