Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110082997 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: a) representing to a plurality of hosts an available logical address space divided into one or more logical groups (e.g. logical volumes, virtual partitions, snapshots, combinations of a given logical volume and its respective snapshot(s), etc.), and b) mapping between one or more contiguous ranges of addresses related to the logical address space and one or more contiguous ranges of addresses related to the physical address space, wherein said mapping is provided with the help of one or more mapping trees, each tree assigned to a separate logical group in the logical address space. Mapping between contiguous ranges of addresses related to the logical address space and contiguous ranges of addresses related to the physical address space can be a) mapping between LBA and DBA addresses; b) mapping between VUA and VDA addresses; c) mapping between LBA and VDA addresses; and d) mapping between VUA and DBA addresses, wherein virtual unit addresses (VUA) characterize a first virtual layer operable to represent the logical address space, and virtual disk addresses (VDA) characterize a second virtual layer operable to represent the physical storage space. | 04-07-2011 |
20110202722 | Mass Storage System and Method of Operating Thereof - There are provided a storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: caching in the cache memory a plurality of data portions matching a certain criterion, thereby giving rise to the cached data portions; analyzing the succession of logical addresses characterizing the cached data portions; if the cached data portions cannot constitute a group of N contiguous data portions, where N is the number of RG members, generating a virtual stripe being a concatenation of N data portions wherein at least one data portion among said data portions is non-contiguous with respect to any other portion in the virtual stripe, and wherein the size of the virtual stripe is equal to the size of the stripe of the RAID group; destaging the virtual stripe and writing it to a respective storage device in a write-out-of-place manner. The virtual stripe can be generated responsive to receiving a write request from a client and/or responsive to receiving a write instruction from a background process. | 08-18-2011 |
20110202723 | Method of allocating raid group members in a mass storage system - There are provides an allocation module and a method of allocating a logical disk to a next member of a given RAID group. The method comprises: identifying one or more physical disks comprising at least one logical disk with already allocated member of said given RAID group, thus giving rise to allocated physical disks; identifying one or more pairs constituted by at least one allocated physical disk with non-allocated physical disks, said pairs having minimal number of RAID groups with members allocated to both physical disks in the pair, thus giving rise to a first group of pairs with minimal contention value; and selecting among the first group of pairs with minimal contention value one or more non-allocated physical disks as candidate physical disks for allocating said next member MEM | 08-18-2011 |
20120011314 | STORAGE SYSTEM WITH REDUCED ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a storage system with reduced energy consumption and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises caching in the cache memory a plurality of data portions corresponding to one or more incoming write requests, to yield cached data portions; consolidating the cached data portions characterized by a given level of expected I/O activity addressed thereto into a consolidated write request; and, responsive to a destage event, enabling writing the consolidated write request to one or more disk drives dedicated to accommodate data portions characterized by said given level of expected I/O activity addressed thereto. The cached data portions consolidated into the consolidated write request can be characterized by expected low frequency of I/O activity, and the respective one or more dedicated disk drives can be configured to operate in low-powered state unless activated. | 01-12-2012 |
20120066450 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A storage system and method is provided including physical storage devices controlled by storage control devices constituting a storage control layer operatively coupled to the physical storage devices and hosts. The storage control layer includes: a first virtual layer interfacing with the hosts, operable to represent a logical address space characterized by logical block addresses and available to said hosts and characterized by an Internal Virtual Address Space (IVAS) and operable, responsive to a configuration or I/O request addressed to the logical block addresses, to translate said logical block addresses into IVAS addresses; and a second virtual layer interfacing with the physical storage devices, operable to represent an available physical space to said hosts and characterized by a Physical Virtual Address Space (PVAS), addresses in PVAS having corresponding address in IVAS. The second virtual layer is operable to translate said respective IVAS addresses into addresses in the physical address space. | 03-15-2012 |
20120066469 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A storage system and method are provided including physical storage devices controlled by storage control devices constituting a storage control layer operatively coupled to the physical storage devices and hosts. The storage control layer includes: a first virtual layer interfacing with the hosts, operable to represent a logical address space characterized by logical block addresses, characterized by an Internal Virtual Address Space (IVAS) and operable, responsive to I/O requests addressed to logical block addresses, to provide protocol-dependent translation of said logical block addresses into IVAS addresses; and a second virtual layer interfacing with the physical storage space, and operable to represent available physical space to said hosts and characterized by a Physical Virtual Address Space (PVAS). Each address in PVAS having a corresponding address in IVAS. The second virtual layer is operable to translate PVAS addresses corresponding to IVAS addresses into addresses in physical address space in a protocol-independent manner. | 03-15-2012 |
