| Entries |
| Document | Title | Date |
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| 20110126045 | MEMORY SYSTEM WITH MULTIPLE STRIPING OF RAID GROUPS AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING THE SAME - A data memory system is described, where there may be an asymmetry in the time needed to write or erase data and the time needed to read data. The data may be stored using a RAID data storage arrangement and the reading, writing and erasing operations on the modules arranged such that the erasing and writing operations may be performed without significant latency for performing a read operation. Where a failure of a memory module in the memory system occurs, methods for recovering the data of the failed module are disclosed which may selected in accordance with policies that may relate to the minimizing the possibility of irretrievable data loss, or degradation of latency performance. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110167294 | STORAGE SYSTEM FOR RESTORING DATA STORED IN FAILED STORAGE DEVICE - A storage system including: a controller; and, a plurality of physical storage devices coupled to the controller and constituting a RAID group; wherein the controller provides one or more logical volumes belonging to the RAID group, each of the one or more logical volumes having a plurality of storage areas; one or more virtual volumes, wherein, when receiving a write request to a virtual volume of the one or more virtual volumes, the controller allocates a storage area in a logical volume to the virtual volume; and writes data to the allocated storage area, wherein, when a physical storage device of the plurality of physical storage devices fails, the controller selectively performs a RAID restore process to a storage area allocated to a virtual volume. | 07-07-2011 |
| 20110167295 | METHOD AND/OR APPARATUS FOR CERTIFYING AN OUT OF BAND MANAGEMENT APPLICATION IN AN EXTERNAL STORAGE ARRAY - A method for configuring a storage array, comprising the steps of (A) configuring the storage array with a minimal number of components for initial testing; (B) sending a first symbol call command to the storage array to initiate a test of a structure of the storage array; (C) receiving a response from the storage array; and (D) determining whether the test passed in response to the response. | 07-07-2011 |
| 20110185226 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHODS FOR THE SAME - A RAID group is configured and operated by using multiple storage drives | 07-28-2011 |
| 20110214011 | STORING RAID DATA AS ENCODED DATA SLICES IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a processing module receiving data for storage and interpreting the data to identify the data as redundant array of independent disks (RAID) data. The method continues with the processing module interpreting the RAID data to identify at least one of RAID block data and RAID parity data. When the RAID data includes RAID block data and RAID parity data the method continues with the processing module encoding the RAID block data in accordance with error coding dispersal storage function parameters to produce at least one set of encoded data slices and outputting the at least one set of encoded data slices to a dispersed storage network memory. | 09-01-2011 |
| 20110225451 | REQUESTING CLOUD DATA STORAGE - A method begins by a processing module determining that a data storage request is a cloud data storage request. The method continues with the processing module determining at least one of a cloud storage access reliability indication and a cloud storage data reliability indication for the data storage request. The method continues with the processing module sending the data storage request and the at least one of cloud storage access reliability indication and cloud storage data reliability indication to a cloud storage system. | 09-15-2011 |
| 20110239042 | METHOD TO ESTABLISH REDUNDANCY AND FAULT TOLERANCE BETTER THAN RAID LEVEL 6 WITHOUT USING PARITY - An apparatus comprising a logically contiguous group of at least three drives, a first loop, a second loop, and a compression/decompression circuit. Each of the drives comprises (i) a first region configured to store compressed data of a previous drive, (ii) a second region configured to store uncompressed data of the drive, (iii) a third region configured to store compressed data of a next drive. The first loop may be connected to the next drive in the logically contiguous group. The second loop may be connected to the previous drive of the logically contiguous group. The compression/decompression circuit may be configured to compress and decompress the data stored on each of the drives. | 09-29-2011 |
| 20110264949 | DISK ARRAY - A disk array provided with a RAID group in a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) configuration with redundancy of two, the disk array includes, a data recovery technique selecting unit to select a technique for recovering data from a first failed disk to be recovered first, the technique being selected from among a plurality of techniques based on the type of storage apparatus included in the RAID group, and I/O conditions with respect to the RAID group, when failures occur in two storage apparatus in the RAID group, a data recovering unit to split recovered data from the first failed storage apparatus and writing the recovered data to two recovery storage apparatus in accordance with the data recovery technique selected by the data recovery technique selecting unit, and an aggregating unit to aggregate the recovered data onto one of the two recovery storage apparatus. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110264950 | CHECK OPERATION DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK FRAME - A method begins by a processing module generating a payload section of a dispersed storage network (DSN) frame regarding a check request operation by generating one or more slice name fields of the payload section to include one or more slice names corresponding to one or more encoded data slices and generating a transaction number field of the payload section to include a transaction number corresponding to the check request operation. The method continues with the processing module generating a protocol header of the DSN frame by generating a payload length field of the protocol header to include a payload length that represents a length of the payload section and generating remaining fields of the protocol header. | 10-27-2011 |
| 20110289348 | ANOMALY NOTIFICATION CONTROL IN DISK ARRAY - In a storage device incorporating a plurality of kinds of disk drives with different interfaces, the controller performs sparing on a disk drive, whose errors that occur during accesses exceed a predetermined number, by swapping it with a spare disk drive that is prepared beforehand. | 11-24-2011 |
| 20110302447 | INFORMATION SYSTEM AND DATA TRANSFER METHOD - Availability of an information system including a storage apparatus and a computer is improved. First and second storage apparatuses execute remote copy of copying data written into a first primary volume from the computer to a second primary volume, at least one of the first and second storage apparatuses executes local copy of copying the data written into the first or second primary volume in a self-storage apparatus to the corresponding first or second secondary volume, and the computer switches the destination of a write request of the data from the first storage apparatus to the second storage apparatus in case of a failure occurring in the first storage apparatus. | 12-08-2011 |
| 20110320865 | DEDUPLICATION IN A HYBRID STORAGE ENVIRONMENT - Deduplication in a hybrid storage environment includes determining characteristics of a first data set. The first data set is identified as redundant to a second data set and the second data set is stored in a first storage system. The deduplication also includes mapping the characteristics of the first data set to storage preferences, the storage preferences specifying storage system selections for storing data sets based upon attributes of the respective storage systems. The deduplication further includes storing, as a persistent data set, one of the first data set and the second data set in one of the storage systems identified from the mapping. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20120011396 | STORAGE SYSTEM - One code (a compressed redundant code) is created based on a plurality of first redundant codes, each created on the basis of a plurality of data units, and this compressed redundant code is written to a nonvolatile storage area. This compressed redundant code is used to restore either a data element constituting a multiple-failure data, or a first redundant code corresponding to the multiple-failure data, which is stored in an unreadable sub-storage area of a partially failed storage device, and to restore the data element constituting the multiple-failure data which is stored in a sub-storage area of a completely failed storage device, based on the restored either data element or first redundant code, and either another data element constituting the multiple-failure data or the first redundant code corresponding to the multiple-failure data. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120042203 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD - A storage system includes plural storage devices, a controller configured to transmit an access request for controlling an access to at least one of the storage devices, a switching part configured to receive the access request from the controller to select the one of the storage devices based on the access request received from the controller, and a proxy response part configured to transmit, if the selected storage device has failed, a response to the access request instead of the failed storage device responding. | 02-16-2012 |
