Storage Controller Self-Restoration Without Redundancy
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Solution Overview
Problem
In multicontroller storage systems, failures in the main storage medium require manual restoration by maintenance personnel, leading to prolonged downtime and reduced system reliability and availability, especially when redundancy measures increase system complexity.
Innovation Solution
A storage system with multiple storage controllers, where one controller reallocates storage areas from failed main storage media to a reduced address map, allowing continuous operation of other controllers during restarts without pre-configured redundancy, prioritizing essential data and reducing processor cores to ensure memory area availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual restoration is performed by maintenance personnel when a failure occurs in the main storage medium, then the system can be restored, but the downtime is prolonged and system reliability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller automatically detects storage medium failures and performs self-restoration by reallocating storage areas to remaining functional storage media, eliminating the need for manual intervention by maintenance personnel and reducing downtime
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of the storage controller by reallocating storage areas from failed storage media to functional storage media, allowing the controller to continue operating with modified resource allocation rather than requiring manual restoration
2Reliability
If pre-configured redundancy is implemented to enable automatic failure restoration, then system availability is enhanced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller automatically detects failures and reallocates storage areas without requiring pre-configured redundant components, achieving automatic restoration while maintaining system simplicity by utilizing existing functional storage media
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards the allocation of storage areas on failed storage media and recovers those areas by reallocating them to functional storage media, enabling automatic restoration without adding redundant components
3Reliability
If the storage controller is blocked or switched to a preliminary system during failure restoration, then data integrity is protected, but system availability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller modifies its operational parameters by reallocating storage areas to exclude failed storage media while continuing to operate with remaining functional storage media, maintaining data integrity without blocking the system
Solution Approach 2:
The storage controller maintains continuous operation by reallocating storage areas during failure restoration, ensuring that data integrity is protected while the system remains available and operational without interruption
Data Source
AI summary
A storage system includes a first storage controller including a plurality of main storage media and one or more processor cores, and a second storage controller including a plurality of main storage media and one or more processor cores and performing communication with the first storage controller. Storage areas of the main storage media in the first storage controller are allocated to an address map. In response to the occurrence of failures in one or mode main storage media of the main storage media of the first storage controller, the first storage controller performs restarting to reallocate the storage areas of the main storage media excluding one or more main storage media having caused the failures to an address map reduced than before the occurrence of the failures. The second storage controller continues operating during the restarting of the first storage controller.