Method and mechanism for delaying writing updates to a data cache

A computer program product for storing a data element in a data cache, said data element to be destaged from said data cache to a repository volume of a storage system, said storage system comprising one or more repository volumes, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer usable code embodied therewith, the computer program product comprising:
• computer usable code configured for assigning a delay value to be associated with said data element;
• and
• computer usable code configured for delaying writing of said data element to said data cache by a time duration determined in accordance with said assigned delay value,
• wherein said delay value is selected based on at least one of:
• a determination that said destaging said data entry requires allocation of one or more additional storage tracks in said repository volume of said storage system;
• and an amount of available storage of said repository volume of said storage system.

A storage controller, comprising:

• a communications subsystem operative to receive one or more data elements to be destaged to a repository volume of a storage system;
• a data cache subsystem operative to store said one or more data elements;
• and
• a scheduling subsystem operative to delay writing each data element to said data cache subsystem by a time duration based on a characteristic of the repository volume.

A method of storing one or more data elements in a repository volume of a storage system, said storage system comprising repository volumes, the method comprising the steps of:

• assigning a delay value associated with each data element, each data element being associated with one of the repository volumes;
• writing each data element to a data cache after a time delay determined in accordance with its said associated delay value;
• and
• destaging each said written data element from said data cache to the repository volume associated therewith,
• wherein said delay value associated with each data element is selected based on at least one of:
• the associated repository volume;
• a determination that said destaging said data entry requires allocation of one or more additional storage tracks in the associated repository volume;
• and an amount of available storage of the associated repository volume.