Storage Controller Copy Redirection to Same Physical Drive
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Solution Overview
Problem
In storage systems, when the copy source and copy destination addresses correspond to different physical drives, it leads to performance degradation and increased data volume due to inefficient use of bandwidth and deduplication capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The storage system shifts the storage position of copy target data so that the copy destination physical drive matches the copy source physical drive, enabling efficient deduplication and reducing overhead through controller-managed copy processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If copy operations are performed between different physical drives, then storage flexibility is improved, but system performance deteriorates due to bandwidth consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller acts as an intermediary that intercepts copy commands and redirects them to the same physical drive. The controller receives the copy command with source and destination addresses, determines they map to the same physical drive, and modifies the command to perform the copy operation within that single drive, thereby avoiding inter-drive bandwidth consumption while maintaining the appearance of flexible copy operations to the host system.
2Adaptability or versatility
If copy operations are performed between different physical drives, then storage adaptability is improved, but data volume increases due to reduced deduplication efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller serves as an intermediary that prevents unnecessary data duplication by redirecting copy operations to the same physical drive. By intercepting copy commands and determining that source and destination addresses map to the same physical drive, the controller ensures that deduplication functions can operate effectively, preventing the same data from being stored multiple times across different drives and thus reducing total data volume.
3Ease of operation
If copy operations are performed between different physical drives, then operational flexibility is improved, but processing overhead increases due to controller involvement
Solution Approach 1:
The storage system implements self-service by having the storage controller automatically determine whether copy operations should be redirected to the same physical drive. The controller independently analyzes copy commands, identifies when source and destination addresses map to the same physical drive, and autonomously redirects these operations without requiring host system intervention or complex coordination, thereby reducing processing overhead while maintaining operational flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A storage system includes a plurality of physical drives and a storage controller connected to the plurality of physical drives to provide one or more volumes. Two or more volume addresses, which are two or more logical addresses, belong to each of the one or more volumes. When copy target data, which is data to be copied, is copied in a volume or between volumes, the storage controller (A) determines whether a copy destination physical drive, which is a physical drive corresponding to a copy destination volume address, is identical to a copy source physical drive which is the destination physical drive corresponding to a copy source volume address, and (B) shifts a storage position of the copy target data such that the copy destination physical drive becomes a physical drive identical to the copy source physical drive if a determination result of (A) is false.