Patent · US Expired

Allocating files in a file system integrated with a raid disk sub-system

US7231412B2 · kind B2 · utility

51Cited by
99References
18Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 8, 2003
Grant dateJun 12, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 6, 2024

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99956
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Integrating a file system with a RAID array that exports precise information about the arrangement of data blocks in the RAID subsystem. The present invention uses separate current-write location (CWL) pointers for each disk in the disk array where the pointers simply advance through the disks as writes occur. The present invention writes on the disk with the lowest CWL pointer. A new disk is chosen only when the algorithm starts allocating space for a new file, or when it has allocated N blocks on the same disk for a single file. A sufficient number of blocks are defined as all the buffers in a chunk of N sequential buffers in a file. The result is that CWL pointers are never more than N blocks apart on different disks, and large files have N consecutive blocks on the same disk.

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