Storage system and a method of control of a storage system
AssigneeXyratex Technology Limited
InventorsTimothy P. E. Williams, David Michael Davis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A storage system and a method of control of a storage system including plural storage media, at least one SAS expander physically connected to each of the plural storage media and to a controller via plural parallel data channels, the controller being connected to a host CPU arranged in use to execute input/output operations to transfer data to and read data from the plural storage media, the method including: at the expander, varying the available bandwidth for communication with the plural storage media by varying the available number of the plural parallel data channels thereby providing control of the number of input/output operations executed by the host CPU.
Claims18
A method of control of a storage system comprising plural storage media, at least one expander physically connected to each of the plural storage media and to a controller via plural parallel data channels, the controller being connected in use to a host processor, the host processor being arranged in use to execute input/output operations to transfer data to and read data from the plural storage media, the method comprising:
- at the expander, varying the available bandwidth for communication with the plural storage media by varying the available number of the plural parallel data channels between the controller and the expander thereby providing control of the number of input/output operations executed by the host processor, and
- monitoring the temperature of the host processor and varying the available number of the plural parallel data channels between the controller and the expander in dependence on the monitored temperature of the host processor.
A method of control of a storage system comprising plural storage media, at least one expander physically connected to each of the plural storage media and to a controller via plural parallel data channels, the controller being connected in use to a host processor, the host processor being arranged in use to execute input/output operations to transfer data to and read data from the plural storage media, the method comprising:
- at the expander, varying the available bandwidth for communication with the plural storage media by varying the available number of the plural parallel data channels between the controller and the expander thereby providing control of the number of input/output operations executed by the host processor, in which the available number of the plural parallel data channels are varied so as to provide a defined bandwidth of communication in accordance with a service agreement.
A method of control of a storage system comprising plural storage media, at least one expander physically connected to each of the plural storage media and to a controller via plural parallel data channels, the controller being connected in use to a host processor, the host processor being arranged in use to execute input/output operations to transfer data to and read data from the plural storage media, the method comprising:
- at the expander, varying the available bandwidth for communication with the plural storage media by varying the available number of the plural parallel data channels between the controller and the expander thereby providing control of the number of input/output operations executed by the host processor, in which the storage system comprises at least two expanders and associated sets of storage media and in which the method comprises reducing the available number of channels for one of the sets of storage media so that a greater proportion of host processor capacity can be used for the other sets of storage media.
A storage system, comprising
- plural storage media;
- at least one expander connected to each of the plural storage media the expander including an expander processor;
- a host CPU including a controller, the host CPU being arranged to execute input/output operations to transfer data to and read data from the plural storage media;
- in which the expander processor is arranged to vary the available bandwidth for communication with the plural storage media by varying the available number of data channels between the controller and the expander so as to throttle the number of input/output operations executed by the host CPU, and
- a temperature sensor to monitor the temperature of the host processor and provide a signal in response to which the available number of the plural parallel data channels is varied.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.