Raid system performance enhancement using compressed data and byte addressable storage devices

A storage system, comprising:

• a set of one or more RAID storage devices configured to receive in a read or write command a byte count, the byte count indicating an number of data bytes to read or write;
• a computing system interface to receive a data block from a computing system;
• a storage controller having a processor and a memory, the memory having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by the processor to cause the storage controller to:
• receive, from a computing system, a first data block to write to the storage system;
• compress the received first data block to generate a first compressed data block, the first compressed data block including the first data block in compressed form;
• store the first compressed data block memory;
• and
• execute a set of RAID operations to perform a partial stripe update to areas of the RAID storage devices, the set of operations to:
• retrieve a second compressed data block from memory;
• determine a physical size of the second compressed data block, the physical size indicating a byte count of the number of bytes in the second compressed data block;
• generate, based on the second compressed data block and the physical size, redundant data corresponding with the second compressed data block;
• and
• write the second compressed data block and the redundant data to the areas of the RAID storage devices by transmitting a write command including the second compressed data block, the redundant data, and the physical size to the set of RAID storage devices.

A computer program product for operating a storage system having memory and RAID storage devices, the computer program product including a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to perform a method comprising:

• configuring the RAID storage devices to receive in a read or write command a byte count, the byte count indicating an number of data bytes to read or write;
• receiving, from a computing system, a first data block to write to the storage system;
• compressing the received first data block to generate a first compressed data block, the first compressed data block including the first data block in compressed form;
• storing the first compressed data block memory;
• and
• executing a set of RAID operations to perform a partial stripe update to areas of the RAID storage devices, the set of operations including:
• retrieving a second compressed data block from memory;
• determining a physical size of the second compressed data block, the physical size indicating a byte count of the number of bytes in the second compressed data block;
• generating, based on the second compressed data block and the physical size, redundant data corresponding with the second compressed data block;
• and
• writing the second compressed data block and the redundant data to the areas of the RAID storage devices by transmitting a write command including the second compressed data block, the redundant data, and the physical size to the set of RAID storage devices.