U.S. patent application number 11/620758 was filed with the patent office on 2007-05-17 for configuring memory for a raid storage system.
Invention is credited to Nicholas Michael O'Rourke, Howard Charles Rankin, William James Scales.
Application Number | 20070113008 11/620758 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 33042180 |
Filed Date | 2007-05-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070113008 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Scales; William James ; et
al. |
May 17, 2007 |
Configuring Memory for a Raid Storage System
Abstract
The present invention relates to an apparatus having a memory
operable with a virtualised RAID controller to determine an optimum
I/O configuration by testing performance characteristics of a
plurality of I/O operations.
Inventors: |
Scales; William James;
(Fareham, GB) ; Rankin; Howard Charles;
(Eastleigh, GB) ; O'Rourke; Nicholas Michael;
(Eastleigh, GB) |
Correspondence
Address: |
IBM Corp;IP Law
Dept 90A/9032
9000 S Rita Road
Tucson
AZ
85744
US
|
Family ID: |
33042180 |
Appl. No.: |
11/620758 |
Filed: |
January 8, 2007 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10806620 |
Mar 23, 2004 |
7191285 |
|
|
11620758 |
Jan 8, 2007 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
711/114 ;
714/E11.206 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 11/3485 20130101;
G06F 2201/885 20130101; G06F 2201/815 20130101; G06F 3/0632
20130101; G06F 3/0689 20130101; G06F 3/0611 20130101; G06F 11/3419
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
711/114 |
International
Class: |
G06F 12/16 20060101
G06F012/16 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Apr 26, 2003 |
GB |
0309538.7 |
Claims
1. An apparatus having a memory operable with a virtualized RAID
controller to determine an optimum I/O configuration by testing
performance characteristics of a plurality of I/O operations
wherein each of said I/O operations comprise writing a block of
data to the RAID controller, and wherein said I/O configuration
includes a data length and a data alignment, wherein each of the
I/O operations comprises a different combination of a data size
parameter and a block parameter.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said memory is a cache.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said memory is an input
buffer.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said memory is an output
buffer.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said performance characteristic
is a response time.
6. A method for operating an apparatus having a memory operable
with a virtualized RAID controller, comprising the steps of:
performing a plurality of I/O operations wherein said I/O
operations include writing a block of data to the RAID controller;
testing a performance characteristic of said plurality of I/O
operations; and responsive to said step of testing, setting an
optimal I/O configuration for subsequent I/O operations wherein
said I/O configuration includes a data length and a data alignment,
wherein each of the I/O operations comprises a different
combination of a data size parameter and a block parameter.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein said method is carried out when
the RAID controller is otherwise idle.
8. The method of claim 6 wherein said memory is a cache.
9. The method of claim 6 wherein said memory is an input
buffer.
10. The method of claim 6 wherein said memory is an output
buffer.
11. The method of claim 6 wherein said performance characteristic
is a response time.
12. A computer program product comprising computer program code
stored on a computer readable storage medium which, when executed
on a data processing system, instructs the data processing system
to carry out the method as claimed in claim 6.
13. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable
medium comprising instructions that carry out a method comprising:
compiling a set of different combinations of a data size parameter
and a block parameter; performing I/O operations for members of the
set of different combinations; measuring and recording performance
of each of the I/O operations; identifying the I/O operation and
corresponding combination of the set of different combinations as
having the best performance; and configuring a storage appliance in
accordance with a combination identified as having the best
performance.
14. A computer program product of claim 6 wherein said I/O
operations include writing a block of data to a RAID
controller.
15. A computer program product of claim 14 wherein said method is
carried out when the RAID controller is otherwise idle.
16. A computer program product of claim 13 wherein said performance
characteristic is a response time.
17. A computer program product of claim 13, wherein the performance
is recorded to a storage device.
18. A computer program product of claim 13, wherein the I/O
operations comprise write operations.
19. A computer program product of claim 13, wherein the performance
is recorded to a storage device of the storage appliance.
