Method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for integrating a caching module into a storage system architecture

Abstract

A method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are provided for integrating a caching module into a data storage system architecture. According to one method, a request to perform an I/O operation is received at the caching module from an initiator. In response to the request, the caching module provides a notification to a storage driver that the request will be delivered to the storage driver in the future. In response to receiving the notification, the storage driver determines whether the request can be satisfied. If the storage driver determines that it will be unable to satisfy the forthcoming I/O request, the storage driver may provide an error message to the caching module. If the storage driver determines that it will be able to satisfy the I/O request, the storage driver can optimize the allocation and placement of the I/O request prior to receiving the actual I/O request. When the caching module subsequently sends the actual I/O request to the storage driver, the storage driver utilizes the previously allocated space and optimized placement to perform the requested I/O operation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.