Hybrid RAID Storage Using Cloud Drives During Disk Failure
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Solution Overview
Problem
In on-premises storage systems, physical failures in drives configuring a RAID can lead to a prolonged reduction in redundancy, increasing the risk of data loss due to additional failures during the replacement period of the failed drive.
Innovation Solution
A storage system that incorporates both on-premises physical drives and cloud-based memory areas to maintain RAID configuration by adding cloud storage as an alternative in case of physical failures, ensuring redundancy is maintained by reconfiguring the RAID using available drives and cloud resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a physical drive fails in a RAID configuration, then the system must operate with reduced redundancy, but the replacement process takes several hours to several days leaving the system vulnerable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces cloud storage as an intermediary resource to temporarily replace failed physical drives during the replacement period. When a drive fails, the system automatically provisions cloud-based storage capacity to maintain the RAID configuration, allowing the failed drive to be replaced without compromising system reliability or data protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring cloud storage resources that can be immediately deployed when a drive failure occurs. The cloud storage capacity is reserved and ready to be activated, eliminating the need to wait for physical drive replacement before restoring full redundancy.
2Reliability
If cloud storage is used to replace failed drives, then redundancy is quickly restored, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service automation where the storage controller automatically detects drive failures, provisions cloud storage resources, and reconfigures the RAID array without manual intervention. This automation masks the underlying complexity of hybrid storage management, making the system as easy to operate as traditional local storage while providing rapid redundancy restoration.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage system achieves multi-functionality by combining local physical drives with cloud-based storage resources in a unified RAID configuration. The same storage controller manages both local and remote resources, allowing the system to operate in different modes (fully local, fully cloud, or hybrid) depending on failure conditions and resource availability.
Data Source
AI summary
A storage system includes a storage apparatus having a plurality of physical drives and a controller. In a case where a physical failure occurs in a physical drive, the controller additionally installs a drive provided from a cloud, and maintains a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) configuration before the occurrence of the physical failure in the physical drive using the physical drives excluding the physical drive where the physical failure has occurred and the additionally installed drive provided from the cloud.