Data device spares
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorMagnus E. Bjornsson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Automatically allocating storage space for a storage pool includes providing at least one spares pool containing unused data devices and moving at least one the unused data devices to the storage pool in response to a write causing the available space of the storage pool to be exceeded and/or the available storage space of the storage pool exceeding a predetermined amount. The predetermined amount may be an amount of used storage space that varies according to at least one of: the size and activity level of the pool. The data devices may be logical devices. The pools may correspond to storage space in a single storage device or may correspond to storage space in multiple storage devices.
Claims19
A method of automatically allocating storage space for a first storage pool, comprising:
- providing at least one spares pool containing unused data devices, wherein the unused data devices of the at least one spares pool are available for use by any of a plurality of storage pools, including the first storage pool;
- providing a cloud appliance that presents the at least one spares pool and at least the first storage pool of the plurality of storage pools as available to at least one host, wherein the cloud appliance is coupled via a network to the at least one host and to at least one storage device including underlying physical memory on which data corresponding to used data devices is stored;
- determining when a write from the at least one host to available space of the first storage pool causes a predetermined threshold, corresponding to the available space of the first storage pool, to be exceeded;
- and
- moving, by configuration of the cloud appliance, at least one of the unused data devices from the at least one spares pool to the first storage pool in response to determining that the predetermined threshold is exceeded.
Computer software, provided in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, that automatically allocates storage space for a first storage pool, the software comprising:
- executable code that provides at least one spares pool containing unused data devices, wherein the unused data devices of the at least one spares pool are available for use by any of a plurality of storage pools, including the first storage pool;
- executable code that provides a cloud appliance that presents the at least one spares pool and at least the first storage pool of the plurality of storage pools as available to at least one host, wherein the cloud appliance is coupled via a network to the at least one host and to at least one storage device including underlying physical memory on which data corresponding to used data devices is stored;
- executable code that determines when a write from the at least one host to available space of the first storage pool causes a predetermined threshold, corresponding to the available space of the first storage pool, to be exceeded;
- and
- executable code that, by configuration of the cloud appliance, moves at least one of the unused data devices from the at least one spares pool to the first storage pool in response to determining that the predetermined threshold is exceeded.
A data storage device, comprising:
- a plurality of disks;
- and
- a plurality of directors coupled to the disks to handle dataflow therebetween, wherein the directors include:
- executable code that provides at least one spares pool containing unused data devices, wherein the unused data devices of the at least one spares pool are available for use by any of a plurality of storage pools, including the first storage pool;
- executable code that provides a cloud appliance that presents the at least one spares pool and at least the first storage pool of the plurality of storage pools as available to at least one host, wherein the cloud appliance is coupled via a network to the at least one host and to at least one storage device including underlying physical memory on which data corresponding to used data devices is stored;
- executable code that determines when a write from the at least one host to available space of the first storage pool causes a predetermined threshold, corresponding to the available space of the first storage pool, to be exceeded;
- and
- executable code that, by configuration of the cloud appliance, moves at least one of the unused data devices from the at least one spares pool to the first storage pool in response to determining that the predetermined threshold is exceeded.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.