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US 8,285,747 B1Granted
Incorporation of client storage into a storage system
AssigneeNetApp, Inc.
InventorRobert M. English
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an apparatus and methods for operating a storage system. The storage system incorporates a storage device associated with a client into a logical group of storage devices managed by the storage system. Thereafter, the storage system is capable of satisfying data access requests from an incorporated storage device managed by the storage system.
Claims25
A method of operating a storage server coupled with a storage client over a network, the method comprising:
- polling a client storage device of the storage client to determine available storage space of the client storage device, the storage client being a client of the storage server and configured to utilize storage services provided by the storage server;
- incorporating the available storage space of the client storage device into a RAID group managed by the storage server by expanding the RAID group managed by the storage server to include the available storage space of the client storage device;
- and
- managing the incorporated available storage space of the client storage device as a part of the RAID group managed by the storage server, wherein said managing includes using file system services provided by the storage server to manage the client storage device, and wherein the storage server is capable of satisfying data access requests from incorporated storage space of the client storage device managed by the storage server.
1 more element
A storage server, comprising:
- a storage subsystem managed by the storage server, the storage subsystem including a plurality of storage devices coupled to the storage server;
- a network interface of the storage server coupled via a network to a storage client having a client storage device, the storage client being a client of the storage server and configured to utilize storage services provided by the storage server, the client storage device capable of incorporation into the storage subsystem;
- and
- a detection module configured to poll the client storage device of the storage client to identify available storage space of the client storage device,
- wherein the storage server is configured to incorporate available storage space of the client storage device into the storage subsystem managed by the storage server by expanding a RAID group of the storage server to include the available storage space of the client storage device and to manage the storage space of the client storage device as a part of the storage subsystem by using file system services provided by the storage server to manage the client storage device, wherein the storage server is configured to satisfy data access requests using incorporated storage space of the client storage device.
2 more elements
A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for managing data in a storage server coupled with a storage client over a network, the instructions comprising:
- instructions to poll a client storage device of the storage client to determine underutilization of storage space of the client storage device, the storage client being a client of the storage server and configured to utilize storage services provided by the storage server;
- instructions to incorporate available storage space of the client storage device into a RAID group managed by the storage server by expanding the RAID group to include the available storage space of the client storage device;
- and instructions to manage the storage space of the client storage device as a part of the RAID group managed by the storage server, wherein managing the storage space of the client storage device as a part of the RAID group managed by the storage server includes using file system services provided by the storage server to manage the client storage device, and wherein the storage server is capable of satisfying data access requests from incorporated storage space of the client storage device managed by the storage server.
A method comprising:
- determining, by a storage server, that a client storage device of a storage client has available storage space, the storage client being a client of the storage server and configured to utilize storage services provided by the storage server;
- incorporating the available storage space of the client storage device into a RAID group of the storage server;
- and
- managing, by the storage server, the incorporated available storage space of the client storage device as a part of the RAID group of the storage server, including satisfying data access requests from clients by using file system services of the storage server to access the incorporated storage space of the client storage device.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.