| 20120079317 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM REDUNDANT STORAGE REBUILD - Out-of-order reconstruction of a RAID storage device at a replacement storage device enables the replacement storage device to execute I/O for reconstructed regions during reconstruction of the replacement storage device. In one embodiment, the failed storage device is analyzed to find recoverable information, which is copied to the replacement storage device to reduce the need for reconstruction. In another embodiment, the priority for region's reconstruction is increased upon detection of an I/O to the region. The I/O is queued until reconstruction of the region and then executed after reconstruction of that region so that I/O at the region need not be repeated during reconstruction of the remainder of the replacement storage device. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120079318 | ADAPTIVE RAID FOR AN SSD ENVIRONMENT - A system and method for adaptive RAID geometries. A computer system comprises client computers and data storage arrays coupled to one another via a network. A data storage array utilizes solid-state drives and Flash memory cells for data storage. A storage controller within a data storage array is configured to determine a first RAID layout for use in storing data, and write a first RAID stripe to the device group according to the first RAID layout. In response to detecting a first condition, the controller is configured to determine a second RAID layout which is different from the first RAID layout, and write a second RAID stripe to the device group according to the second layout, whereby the device group concurrently stores data according to both the first RAID layout and the second RAID layout. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120079319 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND FAILOVER CONTROL METHOD - A storage system is capable of configuring a failover system by use of a first storage processing device to which first storage media are connected and a second storage processing device to which second storage media are connected. The storage system sets the RAID level of the second storage media to a RAID level with lower redundancy than the RAID level of the first storage media, if the storage capacity of the second storage media is smaller than the storage capacity of the first storage media. | 03-29-2012 |
| 20120089867 | REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISK (RAID) STORAGE RECOVERY - In one embodiment, a system includes a storage subsystem having an array of storage devices; a receiving component for receiving an error message; a determining component for determining that the error message indicates that a storage device has failed; a collecting component for collecting an array record having storage device characteristics of the failed storage device; a collating component for collating a candidate record having a plurality of candidate entries; a comparing component for comparing storage device characteristics of the failed storage device of the array record with the storage device characteristics of each of the candidate entries; and an identifying component for identifying a first candidate storage device having storage device characteristics that match the storage device characteristics of the failed storage device or a second candidate storage device having storage device characteristics most similar to the storage device characteristics of the failed storage device. | 04-12-2012 |
| 20120096309 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXTRA REDUNDANCY IN A RAID SYSTEM - A system and method of creating an extra redundancy in a RAID system is disclosed. In one embodiment, one or more RAID arrays are created. Each RAID array comprises a plurality of disk drives. Further, a respective dedicated hot spare is created for each RAID array. Furthermore, data is copied from each RAID array to the respective dedicated hot spare using a copyback process based on a predetermined controller usage threshold value. | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120110377 | PERFORMING DATA WRITES IN PARITY PROTECTED REDUNDANT STORAGE ARRAYS - A first and a second physical disk identifier, a physical Logical Block Address (LBA), a data length, and a span identifier are calculated from a data write operation. A first request command frame is created for retrieving the existing data block from the storage array, the first request command frame including at least one of the calculated parameters. At least one second request command frame is created for retrieving the at least one existing parity data block from the storage array, the at least one second request command frame including the calculated at least one second physical disk identifier and at least one of the calculated parameters. At least one new parity data block is calculated utilizing the existing data block, the new data block, and the at least one existing parity data block. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120117418 | ERROR DETECTION IN A MIRRORED DATA STORAGE SYSTEM - A method and system for are provided for error detection in a mirrored data storage system. The method includes a first mirrored system applying a first error correction code (ECC) algorithm and a second mirrored system applying a second error correction code algorithm. The method reads recovered data in each of the first and second mirrored systems and processes the recovered data in each of the first and second mirrored systems by applying both first and second error correction code algorithms to produce four calculated error correction code values. The method uses the calculated error correction code values to determine the correct recovered data of the first and second mirrored systems. | 05-10-2012 |
| 20120131383 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROTECTING AGAINST MULTIPLE FAILURES IN A RAID SYSTEM - Embodiments of methods of protecting RAID systems from multiple failures and such protected RAID systems are disclosed. More particularly, in certain embodiments of a distributed RAID system each data bank has a set of associated storage media and executes a similar distributed RAID application. The distributed RAID applications on each of the data banks coordinate among themselves to distribute and control data flow associated with implementing a level of RAID in conjunction with data stored on the associated storage media of the data banks. Furthermore, one or more levels of RAID may be implemented within one or more of the data banks comprising the distributed RAID system. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120151253 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING A DATA REDUNDANCY SCHEME IN A SOLID STATE MEMORY IN THE EVENT OF A POWER LOSS - Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and methods for reducing an amount of backup power needed to provide power fail safe preservation of a data redundancy scheme such as RAID that is implemented in solid state storage devices where new write data is accumulated and written along with parity data. Because new write data cannot be guaranteed to arrive in integer multiples of stripe size, a full stripe's worth of new write data may not exist when power is lost. Various embodiments use truncated RAID stripes (fewer storage elements per stripe) to save cached write data when a power failure occurs. This approach allows the system to maintain RAID parity data protection in a power fail cache flush case even though a full stripe of write data may not exist, thereby reducing the amount of backup power needed to maintain parity protection in the event of power loss. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120151254 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING OVER-PROVISIONED DATA CAPACITY TO MAINTAIN A DATA REDUNDANCY SCHEME IN A SOLID STATE MEMORY - Redundant “parity” RAID (5, 6, 50, 60) is a well-known technique for increasing data reliability beyond the failure rate of an individual storage device. In many implementations of redundant RAID, when a storage element is lost, a replacement or spare element is required to restore redundancy. A typical solid state storage device is over-provisioned with more storage media than is required to satisfy the specified user capacity. Embodiments of the present invention utilize the additional over-provisioned capacity and potentially modify the stripe size to restore RAID redundancy when a storage element or path (i.e., page, block, plane, die, channel, etc.) has failed. In some cases, this may also involve reducing the RAID stripe size. | 06-14-2012 |
| 20120166867 | STORING DIRECTORY METADATA IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a processing module dispersed storage error encoding data to produce encoded data slices and updating directory metadata regarding storing the data in a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory to produce updated directory metadata. The method continues with the processing module dispersed storage error encoding the updated directory metadata to produce encoded directory metadata slices and transmitting one or more data slice write requests to the DSN that each include a first transaction number. The method continues with the processing module transmitting one or more directory metadata write requests to the DSN memory, wherein the one or more directory metadata write requests includes a second transaction number, and when a favorable write response condition exists, transmitting a commit request to the DSN memory to commit storage of at least one of: the encoded data slices and the encoded directory metadata slices. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120166868 | SEGMENTING DATA FOR STORAGE IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a processing module receiving data of a file for storage in a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory and determining a segmentation scheme for storing the data. The method continues with the processing module determining how to store the data in accordance with the segmentation scheme to produce information for storing the data and generating an entry within a segment allocation table associated with the file, wherein the entry includes the information for storing the data and the segmentation scheme. The method continues with the processing module facilitating storage of the segment allocation table in the DSN memory. The method continues with the processing module segmenting the data in accordance with the segmentation scheme to produce a plurality of data segments and facilitating storage of the plurality of data segments in the DSN memory in accordance with the information for storing the data. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120192006 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVED STORAGE REPLICATION MANAGEMENT AND SERVICE CONTINUANCE IN A COMPUTING ENTERPRISE - Systems and methods for management of replicated storage. Features and aspects hereof provide management of data replication among a plurality of storage systems in a manner substantially transparent to host systems attached to the storage systems. The storage systems are coupled to one another through a replication link. One storage systems is designated the primary storage system and all others are designated secondary storage systems. A common logical volume is defined with a common logical volume device identifier used by all of the replicating storage systems of a replication group and their respective attached host systems. The primary storage system processes I/O requests directed to the logical volume by accessing its physical storage volume and forwarding the request to be replicated to all secondary storage systems over the replication link. Secondary storage systems process I/O requests by shipping them over the replication link to the primary storage system for processing. | 07-26-2012 |
