Automated Data Relocation Among Storage Tiers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing storage management systems fail to efficiently relocate frequently-accessed data to higher-performance tiers and less-frequently-accessed data to lower-performance tiers, leading to suboptimal performance and waste of storage capacity, as they lack an automated mechanism to adapt to changing data access patterns and utilize new storage devices effectively.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that selectively relocate data within a storage pool by assigning frequently-accessed data to higher-performance tiers and less-frequently-accessed data to lower-performance tiers based on historical and predicted access frequencies, using a temperature value to determine the optimal destination tier, while balancing workloads and considering user-specified constraints.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If data is stored on high-performance storage tiers, then response time is reduced, but storage capacity utilization is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic data relocation between storage tiers based on real-time access patterns. The system continuously monitors data access frequency and automatically migrates data between high-performance and low-performance tiers, making the storage configuration adaptive rather than static. This resolves the contradiction by ensuring hot data resides on fast tiers while cold data occupies capacity-efficient tiers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the storage location parameter of data based on access frequency metrics. By monitoring access patterns and adjusting the physical storage tier assignment accordingly, the system optimizes both response time for frequently accessed data and capacity utilization for infrequently accessed data.
2Productivity
If automated data relocation is implemented, then storage system performance is optimized, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service automation where the storage system autonomously monitors its own performance metrics, identifies optimization opportunities, and executes data relocation without external intervention. The system self-manages the complexity of performance optimization by embedding monitoring and relocation logic within the storage management infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop that continuously monitors data access patterns and storage performance metrics, then uses this information to drive automated relocation decisions. The feedback mechanism enables the system to adapt to changing workloads dynamically, optimizing performance while managing complexity through closed-loop control.
3Productivity
If storage tiers are logically partitioned into multiple levels, then data access efficiency is improved, but management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the storage system into multiple performance tiers (e.g., high-performance SSD tier, medium-performance HDD tier, low-performance archive tier). This segmentation allows data to be organized by access frequency and performance requirements, improving data access efficiency for different workload types while enabling targeted optimization strategies for each tier.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are disclosed for relocating data in a physical storage pool comprising a plurality of storage tiers having differing performance characteristics, the physical storage pool being mapped into one or more logical units, each logical unit comprising a plurality of logical slices of data storage. The methods and systems can involve receiving a relocation list, the relocation list including, for each of a plurality of logical slices, a slice identifier, a temperature value, and a current physical location, determining a destination tier for each logical slice on the relocation list, evaluating for each logical slice on the relocation list a performance gain expected to be achieved by moving the logical slice from its current physical location to a new location in the destination tier, and relocating data in a logical slice from its current physical location to the new location based on the evaluation.