Data preservation using memory aperture flush order

A method for data preservation in a computing system, the method comprising:

• receiving a request to store a dataset A-data in an aperture of a battery-backed memory, the memory including digital data storage locations addressed in a physical address space, the aperture including at least a portion of said digital data storage locations, the aperture having a physical address flush order which is an order of copying data from the aperture to an aperture-associated non-volatile storage in response to a data integrity threat, the flush order defining a first-to-flush physical address end of the aperture and a last-to-flush physical address end of the aperture, the A-data including data which is designated as critical data;
• identifying a portion A-memory of unallocated memory of the aperture, the A-memory being large enough to hold the A-data, the A-memory having a physical address which is closer to the aperture first-to-flush physical address end than any other physical address of any other unallocated memory of the aperture;
• marking the A-memory as allocated and placing a copy of the A-data in the A-memory;
• receiving a request to store a dataset Z-data in the aperture, the Z-data not including any data which is designated as critical data;
• identifying a portion Z-memory of unallocated memory of the aperture, the Z-memory being large enough to hold the Z-data, the Z-memory having a physical address which is closer to the aperture last-to-flush physical address end than any other physical address of any other unallocated memory of the aperture;
• and
• marking the Z-memory as allocated and placing a copy of the Z-data in the Z-memory;
• whereby a likelihood of successfully flushing critical data and thereby preserving it is increased by placing the critical data ahead of non-critical data in the flush-order in the battery-backed memory.

A computer-readable storage medium configured with data and instructions which upon execution cause a data preservation subsystem to perform a method for data preservation in a computing system, the method comprising:

• receiving multiple requests, each request seeking storage of a respective dataset in an aperture of a battery-backed memory, the memory including digital data storage locations addressed in a physical address space, the aperture including at least a portion of said digital data storage locations, the aperture having a physical address flush order which is an order of copying data from the aperture to an aperture-associated non-volatile storage in response to a data integrity threat, the physical address flush order defining a first-to-flush physical address end of the aperture and a last-to-flush physical address end of the aperture, each respective dataset including data which is designated as critical data;
• for at least two of the requests, identifying a respective portion of unallocated memory of the aperture, each portion of unallocated memory being large enough to hold the respective dataset, the identified respective portion of unallocated memory having a physical address which is closer to the aperture first-to-flush physical address end than any other physical address of any other unallocated memory of the aperture;
• for at least one of the requests, marking the identified respective portion of unallocated memory as allocated and placing therein a copy of the respective dataset;
• detecting the data integrity threat;
• flushing all of the critical data which was copied into the aperture from the aperture to the non-volatile storage;
• whereby the method preserves all of the critical data which was copied into the aperture, despite the data integrity threat.