Virtual disk drive system and method

Patent 7398418 Issued on July 8, 2008. Estimated Expiration Date:

March 22, 2027. 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

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RE36846

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Inventors

Assignee

Compellent Technologies

Application

No. 11689862 filed on 03/22/2007

US Classes:

714/6, Redundant stored data accessed (e.g., duplicated data, error correction coded data, or other parity-type data)711/114Arrayed (e.g., RAIDs)

Examiners

Primary: Iqbal, Nadeem

Attorney, Agent or Firm

Dorsey & whitney LLP

Foreign Patent References

0 757 317 EP 02/01/1997
0780758 EP 06/01/1997
07200367 JP 08/01/1995
WO 00/13077 WO 03/01/2000
2005017737 WO 02/01/2005

International Class

G06F 11/00

Abstract

A disk drive system and method capable of dynamically allocating data is provided. The disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem having a pool of storage, for example a page pool of storage that maintains a free list of RAIDs, or a matrix of disk storage blocks that maintain a null list of RAIDs, and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across the pool of storage and a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocation and data progression allow a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed. Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume pool of storage, instant data replay and data instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc.

Other References

Wilkes, John, et al., “The HP AutoRAID Hierarchical Storage System”, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, vol. 14, No. 1, Feb. 1996; pp. 108-136.
Massiglia, P., “Chapter 11: Dynamic Data Mapping”, The RAIDbook. A Source for RAID Technology, Feb. 1997; pp. 197-208.
“The Compaq Enterprise Network Storage Architecture: An Overview”, source(s): Compaq, May 2000, pp. 1-22.