Buffer for RAID controller with disabled post write cache
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorWeimin Pan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Enhancing management of controllers in a RAID system when a post-write-cache of a is disabled, by supplying a stripe buffer that stores sequential write requests—and before such requests are actually written in to the physical disc drives. The stripe buffer can temporarily store data, until the data level reaches the stripe buffer size. Thereafter, contents of the stripe buffer can be flushed onto disc.
Claims20
A redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) storage system comprising:
- a RAID controller that is communicatively coupled to a disk array for a control of read and write operations, the RAID controller comprising:
- a write cache to store write requests;
- and
- a stripe buffer to store write requests of a host when the write cache is disabled for the RAID controller, wherein the RAID controller is to write the write requests stored in the stripe buffer to the disk array in response to reaching a full storage capacity of the stripe buffer.
A method comprising:
- receiving, at redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) controller, a write request from a host;
- determining whether a write cache included in a RAID controller is disabled;
- in response to a determination that the write cache is not disabled, storing the write request in the write cache;
- in response to a determination that the write cache is disabled, storing the write request in a stripe buffer included in the RAID controller;
- and
- flushing content of the stripe buffer to a disk array volume upon the stripe buffer reaching full capacity.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that upon execution cause a redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) controller to at least:
- receive a write request from a host;
- determine whether a write cache included in the RAID controller is disabled;
- in response to a determination that the write cache is not disabled, store the write request in the write cache;
- and
- in response to a determination that the write cache is disabled, store the write request into a stripe buffer included in the RAID controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.