20. A computer program product of claim 13, wherein the I/O
operations are performed for each member of the set of different
combinations.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to configuring memory for a RAID
storage system and more particularly to configure memory for a RAID
storage system including a virtualised RAID controller and a
detached memory.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In storage systems an array of independent storage devices
can be configured to operate as a single virtual storage device
using a technology known as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent
Disks). A computer system configured to operate with a RAID storage
system is able to perform input and output (I/O) operations (such
as read and write operations) on the RAID storage system as if the
RAID storage system were a single storage device. A RAID storage
system includes an array of independent storage devices and a RAID
controller. The RAID controller provides a virtualised view of the
array of independent storage devices--this means that the array of
independent storage devices appear as a single virtual storage
device with a sequential list of storage elements. The storage
elements are commonly known as blocks of storage, and the data
stored within them are known as data blocks. I/O operations are
qualified with reference to one or more blocks of storage in the
virtual storage device. When an I/O operation is performed on the
virtual storage device the RAID controller maps the I/O operation
onto the array of independent storage devices. In order to
virtualise the array of storage devices and map I/O operations the
RAID controller may employ standard RAID techniques as discussed in
the paper "A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)"
(D. Patterson et. al., 1988). Some of these techniques are
considered below.
[0003] In providing a virtualised view of an array of storage
devices as a single virtual storage device it is a function of a
RAID controller to spread data blocks in the virtual storage device
across the array. One way to achieve this is using a technique
known as Striping. Striping involves spreading data blocks across
storage devices in a round-robin fashion. When storing data blocks
in a RAID storage system, a number of data blocks known as a strip
is stored in each storage device. The size of a strip may be
determined by a particular RAID implementation or may be
configurable. A row of strips comprising a first strip stored on a
first storage device and subsequent strips stored of subsequent
storage devices is known as a stripe. The size of a stripe is the
total size of all strips comprising the stripe. The use of multiple
independent storage devices to store data blocks in this way
provides for high performance I/O operations when compared to a
single storage device because multiple storage devices can act in
parallel during I/O operations.
[0004] Physical storage devices such as disk storage devices are
renowned for poor reliability and it is a further function of a
RAID controller to provide a reliable storage system. One technique
to provide reliability involves the storage of check information
along with data in an array of independent storage devices. Check
information is redundant information that allows regeneration of
data which has become unreadable due to a single point of failure,
such as the failure of a single storage device in an array of such
devices. Unreadable data is regenerated from a combination of
readable data and redundant check information. Check information is
recorded as parity data which occupies a single strip in a stripe,
and is calculated by applying the EXCLUSIVE OR (XOR) logical
operator to all data strips in the stripe. For example, a stripe
comprising data strips A, B and C would be further complimented by
a parity strip calculated as A XOR B XOR C. In the event of a
single point of failure in the storage system, the parity strip is
used to regenerate an inaccessible data strip. For example, if a
stripe comprising data strips A, B, C and PARITY is stored across
four independent storage devices W, X, Y and Z respectively, and
storage device X fails, strip B stored on device X would be
inaccessible. Strip B can be computed from the remaining data
strips and the PARITY strip through an XOR computation. This
restorative computation is A XOR C XOR PARITY=B.
[0005] For check information to be effective in the event of a
failure it is necessary that it is accurate and maintained. Changes
to data in a RAID storage system must therefore be reflected by
appropriate changes to check information. This can be burdensome
where changes to data affect a data unit smaller than the size of
an entire stripe (known as a "small write") for the reason
described below. Consider a RAID storage system with a RAID
controller using the striping technique, with each stripe
comprising data strips and a parity strip. If such a system is
configured such that a single block in a virtual view of the
storage system (a virtual storage device) corresponds to a single
data strip, a write operation of a single block to the virtual
storage device is implemented by the RAID controller as a write
operation of a single strip in a RAID stripe. The change of a
single strip in a stripe must be reflected by appropriate changes
to a corresponding parity strip. Thus the parity strip for the
stripe must be recalculated. To recalculate the parity strip, the
data strip being overwritten in the stripe (the "old" data strip)
must be excluded from the existing parity data. This can be
achieved by performing an XOR operation on the parity data and the
old data strip. Furthermore, the replacement data strip (the "new"
data strip) must be included in the parity data to create a
modified parity strip. This can be achieved by performing an XOR
operation on the parity data and the new data strip. Subsequently,
the modified parity strip and the new data strip must be written
within the stripe. Thus in order to write a replacement strip to an
existing stripe it is necessary to perform the following
operations: two read operations (of the old data strip and the
parity strip); a modification of the parity strip; and two write
operations (of the new data strip and the modified parity strip).
This approach to conducting a small write leads to a reduction in
performance of a RAID storage system due to additional read and
write operations required to maintain the consistency of check
information. This is known as the read-modify-write problem for
small write operations.
