Caching data in a high performance zone of a data storage system

摘要

A combination of a host system and a storage system is disclosed that facilitates improved responsiveness of the host system to user requests. In one embodiment, the host system includes a cache management module, a partitioning module, and a driver. The cache management module determines write data to cache to a dedicated zone of a hard disk media of the storage system. The partitioning module partitions the hard disk media into one partition including the dedicated zone and another partition not including the dedicated zone. The driver transmits storage access commands to the storage system to cache data in and retrieve cached data from the one partition. Thereby, the host system can access the write data from the hard disk media more quickly than if the write data were cached in and accessed from another zone of the hard disk media.

主权项

1. A host system that communicates storage access commands to a storage system including a hard disk media, the host system comprising:
a cache management module configured to determine write data to cache to a first zone of a hard disk media of a storage system, the first zone comprising a zone of the hard disk media dedicated to caching the write data from the host system; a partitioning module configured to partition the hard disk media into a first partition including the first zone and a second partition not including the first zone; and a driver configured to:
communicate cache write commands and the write data to a controller of the storage system, the cache write commands indicating to the controller to cache the write data in the first partition,communicate cache read commands to the controller, the cache read commands indicating to the controller to read the cached write data from the first partition, andreceive from the controller the cached write data stored in the first partition in response to communicating the cache read commands, wherein the cache management module, the partitioning module, and the driver are separate from the storage system.