Delta Value Storage for System Monitoring Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data storage systems face significant space requirements for storing counter information over time, leading to increased storage needs without reducing temporal granularity or tracking granularity, and existing solutions that reduce storage frequency result in less precise analysis.
Innovation Solution
The method involves recording delta values instead of raw counter values, storing delta values instead of actual counter values when there is no difference, and using SQL join operations between relational database tables to generate actual counter values, thereby reducing storage space without compromising granularity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If counter information is stored for every point in time, then temporal granularity is maintained, but storage space requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for monitoring purposes by storing delta values (changes) rather than complete counter values. This selective extraction maintains the ability to reconstruct counter states while significantly reducing the volume of stored data, directly resolving the contradiction between temporal granularity and storage space requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the storage approach by changing from storing absolute counter values to storing delta values (differences between consecutive counter values). This parameter transformation enables efficient storage where most counters remain unchanged, allowing compact representation while preserving the ability to recover complete counter information when needed
2Quantity of substance
If data collection frequency is reduced to save storage space, then storage requirements decrease, but analysis precision is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary computation by calculating and storing delta values at the time of data collection. This advance preparation enables efficient storage while preserving all necessary information for future analysis, allowing reconstruction of complete counter values when needed without having stored every intermediate state
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces delta values as an intermediary representation between complete counter values and reduced sampling. This intermediary form captures only the essential changes while enabling reconstruction of full counter states, serving as a space-efficient mediator that maintains analysis precision without requiring full data storage
Data Source
AI summary
An amount of storage space required to maintain counter information for a storage system is reduced without reducing a temporal granularity or tracking granularity of the counter information. Rather than periodically recording actual (i.e., raw) counter values for counters, difference (i.e., delta) values may be recorded. For a given counter, a difference (delta value) between a value of the counter for a given point in time (PIT) and a value of the counter for a previous PIT may be determined, and this delta value may be stored as opposed to storing the raw counter value. This delta value may be a significantly smaller value than the raw value. To further reduce the amount of storage space required, no value may be stored for a counter for a given PIT if it is determined that there is no difference between a counter value for the given PIT and a previous PIT.