Arbitration Controller for Storage Clusters
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current storage solutions, particularly in cloud computing, face challenges with arbitration between storage processors in active-active or active-passive clusters, leading to inefficiencies in data placement and management due to increased request volumes and system sizes, where traditional interfaces like SATA and SCSI bottleneck data access and processing.
Innovation Solution
A modular hardware solution with on-board processing and battery-supported RAM, utilizing smart NVRAM modules connected via PCIe fabric for centralized control, providing redundancy, flexibility, and supporting hosts with real-time data processing and arbitration capabilities, enabling faster read/write operations and fault-tolerance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional SATA and SCSI interfaces are used to connect storage devices, then compatibility and ease of operation are improved, but data access speed and throughput are limited due to bottleneck effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the interface parameter from traditional SATA/SCSI to PCI Express, which provides higher bandwidth and faster data transfer speeds. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by maintaining ease of operation through standardized interfaces while dramatically improving data access speed and eliminating bottleneck effects.
2Reliability
If active-active or active-passive storage controller clusters are used to manage large-scale storage systems, then system reliability and capacity are improved, but arbitration overhead and processing latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the arbitration function from the storage controllers and places it in a dedicated arbitration controller. This separation removes the arbitration overhead from the data processing path, allowing storage controllers to focus on reliable data management while the dedicated arbitration controller handles access coordination with minimal latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The arbitration controller acts as an intermediary between multiple storage controllers and the host system. It mediates access requests, manages arbitration, and coordinates data placement across the storage cluster, thereby reducing processing latency while maintaining system reliability through centralized control.
3Productivity
If more storage processors are added to handle increased request volumes in large-scale data systems, then system capacity and processing power are improved, but arbitration complexity and coordination overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the storage system into independent storage processors that can be added modularly to handle increased request volumes. Each processor operates independently with its own cache, and the arbitration controller manages them as discrete units, allowing linear scaling of capacity without proportionally increasing arbitration complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The arbitration controller provides universal functionality for managing multiple storage processors, handling various types of requests (read, write, delete) and coordinating data placement across different cache levels. This multi-functional design allows the system to scale productivity by adding processors without requiring proportional increases in arbitration logic complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A data storage system, including a host server having storage processors, a PCIe fabric, and a GBE fabric, and two or more data storage modules having a bank of DRAM, long-term storage drives, a host interface, including a PCIe interface and a GBE interface, an application specific integrated circuit connected to the host interface, the storage drives, and the DRAM, and a battery, the battery providing power to the DRAM and SSDs in an event of failure of a main power supply. Data streams transmitted from the host server via a PCIe connection of the PCIe fabric are received at the host interface and placed directly in DRAM as a write-back cache operation. In addition, the battery provides the DRAM with non-volatile memory capabilities and the storage modules with portability. A method for arbitration of write requests between the storage processors of the data storage system is also disclosed.