METADATA FOR DATA STORAGE ARRAY

摘要

A data storage array may be made up of several storage devices, each of which may contain array metadata that may allow portions of the storage array to be used. A system may have a file system manager that may receive and respond to file system commands and a storage device manager that may store data on the several storage devices. Array metadata defining where data is stored within the storage array is stored on each device within the array. A policy engine may identify data to be stored on the array and determine if the data contains array metadata or other types of data and may store the data on every device, devices having specific characteristics, two or more devices, or one device.

主权项

1. At a computer system, the computer system connected to a plurality of storage devices, the plurality of storage devices included in a storage array, the storage array defined in accordance with array metadata, the array metadata defining locations for a plurality of files within the storage array, a method for maintaining array metadata for the storage array, the method comprising:
storing a portion of the received data at one or more storage devices, the one or more storage devices including less than all of the plurality of storage devices such that the portion of received data is not stored at at least one other storage device from among the plurality of storage devices, the portion of the received data stored in accordance with a storage policy and based on file metadata identified for the file; updating array metadata to reflect changes in file storage locations due to storing the received data; referring to the storage policy to determine that the updated array metadata is to be duplicated on every storage device included in the one or more storage devices and also duplicated to the at least one other storage device; and propagating the updated array metadata for storage at every storage device in the one or more storage devices and for storage at the at the least one other storage device in accordance with the storage policy, propagating the updated array metadata including propagating a file location for at least one file to at least one storage device of the storage array that does not store any portion of the at least one file.