Push-Based Buffer Stealing for Storage Appliance Write Efficiency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing storage appliances face inefficiencies in managing data writes using a shared physical buffer pool, where clients must manually allocate and manage buffer locations, leading to potential conflicts and reduced performance.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a push-based mechanism with a shared physical buffer pool, where clients use virtual buffer pools abstracted from physical buffer locations, allowing efficient allocation and management by the storage appliance, enabling multiple clients to share buffer resources without direct conflict.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If clients manually allocate and manage buffer locations in a shared physical buffer pool, then buffer management is straightforward and simple, but conflicts occur between clients and performance is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mediator component that manages the shared physical buffer pool on behalf of multiple clients. This intermediary abstracts the buffer allocation process, handling conflicts and coordination automatically, thereby maintaining operational simplicity for clients while improving overall data write efficiency through centralized management.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service mechanisms where the buffer management system automatically allocates, monitors, and reallocates buffer locations based on client needs and buffer availability. This self-managing approach eliminates manual client intervention while preventing conflicts through automated coordination, thus improving productivity without sacrificing ease of operation.
2Device complexity
If clients directly access physical buffer locations, then buffer allocation is simple and direct, but conflicts arise when multiple clients share the same buffer pool
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between clients and physical buffer locations that manages allocation and access coordination. This mediator handles the complexity of buffer sharing internally, presenting a simplified interface to clients while ensuring reliable conflict-free access through centralized control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The buffer management system segments the shared physical buffer pool into logically separated allocation units or time-sliced access periods for different clients. This segmentation prevents conflicts by ensuring that each client operates within its allocated segment without interfering with others, thereby maintaining both simplicity and reliability.
3Quantity of substance
If a shared physical buffer pool is used without abstraction, then buffer resource utilization is high, but clients experience conflicts and performance degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a buffer management intermediary that coordinates access to the shared physical buffer pool, allowing high resource utilization while preventing client conflicts. The mediator optimizes buffer allocation dynamically, ensuring that buffer resources are fully utilized across all clients without causing performance degradation through coordinated access control.
Solution Approach 2:
The buffer allocation system implements dynamic management where buffer assignments are continuously adjusted based on real-time client needs and buffer availability. This dynamic approach maximizes buffer resource utilization while maintaining high data write performance through adaptive coordination that responds to changing conditions without client conflict.
Data Source
AI summary
In general, embodiments of the technology relate to writing data to storage appliances. More specifically, embodiments of the technology are directed to writing data to storage media using a push-based mechanism in which clients provide the data to write to the storage media and then subsequently provide a command to write the data to the storage media.