Patent · US Expired

Partial mirroring during expansion thereby eliminating the need to track the progress of stripes updated during expansion

US7120826B2 · kind B2 · utility

34Cited by
19References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 29, 2002
Grant dateOct 10, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 16, 2024

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2211/1028
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for performing an expansion of a disk array. Upon the failure of a disk in the disk array, the failed disk may be rebuilt stripe by stripe in the spare units distributed among other disks in the disk array. Upon repairing or replacing the failed disk with a spare disk, the repaired or spare disk may be rebuilt stripe by stripe using the data from the spare units. Upon receiving a write request to a stripe unit that has been rebuilt in the repaired or spare disk during expansion, the data of the request may be written in the stripe unit requested. Further, the data written may be mirrored, i.e., copied and stored, in the spare unit corresponding to the stripe unit requested. By mirroring the data to the corresponding spare unit, tracking each stripe that was updated during expansion may be eliminated.

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