Apparatus and method for providing very large virtual storage volumes using redundant arrays of disks

Patent 7000069 Issued on February 14, 2006. Estimated Expiration Date:

April 5, 2019. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Abstract Claims Description Full Text

Patent References

Disk array apparatus which predicts errors using mirror disks that can be accessed in parallel
Patent #: 5611069
Issued on: 03/11/1997
Inventor: Matoba

Method for employing doubly striped mirroring of data and reassigning data streams scheduled to be supplied by failed disk to respective ones of remaining disks
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Inventor: Mourad

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Inventor: Thowe

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Inventors

Assignee

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Application

No. 09286160 filed on 04/05/1999

US Classes:

711/114, Arrayed (e.g., RAIDs)711/112, Direct access storage device (DASD)711/113, Caching714/6, Redundant stored data accessed (e.g., duplicated data, error correction coded data, or other parity-type data)714/7, Reconfiguration (e.g., adding a replacement storage component)710/29, Flow controlling711/162Backup

Examiners

Primary: McLean-Mayo, Kimberly

International Class

G06F 12/00

Abstract

A very large virtual storage volume formed by distributing disks in multiple, multi-disk RAID (redundant array of independent disks) sets across busses of a back-end controller. The multiple RAID sets are striped by a front-end controller connected to the back-end controller and presented to a host computer as a very large virtual storage volume.