Method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for improving disk array performance
US7991969B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 19, 2010 |
| Grant date | Aug 2, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 19, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/262
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method, system, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are provided for improved maintenance of metadata relating to a mass storage array. The metadata may comprise the data structures utilized by a thin provisioning system. When the metadata changes, such as in response to the modification of the underlying data, changed metadata is created in the memory. A parity block is then read from the row of the array where the changed metadata is to be stored. A new parity is calculated for the row using only the old metadata, the changed metadata, and the parity read from the stripe. The old metadata need not be read from disk expressly, as is usually done. Instead, the value that is present in memory before the metadata change is utilized directly to calculate the new parity. The changed metadata and the new parity are then written to the array.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.