RAID Controller Rebuild Priority Management for MFPs
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional image forming apparatuses experience performance degradation due to slowdowns in access speed to fixed storage devices during rebuilding processes, particularly in Multifunction Peripherals (MFPs), as CPU access conflicts with RAID controller operations, leading to reduced processing efficiency.
Innovation Solution
An image forming apparatus with a controller that determines whether rebuilding processes are ongoing and prioritizes CPU access, stopping and restarting these processes as needed to ensure higher-priority data access is not hindered, using a priority determination unit to manage data access and rebuilding processes between two fixed storage devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rebuilding processes are executed continuously without interruption, then data backup reliability is improved, but CPU access speed to fixed storage devices deteriorates due to conflicts between RAID controller and CPU operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic pausing and resuming of rebuilding processes based on CPU access requirements. The RAID controller monitors CPU access requests to fixed storage devices and temporarily suspends rebuilding operations when CPU access is needed, then resumes them when CPU access is no longer required. This periodic interruption pattern ensures both data backup reliability and CPU access performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic control of rebuilding process execution state, transitioning between executing, paused, and resumed states based on real-time system conditions. The RAID controller dynamically adjusts rebuilding operation timing by detecting CPU access requests and modifying the rebuilding process accordingly, optimizing the balance between backup reliability and access speed.
2Speed
If rebuilding processes are paused to allow CPU access, then CPU access speed is improved, but data backup reliability deteriorates due to delayed rebuilding operations
Solution Approach 1:
The RAID controller performs preliminary detection of CPU access requests before they conflict with rebuilding operations. By monitoring access requests in advance and proactively pausing rebuilding processes when CPU access is anticipated, the system prevents conflicts before they occur, maintaining both CPU access speed and rebuilding progress without actual performance degradation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the RAID controller continuously monitors CPU access requests to fixed storage devices and adjusts rebuilding process execution accordingly. When CPU access requests are detected, the controller pauses rebuilding operations; when requests are completed, the controller resumes rebuilding. This closed-loop feedback ensures optimal balancing of competing operations.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus comprises a first and a second HDDs (Hard Disk Drives), a RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) controller to execute rebuilding processes in which data stored in the first HDD is copied to the second HDD restored, and a CPU (Central Processing Unit). When there arises the necessity for accessing from the CPU to at least of the first and the second HDDs, and the priority of data which is the object for access by the CPU is higher than the priority of data which is being processed under the rebuilding processes, the image forming apparatus stops the rebuilding processes. The image forming apparatus restarts the rebuilding processes, when the access from the CPU is finished.