File System Extension System and Method

摘要

A file system extension (FSE) system and method that permits an on-disk-structure (ODS) incorporating spatially diverse data (SDD) to be stored on a daisy-chain of multiple SATA disk drive storage elements (DSE) that are coupled together with one or more pass-thru disk drive controllers (PTDDC) is disclosed. The PTDDC chain appears as a single logical disk drive to a host computer system (HCS) via a host bus adapter (HBA) or pass-thru input (PTI) port. The PTDDC chain may appear to the HCS as virtual disk storage (VDS) that is larger than the actual physical disk storage (PDS) contained within the DSEs. The PTDDC chain is configured to map the SDD to portions of the DSE that are actually present within the VDS and thus allow critical portions of the ODS to reside on the PTDDC chain with transparent access by an operating system running on the HCS.

主权项

1. A file system extension system comprising:
(d) plurality of pass-thru disk drive controllers (PTDDCs); (e) LBA matching engine (LME); and (f) LBA matching memory (LMM); wherein: said plurality of PTDDCs each comprise a pass-thru input (PTI) port, pass-thru output (PTO) port, and disk drive interface (DDI) port; said PTI port, said PTO port, and said DDI port each comprise a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interface; said plurality of PTDDCs are each connected in a serial daisy-chain with the PTI port of a member PTDDC in said daisy-chain connected to the PTO port of a previous PTDDC in said daisy-chain and the PTO port of said member PTDDC connected to the PTI port of a next PTDDC in said daisy-chain; said daisy-chain comprises a first PTDDC at the beginning of said daisy-chain further comprising a first PTI port, a first PTO port, and a first DDI port; said first PTDDC is configured for connection to a host computer system (HCS) via said first PTI port; said first PTDDC is electrically coupled to a local disk drive (LDD) via said first DDI port; said first PTDDC maintains a set of phantom disk drive registers having a reported maximum LBA virtual address space that is larger than the number of logical blocks present on said LDD; said LME is configured to match LBAs received from said HCS by said first PTI port against spatially diverse data (SDD) logical block addresses (LBAs) stored in said LMM; said LME is configured to remap said SDD LBAs to portions of said LDD coupled to said first DDI port; and said SDD LBAs correspond to spatially diverse data structures within an on-disk-structure (ODS) managed by an operating system on said HCS.