HMC: A hybrid mirror-and-chained data replication method to support high data availability for disk arrays

摘要

A method of distributing a set of data among a plurality of disks, which provides for load balancing in the event of a disk failure. In accordance with the method the total number of the disks in an array are divided into a number of clusters. The blocks of data are then stored in each cluster such that each cluster contains a complete set of the data and such that data block placement in each cluster is a unique permutation of the data block placement in the other clusters. In the event of a disk failure, data block accesses to the failed disk are redirected to a disk in the other cluster having a copy of the data block and further access to the disks that remain operational are rebalanced.