Safe migration for raid devices
AssigneeAvago Technologies International Sales Pte. Limited
InventorsArun Prakash Jana, Amar Deep Kumar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing migration of one or more drives, and more particularly to methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing migration of one or more drives by setting one or more indications on a memory of the one or more drives. A controller for a redundant array of independent disks can be configured to set a first indication indicating a first drive is safe to migrate or not safe to migrate and store the first indication in a first memory on the first drive. The first drive can be a mirror of a second drive. The controller can further be configured to set a second indication indicating the second drive was offline or not offline and store the second indication in the first memory on the first drive.
Claims20
A controller for a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) comprising:
- a processor configured to:
- set a first indication indicating a first drive of a storage array is safe to migrate or not safe to migrate, wherein the first drive is a first mirror of a second drive of the storage array, and wherein the first drive and the second drive are separate and different devices from the controller;
- store the first indication in a first memory on the first drive;
- set a second indication indicating the second drive was not offline or offline;
- and
- store the second indication in the first memory on the first drive;
- wherein the first indication and the second indication each comprises a single bit within an unsigned 32-bit field stored in a disc data format (DDF) region of the first drive, the bits being adjacent so that the first indication and the second indication are stored and accessed together atomically.
A first drive for a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), the first drive comprising:
- a memory configured to:
- store a first indication indicating the first drive is safe to migrate, wherein the first drive is a mirror of a second drive;
- and
- store a second indication indicating the second drive was offline or not offline when the first drive was safe to migrate;
- wherein the first indication and the second indication each comprises a single bit within an unsigned 32-bit field stored in a disc data format (DDF) region of the first drive, the bits being adjacent so that the first indication and the second indication are stored and accessed together atomically.
A method for operating a controller of a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) comprising:
- detecting, with the controller, a first drive of a storage array, wherein the first drive is a mirror of a second drive of the storage array, and wherein the first drive and the second drive are separate and different devices from the controller;
- determining a first indication stored in a first memory of the first drive indicating the first drive is safe to migrate or not safe to migrate;
- and
- determining a second indication stored in the first memory of the first drive indicating the second drive was offline or not offline;
- wherein the first indication and the second indication each comprises a single bit within an unsigned 32-bit field stored in a disc data format (DDF) region of the first drive, the bits being adjacent so that the first indication and the second indication are stored and accessed together atomically.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.