Tiered Data Storage Placement to Avoid Migration Overhead

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional tiered storage systems experience performance deterioration due to the need to migrate large amounts of data when scanning and reorganizing data to meet tiered storage policies, which consumes significant resources.

Innovation Solution

Determine the expected storage location for data based on information such as type, name, and user identifier during storage, ensuring data is initially placed in the appropriate tier, thereby reducing the need for subsequent migration and resource consumption.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If data is scanned and migrated to meet tiered storage policies, then storage performance is improved, but resource consumption increases and storage performance deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestorage performanceVSAvoidresource consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by determining the expected storage location for data before actually storing it. The system analyzes data characteristics (type, name, user identifier) and predicts the appropriate storage tier in advance, then stores the data directly in that location. This eliminates the need for subsequent migration operations, reducing resource consumption while maintaining storage performance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements self-service by enabling data to essentially store itself in the correct location through automated analysis of its own characteristics. The storage system automatically determines appropriate storage locations based on data metadata without requiring manual intervention or subsequent migration operations, making the storage process self-optimizing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Reliability

If data is migrated to meet tiered storage policies, then storage performance is improved, but the amount of data to be migrated increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestorage performanceVSAvoidamount of data to be migrated
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent determines the expected storage location before data storage by analyzing data characteristics such as type, name, and user identifier. This preliminary determination ensures data is placed directly in the appropriate tier (HDD or SSD) from the outset, eliminating the need for subsequent migration operations and reducing the quantity of data that would otherwise need to be moved.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Speed

If data is stored without determining expected location, then storage speed is improved, but data migration increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestorage speedVSAvoiddata migration
Core Design Contradiction:
SpeedVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary analysis of data characteristics (type, name, user identifier) to determine the expected storage location before actual data storage. This allows the system to maintain high storage speed by avoiding subsequent migration operations, as data is placed directly in the correct tier (HDD or SSD) based on pre-determined expectations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3869313B1Data storage method and apparatus
Publication Date: 2026.03.18 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3869313B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3869313B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3869313B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A data storage method and apparatus are provided. In the method, first information of to-be-stored data is first obtained. The first information includes at least one piece of information: a type of the to-be-stored data, a name of the to-be-stored data, and a user identifier corresponding to the to-be-stored data. Then, an expected storage location of the to-be-stored data is determined based on whether the first information of the to-be-stored data meets a condition. For example, when the obtained at least one piece of information of the to-be-stored data meets the condition, it is determined that the expected storage location is a first storage space whose read/write performance is higher than or equal to a threshold in a storage system. Finally, at least one data packet in a plurality of data packets of the to-be-stored data is stored in the expected storage location. Because the data packet of the data is stored in the location during data storage, the data does not need to be migrated subsequently. This can reduce an amount of data that needs to be migrated, and improve storage performance of the storage system.