Flow control for unaligned writes in network storage device

Abstract

Methods, systems, and programs are presented for controlling the flow of data into a device in the presence of writes that are unaligned along boundaries associated with a block size. One method includes operations for identifying admission data rates for volumes, and for tracking a utilization rate of a memory that stores data of incoming writes. The method determines if incoming writes include unaligned data. When the memory utilization rate is above a first threshold, a first flow control is applied that includes a reduction of admission rates of volumes having unaligned writes while maintaining admission rates of volumes without unaligned writes. When the utilization rate is above a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold, a second flow control is applied in addition to the first flow control. The second flow control includes a reduction of a system admission rate for all incoming writes.