Thin Provisioning Pool RAID Group Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing thin-provisioning and copy functions in computer storage systems face inefficiencies, particularly when RAID groups fail, leading to concurrent failures of both primary and secondary logical volumes, making maintenance and performance optimization challenging.
Innovation Solution
An integrated storage system with a processor, memory, and storage controller that allocates storage areas from a first pool, managing RAID groups for both primary and secondary logical volumes, allowing for flexible allocation based on attributes and performance requirements, and rebalancing or moving pages to maintain performance and prevent failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If thin provisioning pools for primary logical volume (PVOL) and secondary logical volume (SVOL) are combined in a storage subsystem, then storage resource sharing and efficiency are improved, but RAID group failure causes both PVOL and SVOL to fail simultaneously, reducing system reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the storage pool by creating separate RAID groups for PVOL and SVOL within the same thin provisioning pool. The controller identifies and allocates specific RAID groups to PVOL and different RAID groups to SVOL, ensuring that a failure in one RAID group does not affect the other. This segmentation maintains resource sharing while preventing cascading failures.
2Reliability
If separate thin provisioning pools are created for PVOL and SVOL to prevent concurrent failures, then system reliability is improved, but device complexity and management difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller is designed with multi-functionality to manage both PVOL and SVOL within a single thin provisioning pool. It implements unified pool management while simultaneously performing RAID group allocation, failure detection, and dynamic rebalancing operations. This universal controller reduces the need for separate management systems while maintaining reliability through intelligent resource allocation.
3Speed
If RAID groups are dynamically reallocated between PVOL and SVOL to optimize performance, then I/O performance is improved, but allocation complexity and control difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The storage controller implements self-service functionality by automatically monitoring I/O performance metrics and dynamically rebalancing RAID group allocations between PVOL and SVOL. When performance degradation is detected, the controller autonomously identifies underutilized RAID groups and reallocates them to optimize throughput, eliminating the need for manual administrator intervention while maintaining high performance.
Data Source
AI summary
Exemplary embodiments provide integrated thin provisioning pool for primary logical volume and secondary logical volume in a storage subsystem. A storage system comprises a processor; a memory; and a storage controller. In one embodiment, the storage controller is configured to allocate storage area from a first pool in response to a write request, and to control allocation of storage areas for a plurality of related data, which are to be allocated from the first pool, from different specified RAID groups in the first pool. In another embodiment, the storage controller is configured to allocate storage area from a first pool in response to a write request, and to control allocation of storage areas for a plurality of related data, which are to be allocated from the first pool, from different RAID groups in the first pool.