| 20120198273 | DISK ARRAY SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - A disk array system, upon detecting a failure in any data disk from among a plurality of data disks providing one or more RAID groups, conducting a correction copy to any spare disk, using one or more other data disks belonging to the same RAID group as the data disk causing the failure. When the data disk causing the failure has been replaced with a new data disk, the disk array system alters the management so that the data disk can be managed as a spare disk, and the spare disk can be managed as a data disk. | 08-02-2012 |
| 20120239970 | METHODS FOR REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISK (RAID) STORAGE RECOVERY - A method for managing storage devices in a storage subsystem having an array of storage devices includes receiving an error message; determining that the error message indicates that at least one storage device in the array of storage devices has failed; collecting an array record comprising storage device characteristics of the failed storage device in response to determining that the error message indicates that at least one storage device has failed; collating a candidate record comprising a plurality of candidate entries; comparing storage device characteristics of the failed storage device of the array record with the storage device characteristics of each of the candidate entries; identifying a first candidate storage device having storage device characteristics that match the storage device characteristics of the failed storage device; and identifying a second candidate storage device having storage device characteristics most similar to the storage device characteristics of the failed storage device. | 09-20-2012 |
| 20120272097 | TESTING DEVICE FOR REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISKS - An exemplary testing device includes a RAID unit including under test disk drives, a replacing unit including a reserve disk drive, a switching unit, a state recognition unit and a control unit. The switching unit includes buttons corresponding to the under test disk drives, respectively. Each of the buttons is switched between a first position in which a corresponding under test disk drive is in connection with the RAID unit and a second position in which the corresponding under test disk drive is disconnected from the RAID unit. The state recognition unit outputs status signals corresponding to the under test disk drives, respectively. The control unit receives the status signals from the state recognition unit and controls the reserve disk drive to successfully begin to work in replacement of the disconnected under test disk drive for rebuilding the RAID unit. The display unit displays a testing result thereon. | 10-25-2012 |
| 20120297244 | STORAGE SUBSYSTEM - The storage system includes a plurality of flash memory devices, each of the flash memory devices including a flash memory controller and flash memory chips, which are configured as a RAID group and a storage controller, coupled to the plurality of flash memory devices, configured to receive data from a computer and send the data to a first flash memory device of the plurality of flash memory devices. The flash memory controller of the flash memory device is configured to receive the data from the storage controller and execute a parity operation using the data. | 11-22-2012 |
| 20120311381 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING DATA INTEGRITY - The present disclosure includes apparatus (e.g., computing systems, memory systems, controllers, etc.) and methods for providing data integrity. One or more methods can include, for example: receiving a number of sectors of data to be written to a number of memory devices; appending first metadata corresponding to the number of sectors and including first integrity data to the number of sectors, the first metadata has a particular format; generating second integrity data to be provided in second metadata, the second integrity data corresponding to at least one of the number of sectors (wherein the second metadata has a second format); and generating third integrity data to be provided in the second metadata, the third integrity data including error data corresponding to the second integrity data and the at least one of the number of sectors. | 12-06-2012 |
| 20120317439 | Enhanced Storage Device Replacement System And Method - Recovery of a failed storage device of a RAID array to a replacement storage device is improved by initiating recovery before failure of the storage device occurs. If failure occurs before completing the transfer of all information from the failed storage device to the replacement storage device, then the RAID controller identifies untransferred information to recreate the failed storage device at the replacement storage device by re-building only the untransferred information with a parity operation using information stored at the array. | 12-13-2012 |
| 20130007511 | RAPID REBUILD OF A DATA SET - A method and apparatus for rebuilding a data set. In accordance with some embodiments, a data storage device is coupled to a host. An error condition associated with a memory of the data storage device is detected. Data stored in a first portion of the memory unaffected by said error condition is transferred to the host. A communication signal is output to the host that indicates that data stored in a second portion of the memory affected by said error condition will not be transferred to the host. The host reconstructs the data stored in the second portion of the memory responsive to the communication signal. | 01-03-2013 |
| 20130024723 | DISK STORAGE SYSTEM WITH TWO DISKS PER SLOT AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF - A method of operation of a disk storage system includes: providing a disk storage controller; coupling a storage carrier, having a first physical disk and a second physical disk, to the disk storage controller; detecting a failure of the first physical disk; writing a non-volatile memory to show the second physical disk is unavailable when the storage carrier is de-coupled from the disk storage controller; and logging a first written stripe in the non-volatile memory for update when the second physical disk is not available including updating only the written stripe in the second physical disk when the storage carrier is again coupled to the disk storage controller. | 01-24-2013 |
| 20130047029 | STORAGE SYSTEM, STORAGE CONTROL APPARATUS, AND STORAGE CONTROL METHOD - A storage control apparatus manages a plurality of storage devices which belong to an RLU such that data is made redundant between different storage devices. If a first storage device fails, a rebuild controller executes a rebuild process to store the same data as recorded in the first storage device in a spare storage device. When the rebuild controller executing the rebuild process has failed in reading out data from a second storage device, a data recovery controller restarts the first storage device, and reads out data to be stored in the spare storage device from the restarted first storage device. | 02-21-2013 |
| 20130055012 | DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD OF IMPROVING DATA RELIABILITY AND DATA STORAGE DEVICE - A data storage device and a method of managing data in the data storage device to improve data reliability are provided. In the method of managing data, one of control management information about a memory block of nonvolatile memory in which data will be written and control management information about the data are received. A redundant array of independent disks (RAID) parity page ratio is determined according to the control management information. When a data write operation mode is performed, parity data is written in a parity page of the memory block according the RAID parity page ratio. According to some embodiments of the inventive concepts, since a RAID parity page ratio is selectively determined according to control management information, reliability of data is secured or increased. | 02-28-2013 |
| 20130067274 | METHODS AND STRUCTURE FOR RESUMING BACKGROUND TASKS IN A CLUSTERED STORAGE ENVIRONMENT - Methods and structure for resuming background tasks in a storage environment. storage controller. The system is operable to receive host Input/Output (I/O) requests directed to a logical volume, and to couple with one or more of storage devices provisioning the logical volume. The system is further operable to process the host I/O requests directed to the logical volume, to initiate a background processing task distinct from the host I/O requests and related to the logical volume, and to store progress information on at least one of the one or more storage devices describing progress of the background processing task. | 03-14-2013 |
| 20130073900 | PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUE FOR RAIDS UNDER REBUILD - A method for improving the performance of a RAID under rebuild is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes identifying a RAID requiring rebuild, such as by identifying a RAID having one or more failed storage-drive components. The method then automatically performs the following in response to identifying the RAID: the method identifies hot extents (i.e., extents most heavily accessed) in the RAID; the method migrates the hot extents from the identified failed RAID to a normal RAID not requiring rebuild, such as to an underused RAID; and the method rebuilds the failed RAID. The migration of the hot extents will ideally occur while the RAID is being rebuilt but may also be performed prior to the rebuild process. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also disclosed. | 03-21-2013 |
| 20130080828 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MARKING WRITES ON A WRITE-PROTECTED FAILED DEVICE TO AVOID READING STALE DATA IN A RAID STORAGE SYSTEM - Methods and apparatus for improved building of a hot spare storage device in a RAID storage system while avoiding reading of stale data from a failed storage device. In the recovery mode of the failed device, all data is write protected on the failed device. A RAID storage controller may copy as much readable data as possible from the failed device to the hot spare storage device. Unreadable data may be rebuilt using redundant information of the logical volume. Write requests directed to the failed device cause the addressed logical block address (LBA) to be marked as storing stale data. When a read request is directed to such a marked LBA, the read request returns an error status from the failed device to indicate that the data is stale. The RAID controller then rebuilds the now stale data for that LBA from redundant information of the logical volume. | 03-28-2013 |