20120072694 | VIRTUALIZED STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - A storage system and method is provided including physical storage devices controlled by storage control devices constituting a storage control layer operatively coupled to the physical storage devices and hosts. The storage control layer includes a first virtual layer interfacing with the hosts, operable to represent a logical address space available to said hosts and characterized by an Internal Virtual Address Space (IVAS); a second virtual layer characterized by a Physical Virtual Address Space (PVAS), interfacing with the physical storage devices, and operable to represent an available storage space; and an allocation module operatively coupled to the first and second virtual layers and providing mapping between IVAP and PVAS. Each address in PVAS is configured to have a corresponding address in IVAS. The allocation module facilitates management of IVAS and PVAS, enabling separation of a process of deleting certain logical object into processes performing changes in IVAS and PVAS, respectively. | 03-22-2012 |
20120079207 | MASS STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There is provided a mass storage system and a method of operating thereof. The method comprises: a) generating one or more consistency checkpoints; b) associating each generated consistency checkpoint with a global number of snapshots generated in the storage system corresponding to time of generation of respective checkpoint; c) upon generating, placing each consistency checkpoint at the beginning of a sequence of dirty data portions which are handled in a cache memory with the help of a replacement technique with an access-based promotion; d) enabling within the sequence of dirty data portions an invariable order of consistency checkpoints and dirty data portions corresponding to volumes with generated snapshots; and e) responsive to destaging a certain consistency checkpoint, recording associated with the certain checkpoint global number of generated snapshots to a predefined storage location configured to be read during a recovery of the storage system. The invariable order can be provided by ceasing access-related promotion of all dirty data portions corresponding to all volumes with generated snapshots. | 03-29-2012 |
20120117322 | MASS DATA STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF - There are provided a mass storage system comprising a control layer operatively coupled to a physical storage space and operable to interface with one or more clients and to present to said clients a plurality of logical volumes. The method of operating the storage system comprises: dividing one or more logical volumes into a plurality of statistical segments with predefined size; assigning to each given statistical segment a corresponding activity level characterizing statistics of I/O activity with regard to data portions within the given statistical segment, said statistics collected over a plurality of cycles of fixed counting length; and managing one or more data storage processes in the storage system (e.g. a background defragmentation process, a background garbage collection process, a destage management process, etc.) using said activity level. | 05-10-2012 |
20120191667 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF STORAGE OPTIMIZATION - A method and system are disclosed for storage optimization. Data parts and metadata within a source data unit are identified and the data parts are compared with data which is already stored in the physical storage space. In case identical data parts are found within the physical storage, the data parts from the source data unit are linked to the identified data, while the data parts can be discarded, thereby reducing the required storage capacity. The metadata parts can be separately stored in a designated storage area. | 07-26-2012 |
20130198446 | STORAGE SYSTEM FOR ATOMIC WRITE OF ONE OR MORE COMMANDS - Storage systems which allow atomic write operations, methods of operating thereof, and corresponding computer program products. By way of non-limiting example, a possible method includes: receiving indication of a transaction, where a plurality of blocks directed to at least one destination logical volume and relating to at least one command is to be written as an atomic write operation; generating a transaction identifier number for the transaction; enabling tracking of the transaction at least partly based on the transaction identifier number, including temporary location of any one of the plurality of blocks; accommodating at least one block of the plurality temporarily in the storage system; and upon receiving an indication that all blocks in the plurality have been successfully temporarily accommodated in the storage system, enabling data corresponding to the plurality of blocks to subsequently be stored in the at least destination logical volume and discontinuing tracking of the transaction. | 08-01-2013 |
20130198447 | STORAGE SYSTEM FOR ATOMIC WRITE WHICH INCLUDES A PRE-CACHE - Storage systems which allow atomic write operations, methods of operating thereof, and corresponding computer program products. By way of non-limiting example, a possible method includes: configuring volatile memory into cache memory and pre-cache memory; receiving an indication that a plurality of blocks relating to a command is to be written as an atomic write operation; enabling tracking of the atomic write operation; caching at least one block from the plurality in the pre-cache memory; and upon receiving an indication that all blocks in the plurality have been successfully accommodated in the pre-cache memory, enabling data corresponding to the plurality of blocks to subsequently be cached in the cache memory and discontinuing tracking of the atomic write operation. | 08-01-2013 |
20130268730 | Grid Storage System and Method of Operating Thereof - A method of operating a storage system includes: configuring the address space so that each LBA is assigned to at least two servers among a plurality of at least three servers in a control grid: to a primary server with a primary responsibility for handling requests corresponding to said LBA, and to a secondary server with a secondary responsibility for handling requests corresponding to said LBA. In response to a request corresponding to a certain LBA range, generating by a data server having primary responsibility over the certain LBA range, a primary cache object; identifying a data server configured as a secondary data server with regard to the certain LBA range; and generating a redundancy cache object corresponding to the primary cache object only at the identified secondary data server, the redundancy cache object to be used by the identified secondary data server when taking the primary responsibility. | 10-10-2013 |