[0006] Due to the performance implications of small-write
operations outlined above it is preferable to overwrite one or more
complete stripes when writing to a RAID storage system to avoid the
need to maintain existing check information. In order for a write
operation to overwrite one or more complete stripes it is necessary
that a unit of data to be written to the RAID storage system is of
an appropriate size, being a multiple of the stripe size (excluding
parity strips). To overwrite one or more complete stripes it is
also necessary that a unit of data is written to a block in the
virtual view of a RAID storage device corresponding to a first
strip in a RAID stripe. A write operation to a block corresponding
to any strip other than a first strip in a RAID stripe would
include the writing of part of a stripe which is a small-write
operation. Ensuring that a write operation corresponds to a first
strip in a RAID stripe is known as "stripe alignment". Thus to
ensure a write operation completely overwrites one or more RAID
stripes it must meet stripe size and alignment criteria for a given
RAID storage system. A write operation which satisfies these
criteria is known as a "stripe aligned write". Stripe aligned
writes do not require the maintenance of existing check information
in RAID stripes because one or more stripes are completely replaced
with newly written data and new check information is calculated for
this new data as part of the write operation. Ensuring all write
operations to a RAID storage system are stripe aligned improves
performance by removing the read-modify-write problem of
small-writes.
[0007] Write operations to a RAID storage system will not always be
stripe aligned, and small write operations will never be stripe
aligned as by definition a small write operation involves a data
unit smaller in size than a complete RAID stripe. Existing RAID
storage systems may employ a memory, such as a cache, in which
multiple small write operations are collected into a single write
operation constituting a complete stripe. Subsequently a collection
of small writes can be stripe aligned and written to a RAID storage
device. For such a cache memory to be effective it must be
configured to operate within the parameters of a RAID storage
system including the stripe size and alignment. These parameters
may be different for different RAID storage systems, and are
typically different for RAID storage systems provided by different
vendors. Often cache memory is integrated within a RAID controller
so that it is easily configured with appropriate stripe size and
alignment parameters by a user or by the controller itself.
[0008] Increasingly, RAID storage systems are themselves becoming
virtualised in configurations such as storage area networks (SANs).
A SAN comprises a network linking one or more servers to one or
more storage devices. Storage devices in a SAN may include virtual
storage devices implemented as RAID storage systems. Within a SAN
one or more switches connect devices and provide routes through the
SAN between hosts and storage devices. A SAN virtualises storage
devices to ensure interoperability of devices connected to the SAN.
It is a feature of the virtualisation of storage devices in a SAN
that actual implementation details of a storage device may be
unknown to other devices in the SAN. For example, hosts in a SAN
may be unable to determine whether a storage device attached to the
SAN is implemented as a single disk or a RAID storage system. The
virtualisation of storage devices in a SAN also allows the
spreading of data across many storage devices, including many RAID
storage systems, to further improve performance and reliability.
This is achieved using a storage appliance, such as IBM's
TotalStorage Virtualization Engine, which can be attached to a
switch in a SAN. It is desirable that cache memories are not
integrated within storage devices such as RAID storage systems but
are implemented independently within the SAN so that they can be
used when data is spread across multiple SAN storage devices. For
example, cache memory may be implemented within a storage appliance
attached to a switch within the SAN.
[0009] Where a cache memory is not integrated with a RAID
controller of a RAID storage system, and the RAID controller is
virtualised such as through a SAN, specific stripe size and
alignment characteristics of the RAID storage system are not
readily available to the cache memory. The separation of a cache
memory from a virtualised RAID controller leads to the problem that
the cache memory cannot be automatically configured with
appropriate stripe size and alignment characteristics because these
characteristics are not known to the cache memory, and
configuration must take place manually or not at all. The
consequences of an inappropriate stripe size and alignment
configuration include the increased likelihood that the
read-modify-write problem is encountered as write operations are
unlikely to be properly stripe aligned. It would thus be desirable
to provide a system and method to alleviate these problems with
conventional storage systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The present invention accordingly provides, in a first
aspect, an apparatus having a memory operable with a virtualised
RAID controller to determine an optimum I/O configuration by
testing performance characteristics of a plurality of I/O
operations wherein each of said I/O operations includes writing a
block of data to the RAID controller, and wherein said I/O
configuration includes a data length and a data alignment. This
provides the advantage that write operations to the virtualised
RAID controller of data stored in the memory are of an appropriate
length and alignment to provide stripe aligned writes without
encountering the read-modify-write problem.
[0011] Preferably the memory is a cache.
[0012] Preferably the performance characteristic is a response
time.
