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US 8,621,134 B2Granted
Storage tiering with minimal use of DRAM memory for header overhead
AssigneeLSI Corporation
InventorMark Ish
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a method of storage tiering with minimal use of DRAM memory for header overhead that utilizes the beginning of the volume to store frequently accessed or hot data. A solid state storage device is placed at the beginning of a tiered volume and is used to store frequently accessed data. When data becomes less frequently accessed it is moved to a cold data storage area on a hard disk drive in the tiered volume. The data exchange is performed on a one-to-one basis reducing the amount and use of DRAM.
Claims11
A method of storage tiering with reduced use of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) for header overhead in mapping structure of said DRAM comprising:
- tiering a plurality of data storage devices into fast storage regions and slow storage regions such that data is not duplicated between said fast storage regions and said slow storage regions;
- mapping Logical Block Addresses (LBAs) of said fast storage regions and said slow storage regions into one tiered virtual drive such that said LBAs track the location of data within said one tiered virtual drive;
- assigning headers only for data in said fast storage regions and not for data in said slow storage regions;
- mapping in said DRAM only headers for data in said fast storage regions;
- moving cold data to said slow storage regions and hot data to said fast storage regions on a one-to-one basis such that infrequently accessed cold data in said fast storage region is moved to said slow storage regions and frequently accessed hot data in said slow storage regions is moved to said fast storage regions;
- and
- swapping LBAs of said hot data and said cold data of said one-to-one basis move in said header of said hot data in said fast storage region.
4 more elements
A method of minimizing the use of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) that is used in a header overhead mapping structure of a tiered drive storage system in order to provide Logical Block Addresses (LBAs) for frequently accessed data comprising:
- dividing a solid state logical volume into equal divisions, said solid state logical volume being part of a fast storage region in comparison to slow storage regions on hard disk drive storage volumes such that data is not duplicated between said fast storage region and said slow storage regions;
- mapping overall LBAs of said fast storage region and said slow storage regions into one tiered virtual drive such that said overall LBAs track the location of data within said one tiered virtual drive;
- assigning header tracks for mapping said LBAs for said frequently accessed data such that only data on said fast storage region, including data on said solid state logical volume, has said header tracks and data on slow storage regions do not have header tracks;
- mapping in said DRAM only header tracks for data in said fast storage region;
- moving and storing said frequently accessed data as hot data in said fast storage region;
- moving and storing said infrequently accessed data as cold data in said slow storage regions;
- swapping equal divisions of said frequently accessed hot data with said infrequently accessed cold data in a one-to-one exchange, based on a determination that said frequently accessed hot data becomes infrequently accessed cold data;
- and
- assigning to said header tracks an identification of a member logical volume, starting logical block address of said equal divisions for said fast storage region, starting logical block address of said equal divisions for said slow storage regions, based upon a determination of LBAs of said swapped divisions.
6 more elements
A system of tiered storage devices comprising:
- solid state drives that comprise fast storage regions;
- hard disk drives that comprise slow storage regions;
- dynamic random access memory for storing a map of said header tracks of data stored on said fast storage regions;
- and
- a processor that:
- divides said fast storage regions into equal divisions;
- divides said slow storage regions into equal divisions;
- maps overall Logical Block Addresses (LBAs) of said fast storage regions and said slow storage regions into one tiered virtual drive such that said overall LBAs track the location of data within said one tiered virtual drive and such that data is not duplicated between said fast storage regions and said slow storage regions;
- assign header tracks only for data in said fast storage regions and not for data in said slow storage regions;
- maps in said DRAM only header tracks for data in said fast storage regions;
- moves and stores frequently accessed data as hot data in said fast storage region;
- moves and stores said infrequently accessed data as cold data in said slow storage regions;
- swaps equal divisions of said frequently accessed hot data with said infrequently accessed cold data in a one-to-one exchange, based on a determination that said frequently accessed hot data becomes infrequently accessed cold data;
- assigns to said header tracks of data in said fast storage region an identification of a member logical volume, starting logical block address of said equal divisions for said fast storage regions, starting logical block address of said equal divisions for said slow storage regions, based upon a determination of LBAs of said swapped divisions.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.