Methods and structure for load balancing of background tasks between storage controllers in a clustered storage environment

A storage system comprising:

• a plurality of storage devices;
• and
• two storage controllers coupled with the one or more storage devices, the storage controllers operable to manage, in an active-passive configuration, a logical volume provisioned on the storage devices,
• the active storage controller operable to process host Input/Output (I/O) requests directed to the logical volume, the active storage controller further operable to
• perform a background processing task distinct from the host I/O requests and related to the logical volume, to store progress information describing progress of the background task, to determine whether to assign the background processing task to a passive controller based upon a workload of the passive storage controller, to assign the background processing task to the passive storage controller via the backend interface, and to direct the passive storage controller to resume processing of the background processing task based on the progress information.

A method operable in a storage controller for managing a logical volume provisioned on one or more storage devices, the method comprising:

• receiving host Input/Output (I/O) requests directed to a logical volume;
• processing the host I/O requests directed to the logical volume;
• processing a background processing task distinct from the host I/O requests and related to the logical volume;
• storing progress information describing progress of the background task, determining whether to assign the background processing task to a passive controller based upon a workload of the passive storage controller;
• assigning the background processing task to the passive storage controller via the backend interface;
• and
• directing the passive storage controller to resume processing of the background processing task based on the progress information.