| 20130080829 | Method and apparatus for isolating storage devices to facilitate reliable communication - A method for maintaining reliable communication on a link between an expander and a storage device is provided. The method includes detecting, by a processor coupled to the link, an error corresponding to the link, and maintaining a count of detected errors for the link, by the processor. The method also includes determining, by the processor, if the count of detected errors is above a first error threshold. If the count of detected errors is not above the first error threshold, then the method repeats the detecting, maintaining, and determining steps. If the count of detected errors is above the first error threshold, then the method provides the processor placing the storage device into a segregated zone. | 03-28-2013 |
| 20130117603 | METHOD FOR COMPLETING WRITE OPERATIONS TO A RAID DRIVE POOL WITH AN ABNORMALLY SLOW DRIVE IN A TIMELY FASHION - The present invention is directed to a method for completing a stripe write operation in a timely fashion to a RAID drive pool which includes an abnormally slow drive. For example, the stripe write operation either completes within a required time interval, or an error is provided to the host/initiator which provides an indication to an application that the stripe write operation did not complete. | 05-09-2013 |
| 20130132768 | USE OF A VIRTUAL DRIVE AS A HOT SPARE FOR A RAID GROUP - A method that includes identifying a failure indication for a first data storage device that is a member of a first RAID group within a storage array. The method further can include, via a processor external to the storage array, identifying a virtual drive that is defined to include at least one logical storage volume defined in a second RAID group. The virtual drive can be provisioned to serve as a virtual hot spare within the first RAID group to replace the first data storage device. | 05-23-2013 |
| 20130132769 | USE OF A VIRTUAL DRIVE AS A HOT SPARE FOR A RAID GROUP - A method that includes identifying a failure indication for a first data storage device that is a member of a first RAID group within a storage array. The method further can include, via a processor external to the storage array, identifying a virtual drive that is defined to include at least one logical storage volume defined in a second RAID group. The virtual drive can be provisioned to serve as a virtual hot spare within the first RAID group to replace the first data storage device. | 05-23-2013 |
| 20130132770 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECONSTRUCTING REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INEXPENSIVE DISKS, AND SYSTEM - Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for reconstructing a RAID, and a system, when a first physical disk is faulty, finding DUs of other physical disks, where the DUs are located on a same LDS as a DU of the first physical disk, in each logic module of a pre-generated layout template, performing exclusive-OR on data read from the DUs of other physical disks, and writing the data into a hot spare DU of a second physical disk; and in the layout template, replacing a DU identifier of the first physical disk with a DU identifier of the second physical disk, where DUs corresponding to DU identifiers in each LDS in the layout template belong to different physical disks. The present invention can reduce time needed for writing the data, shorten time needed for RAID reconstruction and restoration, and improve a reconstruction speed. | 05-23-2013 |
| 20130145208 | Method for a Plurality of RAID Systems and Data Storage System Thereof - A data storage method for a plurality of RAID systems includes an SAS expander recording information of failure of a disk of a plurality of RAID systems when failure of the disk is detected and reporting the information of failure of the disk to the RAID system server when the RAID system server sends a polling message to the SAS expander or tries accessing the failed disk. In response to the failure information of the failed disk from the SAS expander, the RAID system server sends a command to the SAS expander, to replace the disk with a hot spare disk. | 06-06-2013 |
| 20130179726 | AUTOMATIC REMAPPING IN REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISKS AND RELATED RAID - A method of performing automatic remapping in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) includes issuing a read command for performing a read operation to read data from a hard disk of the RAID, and remapping a bad sector the data is located in to an unused good sector of the hard disk when the bad sector is encountered during the read operation. | 07-11-2013 |
| 20130198563 | DISK STORAGE SYSTEM WITH REBUILD SEQUENCE AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF - A method of operation of a disk storage system includes: providing a disk storage controller; coupling a first physical disk to the disk storage controller; detecting a failure of the first physical disk; and rebuilding a first logical drive, after replacing the first physical disk, including: selecting a selected stripe of the first logical drive, detecting a selected stripe status of the selected stripe, and marking the selected stripe as on-line in the selected stripe status. | 08-01-2013 |
| 20130212429 | STORAGE DEVICE REPLACEMENT METHOD, AND STORAGE SUB-SYSTEM ADOPTING STORAGE DEVICE REPLACEMENT METHOD - Based on information security rules, it is not possible to take out a failure HDD to the exterior of a facility for replacement without erasing data therefrom. According to the present storage sub-system, a slot in which failure has occurred and a slot not registered to a configuration information of a storage sub-system are used to simultaneously perform correction copy to a spare HDD and data erase of the failure HDD in parallel, so as to enable the failure HDD to be brought out to the exterior of the storage facility. Further, time required from when failure has occurred to the HDD to data recovery is shortened, so as to prevent deteriorated redundancy that may be caused by another failure occurring during data recovery and to reduce the risk of data loss. | 08-15-2013 |
| 20130219213 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECOVERING DATA OF HARD DISKS OF COMPUTING DEVICE - A computing device includes a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) card, a serial attached small computer system interface expander (SAS expander), and a RAID array. The RAID array includes a plurality of hard disks. Each hard disk of the RAID array connects with at least one backup hard disk. If a hard disk of the RAID array malfunctions, the computing device selects a backup hard disk. The computing device stores data which are stored in a hard disk of the RAID which is not malfunctioning into the selected backup hard disk. | 08-22-2013 |
| 20130227345 | Logically Extended Virtual Disk - A mechanism is provided for provisioning and allocating logically extended virtual disks. Responsive to an identification of a negative operational issue with a storage device in a plurality of storage devices in a storage subsystem, a determination is made as to whether a hot spare disk is available to replace the storage device. Responsive to the hot spare disk being unavailable, a logically extended virtual disk is allocated as a replacement for the storage device. Data stored on the storage device is then rebuilt on the logically extended virtual disk. | 08-29-2013 |
| 20130238929 | TRIPLE PARITY ENCODING TO FACILITATE DATA RECOVERY - Examples are disclosed for facilitating recovery from failures associated with a storage array having a plurality of storage devices. | 09-12-2013 |
| 20130262920 | RAID MEMORY SYSTEM - A redundant array of inexpensive or independent disks (RAID) memory system comprises a nonvolatile memory device and a memory controller. The nonvolatile memory comprises a stripe block. The memory controller determines a value based on at least one of a program/erase (P/E) cycle and a read error frequency of the stripe block and determines whether to change a size of the stripe block based on the determined value. | 10-03-2013 |
| 20130283095 | REBUILDING A DATA REVISION IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a processing module identifying a set of encoded data slices that have been created in accordance with a dispersed storage error encoding function having a decode threshold equal to or less than half of a number encoded data slices in the set of encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module identifying a first sub-set of encoded data slices having a non-current revision level and identifying a second sub-set of encoded data slices having a more-current revision level. When a number of encoded data slices of the second sub-set of encoded data slices is greater than or equal to the decode threshold and when a number of encoded data slices of the first sub-set of encoded data slices is less than the decode threshold, the method continues with the processing module facilitating rebuilding of the first sub-set of encoded data slices. | 10-24-2013 |
| 20130290775 | PRIORITIZING RECOVERY IN A STORAGE SYSTEM IMPLEMENTING RAID - A method for determining priority of recovery for a RAID implementation includes detecting a first failure of the RAID implementation; detecting a second failure of the RAID implementation; assigning a first priority to the first failure and a second priority to the second failure; and setting the priority of the recovery based on the first priority and the second priority. | 10-31-2013 |
| 20130311822 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FAILURE PROTECTION IN A STORAGE ARRAY - In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a system comprising may include a storage controller and a plurality of storage resources communicatively coupled to the storage controller. At least one storage resource of the storage resources may be capable of performing storage resource-level failure protection and configured to disable storage resource-level failure protection in response to a determination that the at least one storage resource is a member of a redundant storage array. | 11-21-2013 |
| 20130346795 | NON-TEMPORARILY STORING TEMPORARILY STORED DATA IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module receiving data from a plurality of sources and queuing the data for storage in a dispersed storage network (DSN). The method continues with the DS processing module utilizing temporary dispersed storage error encoding parameters for efficient and reliable error encoded temporary storage of the data in the DSN. For a data object of the data temporarily stored in the DSN, the method continues with the DS processing module determining non-temporary storage parameters for the data object, retrieving first encoded data slices regarding the data object from the DSN, reconstructing the data object from the first encoded data slices in accordance with the temporary dispersed storage error encoding parameters, encoding the reconstructed data object in accordance with the non-temporary storage parameters for the data object to produce second encoded data slices, and storing the second encoded data slices in the DSN. | 12-26-2013 |
