Virtual Storage Data Recovery Through Tiered Consistent Restore

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing storage systems face inefficiencies in data management and reliability, particularly in flash storage systems, due to redundant write operations and lack of direct control by the operating system over flash drives, leading to increased wear and reduced reliability.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a direct-mapped flash storage system where the operating system directly addresses data blocks without translation by storage controllers, offloading device management responsibilities, and utilizing non-volatile RAM for quick data buffering and proactive data rebuilding across multiple storage nodes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If storage controllers manage flash drives directly, then device control is centralized, but write operations become redundant and reliability decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevice controlVSAvoiddata integrity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts device management responsibilities from storage controllers and transfers them directly to the operating system. The OS now directly addresses data blocks on flash drives without translation by storage controllers, eliminating redundant write operations and improving both reliability and operational efficiency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Speed

If data is buffered in volatile memory, then access speed is fast, but data persistence during power failures is compromised

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata access speedVSAvoiddata persistence

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces non-volatile RAM as an intermediary between volatile memory and flash storage. Data is first written to non-volatile RAM which provides fast access like volatile memory, then asynchronously transferred to flash drives. This mediator ensures data persistence during power failures while maintaining fast access speeds.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Productivity

If data is rebuilt reactively after failures, then storage capacity is maximized, but data loss risk increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestorage capacity utilizationVSAvoiddata safety

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements proactive data rebuilding where redundant copies are created and stored across multiple storage nodes before failures occur. When a node fails, data can be immediately recovered from pre-existing redundant copies without requiring time-consuming reconstruction, thus maximizing both storage utilization and data safety.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS12430213B2Recovering data in a virtual storage system

Publication Date: 2025.09.30 PURE STORAGE INC

AI summary

Data recovery in a virtual storage system, including: detecting, within storage provided by a first tier of storage of the virtual storage system, data loss within a dataset, wherein recovery data for the dataset is stored in a second tier of storage; determining a recovery point for the dataset up to which a consistent version of the dataset is recoverable from the recovery data stored in the second tier of storage; and restoring, within the storage provided by the first tier of storage of the virtual storage system, the consistent version of the dataset.