Storage VPD Monitoring for Backend Critical Event Visibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hosts in information handling systems often struggle to detect real-time status of remote storage arrays, leading to potential application downtime or data loss due to sudden interruptions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a storage monitor that reads status information from a vital product data (VPD) page on a storage volume, determining critical events, and performing remedial actions to prevent data loss.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If remote storage arrays are used to store data for information handling system hosts, then data storage capacity and accessibility are improved, but the host's ability to detect real-time status of the arrays deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the storage array controller writes status information about critical events back to the VPD page, which the storage monitor continuously reads. This creates a closed-loop feedback system that allows the host to receive real-time notifications about storage array status without requiring additional communication channels, thus resolving the contradiction between remote storage accessibility and status detection capability
2Measurement precision
If additional communication channels or knowledge of array operational structure are required for status monitoring, then monitoring capability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the VPD page serve multiple functions: it stores vital product data about the storage array and simultaneously serves as a communication channel for transmitting critical event status information from the array controller to the host. By making the VPD page multi-functional, the system achieves improved monitoring capability without adding separate communication channels or increasing system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The storage array controller automatically writes status information to the VPD page without requiring external intervention or additional monitoring infrastructure. The existing VPD infrastructure serves itself by dual-purpose usage, eliminating the need for separate monitoring systems and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining precise status monitoring capability
Data Source
AI summary
An information handling system may include a processor and a storage monitor comprising a program of instructions embodied in non-transitory computer readable media and configured to, when executed by the processor, read status information from a vital product data (VPD) page stored on a storage volume communicatively coupled to the storage monitor, determine from the status information whether a critical event has occurred at the storage volume that can lead to data loss of data written from the information handling system to the storage volume, and responsive to a determination that the critical event has occurred, perform a remedial action.