[0013] The present invention accordingly provides, in a second
aspect, a method for operating an apparatus having a memory
operable with a virtualised RAID controller, comprising the steps
of: performing a plurality of I/O operations wherein said I/O
operations include writing a block of data to the RAID controller;
testing a performance characteristic of said plurality of I/O
operations; and responsive to said step of testing, setting an
optimal I/O configuration for subsequent I/O operations wherein
said I/O configuration includes a data length and a data
alignment.
[0014] The present invention further provides, in a third aspect, a
computer program product comprising computer program code stored on
a computer readable storage medium which, when executed on a data
processing system, instructs the data processing system to carry
out the above method.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be
described by way of example only, with reference to the
accompanying drawings, in which:
[0016] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration
of a storage area network (SAN) in a preferred embodiment of the
present invention;
[0017] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary
configuration of a virtual storage device;
[0018] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary
configuration of the array of storage devices of FIG. 1 across
which the storage blocks of FIG. 2 are striped;
[0019] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the components of a
write operation initiated by the storage appliance when writing to
the virtual storage device; and
[0020] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for configuring
the storage appliance of FIG. 1 to provide stripe aligned write
operations to the virtual storage device of FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration
of a storage area network (SAN) 102 in a preferred embodiment of
the present invention. The SAN 102 includes a switch 106 comprising
a storage appliance 1062. In the preferred embodiment storage
appliance 1062 is IBM's TotalStorage Virtualization Engine. Storage
appliance 1062 includes a memory 10622, a stripe size attribute
10624, and a stripe alignment attribute 10626. In the preferred
embodiment memory 10622 is a cache. Alternatively, memory 10622 is
an input buffer or an output buffer. Stripe size attribute 10624
and stripe alignment attribute 10626 are configuration parameters
of the storage appliance 1062. SAN 102 connects a host 104 to a
RAID storage system 108. In the preferred embodiment host 104 is a
computer system. The RAID storage system 108 comprises a RAID
controller 1082 and an array of storage devices 1084. In the
preferred embodiment the array of storage devices 1084 is an array
of disks. RAID controller 1082 uses striping to spread data across
the array of storage devices 1084. RAID controller 1082 also
maintains parity information for data stored on the array of
storage devices 1084. Using these techniques, RAID controller 1082
provides reliable access to the array of storage devices 1084 as a
single virtual storage device.
[0022] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary
configuration of a virtual storage device 20. The virtual storage
device is not a physical storage device--rather it represents the
array of storage devices 1084 presented to SAN 102 and host 104 by
the RAID controller 1082. The virtual storage device 20 comprises a
sequential list of storage blocks 202, 204, 206 and 208 which are
elements of storage in each of which a fixed quantity of data is
stored. Storage blocks 202, 204,206 and 208 each have a storage
capacity representing the number of bytes of data which they can
store, and the storage capacity of each of storage blocks 202, 204,
206 and 208 is the same. The storage blocks 202, 204, 206 and 208
are striped across the array of storage devices 1084 by RAID
controller 1082 as illustrated in FIG. 3 and explained below.
[0023] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary
configuration of the array of storage devices 1084 of FIG. 1 across
which the storage blocks 202, 204, 206 and 208 of FIG. 2 are
striped. The array of storage devices 1084 comprises individual
storage devices 30, 32 and 34. Data stored in the virtual storage
device 20 is striped across the array of storage devices 1084 by
the RAID controller 1082. A data stripe 36 comprises strips 302,
322 and a parity strip 342 stored on storage devices 30, 32 and 34
respectively. In the example configuration, strips 302, 322 and
parity strip 342 each contain two blocks of storage. Consequently,
the virtual storage device 20 is striped across the array of
storage devices 1084 as follows: storage blocks 202 and 204 are
stored in strip 302 on storage device 30; and storage blocks 204
and 206 are stored in strip 322 on storage device 32. Additionally,
RAID controller 1082 maintains the parity strip 342 on storage
device 34. The parity strip 342 comprises two storage blocks 3422
and 3424 in which parity data is stored. The parity data is
calculated by the RAID controller 1082 using the exclusive OR (XOR)
logical operator. The parity data stored within storage block 3422
is the XOR of both the data stored in storage block 202 and the
data stored in storage block 206. The parity data stored in storage
block 3424 is the XOR of both the data stored in storage block 204
and the data stored in storage block 208. In the event of a single
point of failure, such as the failure of one of storage devices 30
or 32, the parity strip 342 can be used to regenerate a lost strip
in stripe 36.
