Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Robert Dale Rinne

Norbert Paul Kusters

Luis Felipe Cabrera

Peter W Wieland

Catharine Van Ingen

Nathan Steven Obr

Rod N Gamache

A storage device can comprise storage media that can have differing characteristics. A storage manager can obtain the characteristics of a storage device, and of individual portions, such as individual media, of the storage device, by querying the device, querying a database, or through empirical observation or testing. The storage manager can then divide the media of the storage device into storage media parts, that can comprise some or all of the individual storage media. Data can then be stored on one or more storage media parts in accordance with the information provided by metadata associated with the data, such that the data is stored on storage media parts that are optimal for such data, from among the available storage media parts, based on the information from the associated metadata.

Storage optimization across media with differing capabilities

A mount manager and supporting data structures enable automatic identification and re-establishment of logical volumes on non-removable storage devices in a computer system across multiple reboots and reconfigurations. The mount manager generates a redirected name for a new logical volume when a unique volume identifier is presented to the mount manager by the operating system. The mount manager stores the unique volume identifier and the associated redirected name in a persistent mount manager data structure. The mount manager establishes a symbolic link between the persistent redirected name and a non-persistent device name used by the operating system. During the boot process, the mount manager uses the data structure entries identified by the unique volume identifiers of the arriving logical volumes to reconstruct the symbolic links so that references to the redirected name will resolve to the correct non-persistent device name.

Logical volume mount manager

A mount manager and supporting data structures enable automatic identification and re-establishment of logical volumes on non-removable storage devices in a computer system across multiple reboots and reconfigurations. The mount manager generates a redirected name for a new logical volume when a unique volume identifier is presented to the mount manager by the operating system. The mount manager stores the unique volume identifier and the associated redirected name in a persistent mount manager data structure The mount manager establishes a symbolic link between the persistent redirected name, which is used by higher layers of the operating system and user applications to address the logical volume, and a non-persistent device name used by the operating system. During the boot process, the mount manager uses the data structure entries identified by the unique volume identifiers of the arriving logical volumes to reconstruct the symbolic links so that references to the redirected name will resolve to the correct non-persistent device name. When the system undergoes physical reconfiguration, the mount manager associates an existing redirected name to a different non-persistent device name if the unique volume identifier is present in the data structure. In this fashion, logical volumes can be removed and restored in the computer without the knowledge of higher layers of the operating system and user applications. Optionally, the mount manager builds an in-memory data structure from the persistent data structure to increase the speed of the identification process.

The invention provides a method and system for arbitrating for ownership of a logical quorum resource, such as a logical quorum volume, comprising one or more physical quorum resources so as to form a storage network having a plurality of storage devices. Arbitration and volume management responsibilities are cleanly divided between cluster management software and volume management software. The cluster management software handles the arbitration process without knowing the details of how the logical quorum resource is formed. The volume management software handles the formation and management of the logical quorum volume without having details of the arbitration process.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Robert Dale Rinne