Storage array controller for solid-state storage devices   

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

If any definitions, information, etc. from any parent or related application and used for claim interpretation or other purpose conflict with this description, then the definitions, information, etc. in this description shall apply.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to US Classification 711/216. The present invention relates to storage array controllers and more particularly to storage array controllers for storage arrays that include solid-state storage devices.

2. Description of the Related Art

U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,936 describes a cache control unit for a storage apparatus.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,556 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,500,050 describe destaging of writes in a non-volatile cache.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,253,981 describes the re-ordering of writes in a disk controller.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,302 describes the use of a write stack drive in combination with a normal drive.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,164 describes a method of tracking incomplete writes in a disk array.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,289 describes a data writing apparatus for a tester to write data to a plurality of electric devices.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,318,118 describes a disk drive controller that completes some writes to flash memory of a hard disk drive for subsequent de-staging to the disk, whereas for other writes the data is written directly to disk.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,184 describes a disk controller that detects a sequential I/O stream from a host computer.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,199 describes a storage controller that continuously writes write-requested data to a stripe on a disk without using a write buffer.

US Publication 2008/0307192 describes storage address re-mapping.

SUMMARY

The invention includes improvements to a storage array controller for storage arrays that include solid-state storage devices. The improvements include the ability of a storage array controller to autonomously issue disk trim commands to one or more solid-state storage devices.

So that the features of the present invention can be understood, a more detailed description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to typical embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the accompanying drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of the scope of the invention, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. The following detailed description makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which are now briefly described.

FIG. 1: shows a computer system including storage array controller that issues autonomous disk trim commands.

FIG. 2A shows a computer system with a storage array containing two SSDs.

FIG. 2B shows a device driver that issues autonomous disk trim commands.

FIG. 2C shows a device driver that is part of a hypervisor and that issues autonomous disk trim commands.

FIG. 2D shows a hyperdriver that is part of a hypervisor in a Windows Virtualization architecture and that issues autonomous disk trim commands.

FIG. 2E shows a hyperdriver that is part of a hypervisor in a Windows Hyper-V architecture and that issues autonomous disk trim commands.

FIG. 2F shows a hyperdriver as part of a VMWare ESX architecture and that issues autonomous disk trim commands

FIG. 3: shows an example of an implementation of a storage array controller that maintains a map and a freelist.

FIG. 4: shows an example of an implementation of a storage array controller that performs garbage collection and issues autonomous disk trim commands.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an implementation of a garbage collection algorithm.

FIG. 6 shows an example of an implementation of a storage array controller for use with one or more large-capacity SSDs and illustrates the storage structure.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an implementation of a storage array controller for use with one or more large-capacity SSDs and illustrates the use of superblocks.

FIG. 8 shows a screenshot of a BIOS Configuration Utility for a storage array controller.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the accompanying drawings and detailed description are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the accompanying claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description and in the accompanying drawings, specific terminology and images are used to provide a thorough understanding. In some instances, the terminology and images may imply specific details that are not required to practice all embodiments. Similarly, the embodiments described and illustrated are representative and should not be construed as precise representations, as there are prospective variations on what is disclosed that will be obvious to someone with skill in the art. Thus this disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments described and shown but embraces all prospective variations that fall within its scope. For brevity, not all steps may be detailed, where such details will be known to someone with skill in the art having benefit of this disclosure.

This invention focuses on storage arrays that include solid-state storage devices. The solid-state storage device will typically be a solid-state disk (SSD) and we will use an SSD in our examples, but the solid-state storage device does not have to be an SSD. An SSD may for example, comprise flash devices, but could also comprise other forms of solid-state memory components or devices (SRAM, DRAM, MRAM, volatile, non-volatile, etc.), a combination of different types of solid-state memory components, or a combination of solid-state memory with other types of storage devices (often called a hybrid disk). Such storage arrays may additionally include hard-disk drives (HD or HDD).

This invention allows a storage array controller to autonomously issue a disk trim command. The disk trim command allows an OS to tell an SSD that the sectors specified in the disk trim command are no longer required and may be deleted. The disk trim command allows an SSD to increase performance by executing housekeeping functions, such as erasing flash blocks, that the SSD could not otherwise execute without the information in the disk trim command. The algorithms of this invention allow a storage array controller to autonomously issue disk trim commands, even though an operating system may not support the trim command. The storage array controller is logically located between the host system and one or more SSDs. An SSD contains its own SSD controller, but a storage array controller may have more resources than an SSD controller. This invention allows a storage array controller to use resources, such as larger memory size, non-volatile memory, etc. as well as unique information (because a storage array controller is higher than the SSD controller in the storage array hierarchy, i.e. further from the storage devices) in order to manage and control a storage array as well as provide information to the SSD controller.

Terms that are special to this field of invention or specific to this invention are defined in this description and the first use (and usually the definition) of such special terms are highlighted in italics for the convenience of the reader. Table 1 shows a glossary for the convenience of the reader. If any information from Table 1 used for claim interpretation or other purpose conflict with the description text, figures or other tables, then the information in the description shall apply.

In this description there are several figures that depict similar structures with similar parts or components. For example several figures show a disk command. Even though disk commands may be similar in several figures, the disk commands are not necessarily identical. Thus, as an example, to avoid confusion a disk command in FIG. 1 may be labeled “Disk Command (1)” and a similar, but not identical, disk command in FIG. 2 is labeled “Disk Command (2)”, etc.

TABLE 1 Glossary of Terms Array Block Address Combination of D and DBA. (ABA) Block A region of a flash memory (also used for Sector). Clean A flash page that is not dirty. Device Driver Typically software that is coupled to a controller. Dirty A flash page that is no longer required (also invalid, obsolete). Disk (D) Identifies a disk (may be HDD or SSD). Disk Block Size (DBS) The block or sector size of a physical disk. Disk Command A command as received by a disk. Disk Controller The logic on a disk (HDD or SSD), as opposed to Storage Array Controller that is separate from a disk. Disk Logical Block The LBA that identifies the sector or block on Address (DBA) a disk. Disk Sector A region of a disk (e.g. 512 bytes). See also Sector. Disk trim Command Trim Command received by a disk (see also Trim Command). Field Part of a data structure. Flash Block Part of a flash memory chip. Flash blocks contain flash pages. Flash Page Part of a flash memory chip. Free Block (FB) A block (e.g. ABA) that is free (unused) and ready for use. Free Superblock (FSB) A superblock in which all blocks are free (unused) blocks. Freelist A list of free (i.e. unused) blocks or sectors (e.g. LBAs, ABAs). Garbage (G) A value in a data structure that indicates a block or sector is ready to be erased. Garbage Collection (GC) Relocating data to new locations and erasing the old locations. Copying flash pages to new flash blocks and erasing old flash blocks. Granularity An amount of storage (e.g. 512 bytes). Hard Disk (HD) A mechanical disk, also Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Host Block Address The LBA used by the host to address a (HBA) storage array controller. Host Block Size (HBS) The block or sector size seen by the host. Host Command The commands as transmitted by the host.

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