Data retention in storage drives
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsArindam Raychaudhuri, Diyanesh B. Chinnakkonda Vidyapoornachary
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Abstract
A method and a system for monitoring conditions of offline storage devices is disclosed. Predetermined environmental conditions are monitored to determine whether a storage device should be brought online to perform a data integrity check process. The process receives a triggering event that corresponds with the storage device, powers on the storage devices, selects a page from the storage device, and determines a bit error rate. Once the bit error rate is determined, error-correcting code runs to correct the errors. Any uncorrectable errors are reported, and the storage device is brought back offline.
Claims20
A method for data integrity in a storage drive, the process comprising:
- receiving, by a service host, a triggering event, from an environmental monitoring server, corresponding to the storage drive, the triggering event corresponding to a predetermined condition;
- powering on the storage drive by a power management unit, wherein the storage drive was powered off prior to the triggering event;
- selecting, by the service host, a page from the storage drive, wherein the page is a data segment within the storage drive;
- determining, by the storage drive, a bit error rate of the page, wherein the bit error rate is determined by a storage controller connected within the storage drive;
- upon determining that the bit error rate exceeds a bit error rate threshold, running, by the storage drive, a first error correcting code to scrub all pages held within the storage drive;
- upon determining that the bit error rate does not exceeds a threshold, running, by the storage drive, the first error correcting code to scrub the page;
- recording, by the storage drive, uncorrectable errors within the storage drive after scrubbing the storage drive;
- and
- powering down, by the power management unit, the storage drive.
A system for improving data retention in a storage system, the system comprising:
- a storage drive configured to store data, wherein the data is divided into pages of information;
- a storage system connected to the storage drive, the storage system configured to manage the data held within the storage drive;
- a load balancing server configured to distribute network traffic;
- a power management unit connected to the load balancing server and to the storage system, the power management unit configured to communicate a power status of the storage system to the load balancing server, the power management further configured to supply power to the storage system;
- an environmental monitoring server connected to the load balancing server, the environmental monitoring server configured to monitor and sense a plurality of environmental conditions and to communicate the plurality of environmental conditions to the load balancing server;
- a service host configured to execute an instruction on the storage system upon determining a triggering event, the service host further configured to receive the environmental conditions and the power status to determine the triggering event;
- and
- wherein the storage drive is further configured to receive the instruction from the service host and to check the pages for a bit error rate, to scrub the pages containing errors, and to record each page that contains an uncorrectable error.
A computer program product for data integrity, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:
- receive a triggering event corresponding to a storage drive, the triggering event being a predetermined condition;
- power on a storage drive, the storage drive being offline prior to the triggering event;
- select a page from the storage drive, wherein the page is a data segment within the storage drive;
- determine a bit error rate of the page, wherein the bit error rate is determined by a storage controller connected within the storage drive;
- upon determining that the bit error rate exceeds a bit error rate threshold, run a first error correcting code to scrub all pages held within the storage drive;
- upon determining that the bit error rate does not exceeds a threshold, run the first error correcting code to scrub the page;
- record uncorrectable errors within the storage drive after scrubbing the storage drive;
- and
- power down the storage drive.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.