[0024] In operation, the host 104 is operable with the RAID storage
system 108 such that host 104 is able to perform input and output
(I/O) operations to and from the virtual storage device 20. I/O
operations to and from the virtual storage device 20 take place
through the switch 106 and the storage appliance 1062. The switch
106 directs the I/O operation to the storage appliance 1062 which
uses memory 10622 to perform stripe aligned write operations on the
virtual storage device 20. When storage appliance 1062 conducts an
I/O operation on the virtual storage device 20, the RAID controller
1082 translates the I/O operation into an I/O operation on the
array of storage devices 1084. The RAID storage system 108 and the
RAID controller 1082 are said to be virtualised by the switch 106
and the storage appliance 1062 in the SAN 102.
[0025] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the components of a
write operation 402 initiated by the storage appliance 1062 when
writing to the virtual storage device 20. The write operation 402
includes a unit of data 404 to be written to the virtual storage
device 20. The write operation 402 also includes a data size
parameter 406. The value of the data size parameter 406 is a
measure of the size of the unit of data 404 to be written to the
virtual storage device 20 and may be expressed as a number of
storage blocks of virtual storage device 20. The write operation
402 also includes a block parameter 408. The value of the block
parameter 408 identifies which one of the storage blocks 202, 204,
206 or 208 in virtual storage device 20 the unit of data 404 should
be written to. A combination of the data size parameter 406 and the
block parameter 408 for a specific write operation is referred to
as a parameter-tuple for the write operation 402. In operation, the
write operation 402 results in data unit 404 being written to
virtual storage device 20 starting at the storage block identified
by block parameter 408. As will be familiar to those skilled in the
art, where a unit of data larger than the capacity of a storage
block is written to an initial storage block in a storage device, a
collection of sequential storage blocks commencing with the initial
storage block is used to store the unit of data.
[0026] In order for the storage appliance 1062 to provide stripe
aligned write operations to the virtual storage device 20 using
memory 10622, it is necessary to configure storage appliance 1062
with an appropriate stripe size attribute 10624 and stripe
alignment attribute 10626 for the RAID controller 1082. These
parameters are determined by the storage appliance 1062 by
analysing the performance of a series of write operations to the
virtual storage device 20, with each write operation having a
different parameter-tuple. In the preferred embodiment these write
operations take place when the RAID storage system 108 is otherwise
idle.
[0027] FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for configuring
the storage appliance 1062 of FIG. 1 to provide stripe aligned
write operations to the virtual storage device 20 of FIG. 2. The
method of FIG. 5 is carried out by storage appliance 1062 and
involves repeated write operations to the virtual storage device
20. At step 500, a set of many parameter-tuples is compiled, with
each parameter-tuple comprising a different combination of data
size parameter 506 and block parameter 508. Step 502 initiates a
loop through each parameter-tuple in the set of parameter-tuples.
At step 504, for each parameter-tuple the storage appliance 1062
performs a write operation to the virtual storage device 20 with
the parameter-tuple as write parameters. At step 506 a performance
measurement of the write operation is made and recorded. In the
preferred embodiment the performance measurement includes measuring
the time it takes to complete the write operation of step 504. The
performance measurement may be recorded to a storage device of
storage appliance 1062 such as a random access memory (not shown).
Step 508 continues the loop through each parameter-tuple. At step
510, the write operation with the best performance is identified
from the record of the performance of each write operation. In the
preferred embodiment, the write operation with the best performance
is determined to be the write operation which takes the least time
to complete. In identifying the write operation with the best
performance, a corresponding parameter-tuple is identified.
Subsequently at step 512 the storage appliance 1062 is configured
such that the value of the stripe size 10624 is set to be the value
of the data size parameter 406 of the write operation with the best
performance, and the value of the stripe alignment 10626 is
configured to be the block parameter 408 of the write operation
with the best performance.
[0028] Configuring the storage appliance 1062 with stripe size
10624 and stripe alignment 10626 parameters in accordance with the
parameter-tuple of the write operation with the best performance
provides for storage appliance 1062 to stripe align write
operations using memory 10622 as a cache. Stripe aligned write
operations by storage appliance 1062 will not encounter the
read-modify-write problem resulting in improved I/O
performance.
