Spin down of storage resources in an object addressable storage system
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorsStephen J. Todd, Mark O'Connell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aspects of the invention relate to spin down of storage devices on an object addressable storage (OAS) system. One or more of the storage devices in object addressable storage system may be spun down to achieve a power savings, while other storage devices in the OAS system remain in an active state.
Claims18
An object addressable storage (OAS) system comprising:
- a plurality of storage devices, each of which stores a plurality of content units;
- at least one input/output (I/O) interface configured to receive access requests to access the OAS system, wherein an access request to access a content unit stored on one of the plurality of storage devices identifies the requested content unit using an object identifier that, from the perspective of an entity issuing the access request, does not indicate any physical or logical storage location of the requested content unit on the OAS system;
- and
- at least one controller, coupled to at least some of the plurality of storage devices and the at least one I/O interface, configured to:
- during operation of the OAS system, selectively spin down at least one of the plurality of storage devices, wherein after spinning down the at least one of the plurality of storage devices, at least one other of the plurality of storage devices remains active and the at least one controller remains available to process access requests received via the at least one I/O interface;
- when an access request is a request to store a content unit, select physical storage for the content unit based on which of the plurality of storage devices is eligible to be spun down such that the content unit is stored on a first one of the plurality of storage devices that is not eligible to be spun down and a copy of the content unit is stored on a second one of the plurality of storage devices that is eligible to be spun down.
A computer in a computer system comprising the computer and a federation of storage systems, wherein the federation of storage systems comprises a first object addressable storage (OAS) system and a second OAS system, and wherein the computer comprises:
- at least one tangible memory;
- at least one input/output (I/O) interface configured to receive access requests to access the federation and to send access requests to the first OAS system and second OAS system;
- and
- at least one controller, coupled to the at least one tangible memory and the at least one I/O interface, configured to:
- receive a first access request from a host computer to access a content unit stored in the federation, wherein the first access request identifies the requested content unit using an object identifier that, from the perspective of the host computer, does not indicate any physical or logical storage location of the requested content unit in the federation, and wherein the object identifier includes a timestamp that indicates a time at which the requested content unit was stored in the federation;
- in response to the receiving the first access request, determine which OAS system in the federation stores the requested content unit based, at least in part, on the timestamp in the object identifier;
- determine whether the OAS system in the federation that stores the requested content unit is in a spun down state;
- after it is determined that the OAS system in the federation that stores the requested content unit is in a spun down state, cause the OAS system in the federation that stores the requested content unit to be spun up;
- and
- send a second access request to the OAS system in the federation that stores the requested content unit to access the requested content unit, wherein the second access request identifies the requested content unit using its object identifier.
A method of operating an object addressable storage (OAS) system that comprises a plurality of storage devices, each of which stores a plurality of content units, and at least one input/output (I/O) interface configured to receive access requests to access the OAS system, wherein an access requests to access a content unit stored on one of the plurality of storage devices identifies the requested content unit using an object identifier that, from the perspective of an entity issuing the access request, does not indicate any physical or logical storage location of the requested content unit on the OAS system, the method comprising:
- during operation of the OAS system, selectively spinning down at least one of the plurality of storage devices, wherein after spinning down the at least one of the plurality of storage devices, at least one other of the plurality of storage devices remains active and the at least one controller remains available to process access requests received via the at least one I/O interface;
- when the access request is a request to store the content unit, selecting physical storage for the content unit based on which of the plurality of storage devices are eligible to be spun down such that the content unit is stored on a first one of the plurality of storage devices that is not eligible to be spun down and a copy of the content unit is stored on a second one of the plurality of storage devices that is eligible to be spun down.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.