LOAD BALANCING TECHNIQUE FOR A STORAGE ARRAY

摘要

A technique for load balancing uses heuristic-based algorithms with respect to input/output (I/O) latency of workloads destined to storage devices, e.g., solid state drives (SSDs), of a storage array attached to a storage system. Illustratively, “front-end” requests received from a host result in a back-end workload as those requests are processed by a storage I/O stack of the storage system and stored on the storage array. Accordingly, the technique maintains a consistent latency for the host requests (front-end) to control latency for the back-end workload. The load balancing technique illustratively load balances fixed (back-end) workloads having similar I/O sizes and I/O patterns. Illustratively, the technique balances the workloads across a plurality of storage ports over one or more I/O paths to the SSDs. Access to the SSDs may then be distributed among the storage ports.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving a plurality of write requests directed towards a logical unit (LUN), each write request having data, the write request processed at a storage system having a memory and a processor, the storage system having one or more storage controllers attached to one or more shelves of solid state drives (SSDs); generating an input/output (I/O) workload from the plurality of write requests; and controlling a back-end latency of the I/O workload to the SSDs such that the plurality of write requests maintain a predictable front-end latency.