| 20140025990 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD - Storage system comprises a second storage apparatus, which is coupled to multiple first storage apparatuses and is of a different type from the first storage apparatuses, and a first control device, which exists either inside or outside of the second storage apparatus. Row of stripes comprising multiple data elements obtained by segmenting a prescribed data unit, and a redundancy code for rebuilding the data elements, is distributively stored in multiple first storage apparatuses, which are more numerous than the total number of stripe data elements, which are either the data elements or redundancy code, in the row of stripes. The row of stripes is configured to enable the rebuilding of the stripe data elements even when a failure has occurred in up to a prescribed allowable number, which is two or more, of the first storage apparatuses storing the stripe data elements of the relevant row of stripes. | 01-23-2014 |
| 20140032961 | PESSIMISTIC DATA READING IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a processing module receiving a data retrieval request and determining a read threshold number of dispersed storage (DS). The method continues with the processing module sending read request messages to DS units and receiving encoded data slices to produce received encoded data slices. The method continues with the processing module determining an incremental number of encoded data slices based on the number of received encoded data slices, determining an incremental number of DS units, and sending a read request message to each of the incremental number of DS units when the number of received encoded data slices compares unfavorably to a decode threshold number. The method continues with the processing module dispersed storage error decoding the received encoded data slices to produce data when the number of received encoded data slices compares favorably to the decode threshold number of encoded data slices. | 01-30-2014 |
| 20140068323 | REMAPPING DISK DRIVE I/O IN RESPONSE TO MEDIA ERRORS - A method for handling media errors during a read operation on a data storage device. The method comprises detecting that a first file and a second file are duplicates, wherein the first file is stored on a first storage device. Metadata is written to the first storage device in association with the first file, wherein the metadata identifies the location of the second file that is a duplicate of the first file. Later, an application program requests a first read operation to read the first file. In response to a media error that results from the first read operation, the method reads the metadata associated with the first file to identify the location of the second file, performs a second read operation to read the second file instead of the first file, and provides the second file to the application program in satisfaction of the requested first read operation. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140068324 | ASYNCHRONOUS RAID STRIPE WRITESTO ENABLE RESPONSE TO MEDIA ERRORS - A method includes detecting that a first file and a second file are duplicates, and storing the first file and the second file to a target storage device. Metadata is written to the target storage device in association with the first file, wherein the metadata identifies the location of the second file that is a duplicate of the first file. Later, an application program requests a first read operation to read the first file. In response to a media error that results from the first read operation, the target storage device reads the metadata associated with the first file to identify the location of the second file, performs a second read operation to read the second file instead of the first file, and provides the second file to the application program in satisfaction of the requested first read operation. | 03-06-2014 |
| 20140089730 | STORAGE CONTROL DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING STORAGES - A processor copies first information stored in a first storage to a backup volume. The processor stores management information when a first piece of the first information is updated to second information after the copy. The processor executes, when a failure occurs in the first storage, first restoration based on the management information and reference information stored in reference storages other than the first storage. The first restoration restores the second information to a spare storage. The processor executes second restoration based on the management information and the reference information. The second restoration restores third information to the spare storage. The processor stops the second restoration when a failure occurs in a second storage while the second restoration is being executed. The processor executes third restoration based on the first information stored in the backup volume and the management information. The third restoration restores fourth information to the spare storage. | 03-27-2014 |
| 20140101480 | COMMON HOT SPARE FOR MULTIPLE RAID GROUPS - A storage system assigns one or more large disks in a storage enclosure as a common dedicated hot spare that is used by multiple RAID groups. Storage space equivalent to the smallest physical disk in a RAID group is allocated on the common dedicated hot spare. A mapping of this allocated storage space to the RAID group is maintained in nonvolatile memory. When a disk fails in the RAID group, the allocated storage space on the common dedicated hot spare receives a rebuild of the failed disk. Once the rebuild is complete, the allocated storage space acts as part of the RAID group. When the failed disk is replaced, the data on the allocated storage space is copied to the replacement disk. Once the copy is complete, the allocated storage space is once again set to act as a dedicated hot spare to the RAID group. | 04-10-2014 |
| 20140122924 | PROCESSING AN UNSUCCESSFUL WRITE REQUEST IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a first device of a dispersed storage network (DSN), when a number of successful write requests of a set of write requests is equal to or greater than a threshold number but less than all, identifying one or more unsuccessful write requests of the set of write requests. The method continues with first device sending the one or more unsuccessful write requests to an auxiliary writing unit of the DSN. The method continues with the auxiliary writing unit, for an unsuccessful write request, identifying a storage unit of the DSN to produce an identified storage unit, sending the unsuccessful write request to the identified storage unit, and verifying successful execution of the unsuccessful write request by the identified storage unit. | 05-01-2014 |
| 20140143594 | OPTIMIZING A RAID VOLUME - Optimization of a RAID volume is described. In an example, a method of optimizing a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) volume includes: identifying a RAID level used for a plurality of disks in the RAID volume; defining a relation among rebuild rate, scrub rate, and annualized data loss event rate (ADLER) for the RAID volume using constant values and the RAID level; selecting a value for the ADLER; applying a policy to the relation to choose a value for one of the rebuild rate or the scrub rate; and determining a value for the other of the rebuild rate or the scrub rate from the relation using the value of the rebuild rate or the scrub rate as determined from the policy. | 05-22-2014 |
| 20140157046 | TECHNIQUES FOR DYNAMICALLY TRACKING LOGICAL UNITS MOVING BETWEEN INPUT/OUTPUT PORTS OF A STORAGE AREA NETWORK TARGET - A technique for operating a storage area network includes detecting an input/output operation failure associated with a logical unit number, which is associated with a first target port. The technique also includes determining, subsequent to the detected input/output operation failure, whether the logical unit number is associated with a second target port. Finally, the technique includes routing subsequent input/output operations for the logical unit number to the logical unit number via the second target port, in response to determining that the logical unit number is associated with the second target port. | 06-05-2014 |
| 20140173337 | STORAGE APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD, AND CONTROL PROGRAM - A storage-apparatus has a plurality of storage-devices and a controller for controlling data read from and write to the plurality of storage-devices, the controller includes a determination-unit and a restore-processing-unit, when a new storage-device has failed in a non-redundant state being a redundant group state without redundancy, in which some of the storage-devices had failed out of the plurality of storage-devices, the determination-unit configured to determine whether execution of compulsory restore of the redundant group is possible or not on the basis of a failure cause of the plurality of failed storage-devices, and if the determination unit determines that the execution of compulsory restore of the redundant group is possible, the restore-processing-unit configured to incorporate a plurality of storage-devices including a newly failed storage-device in the non-redundant state into the redundant group and to compulsorily restore the storage-apparatus to an available state. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140195846 | MAPPING STORAGE OF DATA IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module receiving data for storage in a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory and ascertaining dispersed storage error encoding parameters for encoding the data. The method continues with the DS processing module ascertaining storage units of the DSN memory for the storing an encoded version of the data and ascertaining a storage mapping that maps encoded data slices to storage units for storing the encoded version of the data. The method continues with the DS processing module encoding the data in accordance with the dispersed storage error encoding parameters to produce sets of encoded data slices. The method continues with the DS processing module generating a plurality of write requests for storing, in accordance with the storage mapping, encoded data slices of the sets of encoded data slices in a pattern across the storage units. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140195847 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF MANAGING A DISTRIBUTED REPLICA BASED STORAGE - A method of managing a distributed storage space. The method comprises mapping a plurality of replica sets to a plurality of storage managing modules installed in a plurality of computing units, each of the plurality of storage managing modules manages access of at least one storage consumer application to replica data of at least one replica of a replica set from the plurality of replica sets, the replica data is stored in at least one drive of a respective the computing unit, allocating at least one time based credit to at least one of each storage managing module and the replica data, iteratively renewing the time based credit as long a failure of at least one of the storage managing module, and the at least one drive and the replica data is not detected plurality of storage managing. | 07-10-2014 |
