Patent · US Expired

Raid array data storage system with storage device consistency bits and raidset consistency bits

US6161192A · kind A · utility

77Cited by
5References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 13, 1995
Grant dateDec 12, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 13, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2211/104
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Metadata described herein on a RAID array includes both device metadata and RAIDset metadata. The device metadata has a device FE bit on each storage device corresponding to each RAID protected block on the storage device. The device FE bit indicates if a corresponding RAID protected block is consistent and thereby useable to regenerate data in another RAID protected block in the corresponding RAID protected block's sliver. The user data also has a forced error bit to indicate if a physical block in the user block has inconsistent data, the RAIDset FE bit. The RAID array of storage devices has user data blocks on each storage device RAID protected by being distributed as slivers of blocks across the RAID array of storage devices. Each sliver has a plurality of user data blocks and one parity block. The RAIDset metadata has the RAIDset FE bit corresponding to each RAID protected user data block in the RAID array. The RAIDset FE bit indicates whether or not a corresponding RAID protected user data block contains true data. In addition, FE Dir bits corresponding to each block of FE bits for the device or the RAlDset are added to the metadata. Further the device FE bits, the RAIDset FE…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.