LOW COST STORAGE FOR RARELY READ DATA

摘要

Low cost storage for write once read rarely data is described. In an embodiment a storage device comprises a plurality of hard disk drives connected to a server via an interconnect fabric. The storage device comprises a cooling system which is only capable of cooling a first subset of the hard disk drives and a power supply system which is only capable of powering a second subset of the hard disk drives and in some examples, the interconnect fabric may be only capable of providing full bandwidth for a third subset of the hard disk drives. Each subset may comprise only a small fraction of hard disk drives. A control mechanism, which may be implemented in software, is provided which controls which hard disk drives are active at any time in order that the constraints set by the cooling and power supply systems and interconnect fabric are not violated.

主权项

1. An electronic storage system comprising:
a plurality of storage devices, each storage device having an active state and a non active state; a power supply system capable of providing sufficient power for only a subset of the plurality of storage devices to be in an active state concurrently; a cooling system provisioned to provide sufficient cooling when operating for only a subset of the plurality of storage devices to be in an active state concurrently; and a control mechanism arranged to dynamically control which of the plurality of storage devices are in an active state.