| 20140223223 | STORAGE SYSTEM - In a storage system which supports a redundant disk configuration, while securing fault tolerance, a longer drive access time as well as a drop in I/O throughput are prevented when a redundant data update, generated due to a data update, is mirrored in the drive. | 08-07-2014 |
| 20140245062 | PREVENTING UNRECOVERABLE ERRORS DURING A DISK REGENERATION IN A DISK ARRAY - Exemplary embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and system for reducing a probability of generating an unrecoverable error on a disk array during a disk rebuild. In a step, an exemplary embodiment identifies a disk to be replaced in the disk array, the disk array including a spare disk. In another step, an exemplary embodiment locates a region in the disk array that incurs a high number of reads and writes during a period prior to replacing the disk in the disk array. In another step, an exemplary embodiment scrubs data in a region in the disk array that has incurred a high number of accesses. In another step, an exemplary embodiment replaces the disk identified to be replaced with the spare disk in the disk array. In another step, an exemplary embodiment rebuilds data on the replaced disk on the spare disk in the disk array. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20140245063 | RESOLVING WRITE CONFLICTS IN A DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK - A method begins by first and second client devices transmitting first and second sets of write requests to storage units. The method continues with a storage unit sending a write response message to the first and second client devices, where the write response message indicates a storage unit score value for one of the client devices. The method continues with the first and second client devices interpreting the storage unit score values from the storage units to determine which client device has write priority. The method continues with the client device that has the write priority sending a set of next-phase write requests to the storage units. The method continues with the other client device that does not have the write priority sending a set of rollback requests to the storage units. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20140250322 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SHARING DATA STORAGE DEVICES - A fault-tolerant configuration to share computer accessible data storage devices contained in a computer system with other such computer systems. Embodiments of the present invention allow sharing data storage devices contained in a first computer storage system with a second computer system by providing two or more independent connections to the data storage devices, such connections to the second computer system being independent of a motherboard (or a component thereon) contained in the first computer system, and thus ensuring continued access to the storage devices in the presence of component failures of the first computer system, such components being redundant. | 09-04-2014 |
| 20140281688 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF DATA RECOVERY IN A RAID CONTROLLER - Disclosed is a system and method for providing data integrity for pinned cache even if a RAID controller card fails while it has pinned cache or a memory module goes bad. A controller is enabled to use complete cache lines even if pinned cache is present, thereby enabling other virtual disks to run in write-back mode when pinned cache is present. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140281689 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR REBUILDING DATA FOLLOWING A DISK FAILURE WITHIN A RAID STORAGE SYSTEM - A method and system for rebuilding data following a disk failure within a RAID storage system. The rebuild process keeps track of the relative number of READ operations across a RAID group so that following a RAID disk failure, the most frequently read areas of the RAID group can be rebuilt before less frequently accessed areas. Host READs to the rebuilt area will no longer necessitate on-the-fly rebuild from parity data, and thus host performance will be much less impacted than with prior rebuild processes. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20140289555 | AUTONOMOUS DISPERSED STORAGE SYSTEM RETRIEVAL METHOD - A method for execution by a storage unit in a directory-less distributed storage network (DSN) begins by receiving a read request regarding a data segment of data. The method continues by determining, based on the read request, whether an encoded data slice of a set of encoded data slices is locally stored, wherein the data segment was dispersed storage error encoded to produce the set of encoded data slices. When the encoded data slices are locally stored, the method continues by generating a read response. The method continues by determining whether to forward the read request to another storage unit of the directory-less DSN. When the read request is to be forwarded, the method continues by identifying one or more storage units to which the read request is to be forwarded and the read request is then forwarded to the one or more identified storage units. | 09-25-2014 |
| 20140298089 | STORAGE CONTROL DEVICE AND STORAGE CONTROL METHOD - A storage control device includes a processor. The processor is configured to request a plurality of disk devices storing data therein to notify the processor of degradation information on degradation of data stored in the respective disk devices. The processor is configured to instruct, based on first information among notified degradation information, the plurality of disk devices to rewrite data. The first information serves as a trigger of rewriting data. The first information is notified by at least one of the plurality of disk devices. | 10-02-2014 |
| 20140304547 | DRIVE ARRAY APPARATUS, CONTROLLER, DATA STORAGE APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REBUILDING DRIVE ARRAY - According to one embodiment, a drive array apparatus includes a plurality of data storage drives constituting a drive array and a controller. The controller divides all data storage areas of each of the data storage drives into a plurality of logical unit areas and associates and manages each of the logical unit areas and each of the data storage drives. The controller identifies a logical unit area of an error occurrence object based on a notification from a data storage drive where an error occurred, restores data of the identified logical unit area, and performs reconfiguration processing of the drive array. | 10-09-2014 |
| 20140310557 | DESTAGING CACHE DATA USING A DISTRIBUTED FREEZER - Methods, apparatus and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that enable digital information devices having respective storage devices and memories to distributedly store, for a logical volume, data and first and second parity values across corresponding regions of the storage devices. Freezers having a one-to-one correspondence with the storage devices are distributedly stored in the memories. Upon detecting, in a cache, updated data for one or more first regions on the storage devices, existing data from the one or more first regions, and additional data for parity calculations are retrieved from one or more corresponding second regions on the storage devices, and first and the second parity values are calculated using the updated data, the existing data and the additional data. The updated data and the calculated first and second parity values are stored to the freezers, and then destaged from the freezers to the storage devices. | 10-16-2014 |
| 20140317444 | STORAGE CONTROL DEVICE AND STORAGE DEVICE - A storage control device includes a processor. The processor is configured to monitor driving states of each of a plurality of storage drives included in a storage device. The processor is configured to rearrange data stored in the storage drives so that the driving states of the storage drives are uniformed. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140317445 | RECOVERY OF STORAGE DEVICE IN A REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISK (RAID) OR RAID-LIKE ARRAY - A method for managing storage devices in a storage subsystem having an array of storage devices, according to one embodiment, includes determining that a storage device in an array of storage devices has failed. A first candidate storage device having storage device characteristics that match storage device characteristics of the failed storage device is identified. The first candidate storage device is exchanged with a second candidate storage device in response to determining that the second candidate storage device has storage device characteristics that are more similar to the storage device characteristics of the array of storage devices than the first candidate storage device. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20140325261 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF USING A PARTITION TO OFFLOAD PIN CACHE FROM A RAID CONTROLLER DRAM - Disclosed is a system and method for providing data integrity for pinned cache even if a RAID controller card fails while it has pinned cache or a memory module goes bad. A controller is enabled to use complete cache lines even if pinned cache is present, thereby enabling other virtual disks to run in write-back mode when pinned cache is present. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140325262 | CONTROLLING DATA STORAGE IN AN ARRAY OF STORAGE DEVICES - Methods, apparatus and computer programs have been provided for mitigating a problem of non-optimal recovery from storage device failures. A method involves determining a required write performance for rebuilding data of a failed device, based at least partly on the potential read performance of storage devices in a data rebuild; and allocating a virtual storage area within available storage, which allocation of virtual storage is based at least partly on the required write performance. Data is rebuilt by writing to the allocated virtual storage area, and data recovery is completed by migrating this rebuilt data to at least one data storage device such as a spare physical storage device within the array. