Offloading device management responsibilities of a storage device to a storage controller
AssigneePure Storage, Inc.
InventorEric D. Seppanen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Offloading device management responsibilities from a storage device in an array of storage devices, including: retrieving, from the storage device, control information describing the state of one or more memory blocks in the storage device; and performing, in dependence upon the control information, a storage device management operation.
Claims21
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a storage device of a storage array, a request from a storage array controller for one or more locations of control information for the storage device, the storage array controller being external to the storage device;
- scanning, by the storage device, responsive to receiving the request from the external storage array controller, a plurality of memory blocks that are internal to the storage device for one or more memory blocks that include control information for the storage device;
- based on the scanning, identifying, by the storage device, the one or more memory blocks that include control information;
- and
- transmitting, by the storage device to the external storage array controller, one or more locations of one or more memory blocks that include the control information for the storage device.
An apparatus comprising a computer processor and a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:
- receiving, by a storage device of a storage array, a request from a storage array controller for one or more locations of control information for the storage device, the storage array controller being external to the storage device;
- scanning, by the storage device, responsive to receiving the request from the external storage array controller, a plurality of memory blocks that are internal to the storage device for one or more memory blocks that include control information for the storage device;
- based on the scanning, identifying, by the storage device, the one or more memory blocks that include control information;
- and
- transmitting, by the storage device to the external storage array controller, one or more locations of one or more memory blocks that include the control information for the storage device.
A computer program product disposed upon a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of:
- receiving, by a storage device of a storage array, a request from a storage array controller for one or more locations of control information for the storage device, the storage array controller being external to the storage device;
- scanning, by the storage device, responsive to receiving the request from the external storage array controller, a plurality of memory blocks that are internal to the storage device for one or more memory blocks that include control information for the storage device;
- based on the scanning, identifying, by the storage device, the one or more memory blocks that include control information;
- and
- transmitting, by the storage device to the external storage array controller, one or more locations of one or more memory blocks that include the control information for the storage device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.