Techniques using an encryption tier property in a multi-tiered storage environment

A system comprising:

• a plurality of storage tiers including a first set of one or more storage tiers of physical devices and a second set of one or more storage tiers of physical devices, wherein data stored on any physical device in the first set is stored in an encrypted form and data stored on any physical device in the second set is not stored in an encrypted form;
• a logical device;
• a plurality of first settings for a plurality of data portions of the logical device that is a single logical device, wherein a logical address range of the single logical device is partitioned into the plurality of data portions and wherein each data portion of the plurality of data portions is associated with a portion of the logical address range and is associated with a different one of the plurality of first settings whereby said different one of the first settings is any of a tiering preference and tiering requirement having a value that indicates whether data of said each data portion is to be stored on one or more physical devices of a storage tier that stores data in an encrypted form;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon that, when executed, performs a method comprising:
• specifying a first value for a first one of the plurality of first settings that is any of a tiering preference and tiering requirement indicating that a first data portion of the single logical device is to be stored on one or more physical devices of a storage tier that stores data in an encrypted form;
• and
• responsive to specifying said first value as the first one of the plurality of first settings, executing code that relocates the first data portion of the single logical device currently stored on one or more physical devices of the second set to one or more physical devices of the first set and moves data of the single logical device between different ones of the plurality of tiers in accordance with criteria including said plurality of first settings for the plurality of data portions of the single logical device.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon for storing data, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code stored thereon that, when executed, performs a method comprising:

• providing a plurality of storage tiers including a first set of one or more storage tiers of physical devices and a second set of one or more storage tiers of physical devices, wherein data stored on any physical device in the first set is stored in an encrypted form and data stored on any physical device in the second set is not stored in an encrypted form;
• specifying a plurality of first settings for a plurality of data portions of a single logical device, wherein a logical address range of the single logical device is partitioned into the plurality of data portions and wherein each data portion of the plurality of data portions is associated with a portion of the logical address range and is associated with a different one of the plurality of first settings whereby said different one of the first settings is any of a tiering preference and tiering requirement having a value that indicates whether data of said each data portion is to be stored on one or more physical devices of a storage tier that stores data in an encrypted form;
• specifying a first value for a first one of the plurality of first settings that is any of a tiering preference and tiering requirement indicating that a first data portion of the single logical device is to be stored on one or more physical devices of a storage tier that stores data in an encrypted form;
• and
• responsive to specifying said first value as the first one of the plurality of first settings, relocating the first data portion of the single logical device currently stored on one or more physical devices of the second set to one or more physical devices of the first set.