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140325263 | STORAGE SYSTEM, CONTROL APPARATUS, COMPUTER PRODUCT, AND CONTROL METHOD - A storage system includes a first control apparatus; at least one second control apparatus managed by the first control apparatus; and a storage unit accessed by the second control apparatus. The second control apparatus determines based on detection of an error of an input/output process for storage in the storage unit whether the storage is in a blocking state, executes a resumption process of the input/output process when the storage is in the blocking state, judges whether an error occurrence frequency of the input/output process is at least a predetermined value, when the storage is not in the blocking state, and transmits to the first control apparatus, a blocking process request for the storage, when the error occurrence frequency is at least the predetermined value. The first control apparatus executes a blocking process and an error process of the storage, based on reception of the blocking process request. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140325264 | STORING AN ENCODED DATA SLICE AS A SET OF SUB-SLICES - A method begins by storage units of a dispersed storage network (DSN) receiving a set of encoded data slices for storage. The method continues with a first storage unit determining whether to store a first encoded data slice as a first set of encoded data sub-slices. The method continues with the first storage unit encoding the first encoded data slice in accordance with a first dispersed storage error encoding function to produce the first set of encoded data sub-slices. The method continues by a second storage unit of the storage units determining whether to store a second encoded data slice as a second set of encoded data sub-slices. The method continues with the second storage unit encoding the second encoded data slice in accordance with a second dispersed storage error encoding function to produce the second set of encoded data sub-slices. | 10-30-2014 |
| 20140331082 | RESTORING A FAILED STORAGE VOLUME AFTER REMOVAL OF A STORAGE DEVICE FROM AN ARRAY - A storage device is detected as being decoupled from an apparatus. At least one partition of the storage device is part of a storage volume that includes an array of separate storage devices in an initial configuration prior to being decoupled. In response to the storage device being recoupled to the apparatus, a universally unique identifier (UUID) of the storage device is detected. In response to determining the UUID of the storage device was previously associated with the storage volume, the storage volume is reconfigured/restored to include the at least one partition of the storage device in the initial configuration. | 11-06-2014 |
| 20140337666 | DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK WITH SLICE REBUILDING AND METHODS FOR USE THEREWITH - In a dispersed storage network where slices of secure user data are stored on geographically separated storage units ( | 11-13-2014 |
| 20140359347 | REMAP RAID TO MAINTAIN RAID LEVEL - A failure of at least one of a plurality of drives of a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) is determined. A remainder of the plurality of drives of the RAID are remapped. A RAID level of the RAID is maintained, if the remainder of the plurality of drives are remapped. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140359348 | ADJUSTING DISPERSED STORAGE NETWORK TRAFFIC DUE TO REBUILDING - A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module of a dispersed storage network (DSN) monitoring network traffic within the DSN. When the network traffic compares unfavorably to a desired network traffic function, the method continues with the DS processing module reducing a portion of the network traffic due to rebuilding flagged encoded data slices by at least one of changing rebuilding criteria for the flagged encoded data slices and changing rebuilding network traffic protocols. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140359349 | DISPERSED STORAGE RE-DISPERSION METHOD BASED ON A FAILURE - A method begins by identifying a storage unit of a set of storage units within a dispersed storage system as being likely to fail. The method continues by determining an approach for minimizing rebuilding the encoded data slices that are stored on an identified storage unit in an event of a failure of the identified storage unit. The approach is at least one approach option from a list of approach options that includes fostering new encoded data slices, replicating existing encoded data slices, and re-dispersing existing encoded data slices. The method continues by implementing the approach regarding the identified storage unit and when the identified storage unit fails, retrieving the encoded data slices that were stored on the identified storage unit based on the approach. | 12-04-2014 |
| 20140365818 | Method relating to configurable storage device and adaptive storage device array - An array can include a controller and multiple storage devices of a first type. When a storage device of the first type is replaced by a replacement storage device of a second type, and other storage devices of the first type remain in the array, the controller instructs the replacement storage device to configure itself as a storage device of the first type. When the last storage device of the first type in the array is replaced by a replacement storage device of the second type, the controller instructs all the storage devices of the array to configure themselves as storage devices of the second type. | 12-11-2014 |
| 20140365819 | REBUILDING DATA OF A STORAGE SYSTEM - Proposed are concepts for rebuilding data in a data storage system. Embodiments rebuild data in order of priority as defined by a rebuild policy. Data rebuilding may therefore be undertaken so that important data is rebuilt before less important data for example. For instance, according to one embodiment, a method of rebuilding data in a data storage system includes: determining data to be rebuilt; identifying a plurality of data blocks, each data block comprising data to be rebuilt having a common characteristic; assigning a priority to each of the plurality of data blocks in accordance with a rebuild policy representing a priority to be assigned to a data block based on the common characteristic of its data; and rebuilding the data of each the plurality of data blocks in order of their assigned priority. | 12-11-2014 |
| 20140372793 | Systems And Methods For Medium Error Reporting And Handling In Storage Devices - Systems and methods are provided that may be used to identify and report multiple information units (e.g., logical blocks) having medium errors within a given composite information structure (e.g., physical block) of a storage device (e.g., such as a hard drive) whenever any single information unit having an error within the same composite information structure is accessed. | 12-18-2014 |
| 20150012775 | REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISKS (RAID) SYSTEM BACKUP MANAGEMENT - Disclosed herein are RAID backup management systems and methods. According to an aspect, a method may include identifying portions of data in each of multiple storage units of a RAID system. The method may also include backing up data in the identified portions to a hot spare. Further, the method may include allocating storage space in the hot spare for the backup based on detection of errors among the storage units. | 01-08-2015 |
| 20150019906 | Transparent and Lightweight Recovery From Hardware Memory Errors - Systems and methods are disclosed that allow for transparently recovering from an uncorrected multi-bit error of arbitrary length located at a memory address. Storing one or more parity pages, for a set of pages in system memory, such that a page in the set of pages may be reconstructed using one of the parity pages is disclosed. Storing an indication of one or more page'disk location such that the one or more pages may be reconstructed by refilling the page from disk is also disclosed. | 01-15-2015 |
| 20150039934 | ACCOUNTING FOR DATA THAT NEEDS TO BE REBUILT OR DELETED - A method begins by a dispersed storage (DS) processing module identifying a plurality of encoded data slices requiring rebuilding. The method continues with the DS processing module determining an amount of reserve memory required for storage of rebuilt slices for the identified plurality of encoded data slices requiring rebuilding. The method continues with the DS processing module updating memory utilization information to include the amount of reserve memory required. The method continues with the DS processing module indicating the memory utilization. The method continues with the DS processing module obtaining rebuilt slices. The method continues with the DS processing module storing the rebuilt slices in the memory and updating the memory utilization information. | 02-05-2015 |
| 20150082081 | WRITE CACHE PROTECTION IN A PURPOSE BUILT BACKUP APPLIANCE - For write cache protection of purpose built backup appliances in a computing environment, backup data of the write cache is created using a server memory that includes the write cache in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) system. The server memory is not controlled by a failing RAID card and/or NVRAM card that controls the write cache. The backup data in the server memory is flushed to a persistent storage device subsequent to detecting a failure of the write cache for enabling recovery of the backup data using the persistent storage device during a reboot operation. | 03-19-2015 |
| 20150121129 | STORAGE CONTROL DEVICE, STORAGE APPARATUS, AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING STORAGE CONTROL PROGRAM STORED THEREIN - Each CM includes an interface unit, a first detection unit, and a reset control unit. The interface unit is configured to be connected to a communication channel and control communication using the communication channel. The first detection unit is configured to detect an abnormality in an inter-CM path including the interface unit of the CM, to which the first detection unit belongs, the interface unit of the other CM, and the communication channel. The reset control unit is configured to retract the other CM and reset the interface unit of the one CM in a case where an abnormality of the other CM side is detected by the first detection unit. Accordingly, even in a case where a suspicious control unit in which an abnormality has occurred is erroneously specified, the maintenance of the suspicious control unit can be performed with the operation being continued. | 04-30-2015 |
| 20150143167 | STORAGE CONTROL APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING STORAGE SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING STORAGE CONTROL PROGRAM - A storage control apparatus for controlling a storage system including a plurality of storage devices includes a monitor unit that collects statistics from each of the storage devices; and a selection unit that, in the event of a failure of any of the storage devices, selects a storage device to which data in the failed storage device is to be reconstructed, based on the statistics collected by the monitor unit. | 05-21-2015 |
