Data storage system and synchronizing method for consistency thereof
AssigneePromise Technology, Inc.
InventorsChe-Jen Wang, Cheng-Yi Huang, Hung-Ming Chien
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Abstract
The invention discloses a data storage system and a synchronizing method for consistency thereof, especially for the data storage system specified in RAID 5 architecture. The data storage system according to the invention includes N storage devices, where N is an integer equal to or larger than 3. The synchronizing method according to the invention performs writing commands for the designated storage device among the N storage devices, and reading commands for the other (N−1) storage devices, to reduce synchronization time of the data storage system.
Claims10
A synchronizing method for consistency of a data storage system comprising N storage devices where data are arranged, N being an integer equal to or larger than 3, wherein each of the storage devices is divided into a plurality of sectors, the data in the N storage devices have a form consisting of a sequence of stripes, each of the stripes is formatted such that (N−1) sectors contain target data and the remaining sectors contain parity data for the other (N−1) target data sectors, various sectors containing parity data are distributed/rotated among the N storage devices, said synchronizing method comprising the steps of:
- designating one among the N storage devices;
- and
- for each stripe, performing the steps of:
- reading data from each sector other than the sector of the designated storage device;
- performing a predetermined operation for the read data to generate an operational result;
- and
- writing the operational result into the sector of the designated storage device.
A data storage system, comprising:
- N storage devices where data are arranged, N being an integer equal to or larger than 3;
- a controller, respectively coupled to each of the storage devices, for arranging data in the N storage devices, wherein each of storage devices is divided into a plurality of sectors, the data in the N storage devices have a form consisting of a sequence of stripes, each of the stripes is formatted such that (N−1) sectors contain target data and the remaining sectors contain parity data for the other (N−1) target data sectors, various sectors containing parity data are distributed/rotated among the N storage devices, and the controller performing for consistency of said data storage system the synchronization steps of:
- designating one among the N storage devices;
- and
- for each stripe, performing the steps of:
- reading data from each sector other than the sector of the designated storage device;
- performing a predetermined operation for the read data to generate an operational result;
- and
- writing the operational result into the sector of the designated storage device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.