Dynamic compression of an I/O data block

A method of compressing data comprising:

• obtaining an input/output request (I/O) from an upper layer I/O queue;
• determine if compression is enabled;
• putting the I/O in a lower layer I/O queue if compression is not enabled;
• splitting the I/O into smaller I/Os if compression is enabled, the compression being enabled based on an I/O throughput, the size of the smaller I/Os being equal or less than a set block size;
• asynchronously compressing the smaller I/Os if compression is enabled;
• if compression is enabled:
• marking the smaller I/Os as requiring reassembly;
• and
• determining if the I/O is aligned;
• receiving a completed I/O;
• if the completed I/O is a read I/O:
• decrypting data from the read I/O if the data from the read I/O is encrypted;
• and
• uncompressing the data from the read I/O if the data from the read I/O is compressed;
• finding a write associated with a prefetch read if the read I/O is a prefetch read.

An article comprising:

• a non-transitory machine-readable medium that stores executable instructions, the instructions causing a machine to:
• obtain an input/output request (I/O) the I/O from an upper layer I/O queue;
• determine if compression is enabled;
• put the I/O in a lower layer I/O queue if compression is not enabled;
• split the I/O into smaller I/Os if compression is enabled, compression being enabled based on an I/O throughput;
• asynchronously compress the smaller I/Os if compression is enabled;
• if compression is enabled:
• mark the smaller I/Os as requiring reassembly;
• and
• determine if the I/O is aligned, wherein the size of the smaller I/Os being equal or less than a set block size;
• examine a write I/O from the lower layer I/O queue if compression is enabled;
• compress I/O data, using a first compression algorithm, to a separate location if the I/O data is not encrypted;
• determine if the write I/O is still in the lower layer I/O queue;
• substitute original I/O data with the compressed I/O data if the write I/O is still in the lower layer I/O queue;
• and
• drop the compressed I/O data if the write I/O is not still in the lower layer I/O queue.

A system, comprising:

• circuitry configured to:
• obtain an input/output request (I/O) from an upper layer I/O queue;
• determine if compression is enabled;
• put the I/O in a lower layer I/O queue if compression is not enabled;
• split the I/O into smaller I/Os if compression is enabled, compression being enabled based on an I/O throughput;
• asynchronously compress the smaller I/Os;
• if compression is enabled:
• mark the smaller I/Os as requiring reassembly;
• and
• determine if the I/O is aligned, wherein the size of the smaller I/Os being equal or less than a set block size;
• obtain the I/O from the beginning of the lower layer I/O queue;
• determine if the I/O is a write I/O;
• encrypt the I/O data if the I/O is a write I/O;
• update C-metadata if the I/O is a write I/O;
• and
• send the I/O down an I/O stack.