| 20150309876 | REUSE OF PROBLEMATIC DISKS IN A REDUNDANT DISK SYSTEM - The present disclosure discloses a method and system for reuse of a problematic disk in a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) system. The method includes performing formatting, initializing and validating operations on a first disk in the RAID system in response to the first disk experiencing a problem and determining that is not a hard error. The method may also include setting the first disk as a second-level redundant disk in the RAID system in order for the RAID system to use the first disk again in response to success of the validating operation on the first disk. The method and the system can enable the problematic disks isolated out of the system due to media errors and/or slow disk errors in the high-end RAID storage to be reused by the RAID system under the precondition of ensuring the reliability of the system. | 10-29-2015 |
| 20150355969 | Storage Cluster - A plurality of storage nodes is provided. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to communicate together as a storage cluster. Each of the plurality of storage nodes includes nonvolatile solid-state memory. The plurality of storage nodes is configured to distribute user data and metadata associated with the user data throughout the plurality of storage nodes such that the plurality of storage nodes maintain the ability to read the user data, using erasure coding, despite a loss of one of the plurality of storage nodes. A chassis enclosing the plurality of storage nodes includes power distribution, a high speed communication bus and the ability to install one or more storage nodes which may use the power distribution and communication bus in some embodiments. A method for accessing user data in a plurality of storage nodes having nonvolatile solid-state memory is also provided. | 12-10-2015 |
| 20150378858 | STORAGE SYSTEM AND MEMORY DEVICE FAULT RECOVERY METHOD - The present invention aims at providing a storage system capable of shortening the recovery time from failure while ensuring the reliability of data when failure occurs to a storage device. When failure occurs to a storage device, a recovery processing corresponding to the content of failure is executed for the blocked storage device. The storage device recovered via the execution of the recovery processing is subjected to a check corresponding to the operation status of the storage system or the failure history of the storage device. | 12-31-2015 |
| 20160004615 | STORAGE APPARATUS AND STORAGE APPARATUS CONTROL METHOD - A storage controller stores, for each of a plurality of storage devices, a usable capacity, which is a capacity usable by the storage controller in a logical storage area, configures a first RAID group using a first storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, and allocates, on the basis of a request from a host computer, one of a plurality of pages of the logical storage area in the first RAID group to a virtual volume. The storage controller reduces, when receiving first failure information indicating a failure in a first storage device in the first storage device group from the first storage device, a usable capacity of the first storage device on the basis of the first failure information. | 01-07-2016 |
| 20160004637 | NVRAM CACHING AND LOGGING IN A STORAGE SYSTEM - In one embodiment, a node coupled to solid state drives (SSDs) of a plurality of storage arrays executes a storage input/output (I/O) stack having a plurality of layers. The node includes a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM). A first portion of the NVRAM is configured as a write-back cache to store write data associated with a write request and a second portion of the NVRAM is configured as one or more non-volatile logs (NVLogs) to record metadata associated with the write request. The write data is passed from the write-back cache over a first path of the storage I/O stack for storage on a first storage array and the metadata is passed from the one or more NVLogs over a second path of the storage I/O stack for storage on a second storage array, wherein the first path is different from the second path. | 01-07-2016 |
| 20160034370 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR STORING INFORMATION THAT FACILITATES THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AT LEAST SOME OF THE CONTENTS OF A STORAGE UNIT ON A STORAGE SYSTEM - The failure of a storage unit in a storage array of a storage system may render the storage unit unresponsive to any requests. Any writes to the storage system that occur during the failure of the storage unit will not be reflected on the failed unit, rendering some of the failed unit's data stale. Assuming the failed unit's data is not corrupted but is just stale, a partial rebuild may be performed on the failed unit, selectively reconstructing only data that is needed to replace the stale data. Described herein are techniques for storing information that identifies the data that needs to be rebuilt. When the storage unit fails, the segment identifier associated with the last data segment written to the storage system may be stored. Upon the storage unit recovering, the storage system can rebuild only those data segments whose identifier is greater than the stored segment identifier. | 02-04-2016 |
| 20160070628 | Member Replacement in an Array of Information Storage Devices - An information handling system includes a method for detecting a predictive failure indication for a predictive failure indicated physical disk of a disk group, determining an amount of used storage capacity of a lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, and comparing a replacement physical disk storage capacity of a replacement physical disk to the used storage capacity. When the replacement physical disk capacity is greater than or equal to the used storage capacity even if the replacement physical disk capacity is less than a lowest storage capacity of the lowest capacity physical disk of the disk group, replacing the predictive failure indicated physical disk with the replacement physical disk. | 03-10-2016 |
| 20160077940 | MEMORY DEVICE CAPABLE OF QUICKLY REPAIRING FAIL CELL - The memory device includes a memory array, control logic and a recovery circuit. The memory array has a first region configured to store data, a second region configured to store a portion of fail cell information, and a third region configured to store recovery information. The fail cell information identifies failed cells in the first region, and the recovery information is for recovering data stored in the identified failed cells. The control logic is configured to store the fail cell information, to transfer the portion of the fail cell information to the second region of the memory array, and to determine whether to perform a recovery operation based on address information in an access request and the portion of the fail cell information stored in the second region. The access request is a request to access the first region. The recovery circuit is configured to perform the recovery operation. | 03-17-2016 |
| 20160103746 | RECOVERY OF STORAGE DEVICE IN A REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DISK (RAID) OR RAID-LIKE ARRAY - A computer-implemented method for managing storage devices in a storage subsystem having an array of storage devices, according to one embodiment, includes determining that at least one storage device in the array of storage devices has failed. Storage device characteristics of the failed storage device are compared with storage device characteristics of each of a plurality of candidate devices, and an attempt is made to identify a first candidate storage device having storage device characteristics that match the storage device characteristics of the failed storage device. A second candidate storage device having storage device characteristics most similar to the storage device characteristics of the failed storage device is identified in response to not identifying a candidate device that matches the failed storage device. | 04-14-2016 |
| 20160132394 | STORAGE DRIVE REMEDIATION IN A RAID SYSTEM - Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for remediating a failed drive in a set of drives, such as a RAID system, without having to physically replace the failed drive. After receiving a signal of an error indicating a specific physical portion on a storage drive in the set of storage drives has caused the drive to fail, the system can unmount the drive from the filesystem while other drives continue to operate. Next, the system can identify one or more files in the filesystem that have associations with the specific physical portion on the failed drive. Next, the system can remount the drive onto the filesystem and subsequently delete the identified files from the filesystem. The system can then perform a direct I/O write to the specific physical portion on the failed drive to force reallocation of the specific physical portion to a different area on the failed drive. The system can also power-cycle the drive before this remediation, e.g., to determine if this remediation can be avoided. | 05-12-2016 |
| 20160154718 | REBUILDING DRIVE DATA | 06-02-2016 |
| 20160170853 | MEMORY REPAIR REDUNDANCY | 06-16-2016 |
| 20160179411 | Techniques to Provide Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) Services Using a Shared Pool of Configurable Computing Resources | 06-23-2016 |
| 20160179644 | MANAGEMENT OF STORAGE DEVICES | 06-23-2016 |
| 20160202925 | THRESHOLD BASED INCREMENTAL FLASHCOPY BACKUP OF A RAID PROTECTED ARRAY | 07-14-2016 |
| 20220137835 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PARITY-BASED FAILURE PROTECTION FOR STORAGE DEVICES - Various implementations described herein relate to systems and methods for providing data protection and recovery for drive failures, including receiving, by a controller of a first storage device, a request from the host. In response to receiving the request, the controller transfers new data from a second storage device. The controller determines an XOR result by performing an XOR operation of the new data and existing data, the existing data is stored in a non-volatile storage. | 05-05-2022 |
| 20220138072 | ANOMALY AWARE LOG RETRIEVAL FROM DISK ARRAY ENCLOSURES (DAEs) - An anomaly with a disk array enclosure (DAE) of a set of DAEs connected to a host server is detected. Each DAE is chained to another DAE by first and second chains and includes a serial attached SCSI (SAS) expander and a peer SAS expander. The SAS expander in a DAE forms part of the first chain. The peer SAS expander in the DAE forms part of the second chain. Upon detection, DAE log collection is triggered to obtain logs for storage in a repository, separate from the DAEs. The logs are tagged with an anomaly class of a set of anomaly classes. For each anomaly class, a number of logs stored in the repository is limited to a threshold number. | 05-05-2022 |