[0029] By way of example the method of FIG. 5 will now be
considered for a set of three parameter-tuples outlined in the
table below. TABLE-US-00001 Parameter- Data Size Tuple Parameter
406 Block Parameter 408 Q Three blocks Block 204 in virtual storage
device 20 R Two block Block 202 in virtual storage device 20 S Four
blocks Block 202 in virtual storage device 20
[0030] At step 500, a set of parameter-tuples Q, R and S are
defined as outlined in table 1. Step 502 initiates a loop through
each parameter-tuple, commencing with parameter-tuple Q. At step
504, the storage appliance 1062 performs a write operation to the
virtual storage device 20 with the parameter-tuple Q as write
parameters. Thus a write operation takes place wherein three blocks
of data are written at storage block 204 in virtual storage device
20. Referring now to FIG. 2, the write operation for
parameter-tuple Q results in data being written to storage blocks
204,206 and 208 in virtual storage device 20. The write operation
is translated to a write operation across the array of storage
devices 1084 by RAID controller 1082. Referring now to FIG. 3, the
write operation for parameter-tuple Q results in data being written
to storage block 204 of strip 302, and storage blocks 206 and 208
of strip 322 in the array of storage devices 1084. Consequently,
the entire stripe 36 is not written (storage block 202 is not
written) and the parity strip 342 must be updated to reflect the
changes to storage blocks 204, 206 and 208 using the
read-modify-write process. The updating of the parity strip has the
effect of increasing the time required to complete the write
operation for parameter-tuple Q, and so reducing the performance of
the write operation which is measured and recorded at step 506. At
step 508 the loop continues to the next parameter-tuple R as
outlined below.
[0031] At step 504, the storage appliance 1062 performs a write
operation to the virtual storage device 20 with the parameter-tuple
R as write parameters. Thus a write operation takes place wherein
two blocks of data are written at storage block 202 in virtual
storage device 20. Referring now to FIG. 2, the write operation for
parameter-tuple R results in data being written to storage blocks
202 and 204 in virtual storage device 20. The write operation is
translated to a write operation across the array of storage devices
1084 by RAID controller 1082. Referring now to FIG. 3, the write
operation for parameter-tuple R results in data being written to
storage blocks 202 and 204 of strip 302 in the array of storage
devices 1084. Consequently, the entire stripe 36 is not written
(storage blocks 206 and 208 are not written) and the parity strip
342 must be updated to reflect the changes to storage blocks 202
and 204 using the read-modify-write process. The updating of the
parity strip has the effect of increasing the time required to
complete the write operation for parameter-tuple R, and so reducing
the performance of the write operation which is measured and
recorded at step 506. At step 508 the loop continues to the next
parameter-tuple S as outlined below.
[0032] At step 504, the storage appliance 1062 performs a write
operation to the virtual storage device 20 with the parameter-tuple
S as write parameters. Thus a write operation takes place wherein
four blocks of data are written at storage block 202 in virtual
storage device 20. Referring now to FIG. 2, the write operation for
parameter-tuple S results in data being written to storage blocks
202, 204, 206 and 208 in virtual storage device 20. The write
operation is translated to a write operation across the array of
storage devices 1084 by RAID controller 1082. Referring now to FIG.
3, the write operation for parameter-tuple S results in data being
written to storage blocks 202 and 204 of strip 302, and storage
blocks 206 and 208 of strip 322 in the array of storage devices
1084. Consequently, the entire stripe 36 is written and the parity
strip 342 is calculated by RAID controller 1082. As the
read-modify-write problem is not encountered for the write
operation for parameter-tuple S, performance of the write operation
is high which and is measured and recorded at step 506. At step 508
the loop terminates as all three parameter-tuples Q, R and S have
been processed.
[0033] At step 510, the write operation with the best performance
is identified from the record of the performance of each write
operation. In this example, the write operations for
parameter-tuples Q and R encounter the read-modify-write problem
and are consequently of low performance. The write operation for
the parameter-tuple S does not encounter the read-modify-write
problem and is consequently the write operation with the highest
performance as it takes the least time to complete. Subsequently at
step 512 the storage appliance 1062 is configured such that the
value of the stripe size 10624 is set to be the value of the data
size parameter 406 of the write operation with the best
performance, and the value of the stripe alignment 10626 is
configured to be the block parameter 408 of the write operation
with the best performance. Thus, the value of stripe size 10624 is
set to be the size of four blocks, and the value of stripe
alignment 10626 is set to be block 202 in virtual storage device
20.
[0034] While the preferred embodiments have been described here in
detail, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that many
variants are possible without departing from the spirit and scope
of the present invention.
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