APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR A FRONT-END, DISTRIBUTED RAID

摘要

Disclosed is a front-end, distributed RAID. A storage request receiver module (2102) receives a storage request to store data in autonomous storage devices (150) forming a RAID group. The storage devices (150) independently receive storage requests from a client (114) over a network (116), and one or more of the storage devices (150) are designated as parity-mirror storage devices (1602) for a stripe. The striping association module (2104) calculates a stripe pattern for the data. Each stripe includes N data segments, each associated with N storage devices (150). The parity-mirror association module (2106) associates a set of the N data segments with one or more parity-mirror storage devices (1602). The storage request transmitter module (2108) transmits storage requests to each storage device (150, 1602). Each storage request is sufficient to store onto the storage device (150, 1602) associated data segments. The storage requests are substantially free of data.