公开(公告)号：US12265716B2

公开(公告)日：2025-04-01

申请号：US18191985

申请日：2023-03-29

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Randolph Sterns ,  Charles Binford ,  William P. Delaney ,  Joseph Blount ,  Reid Kaufmann ,  Joseph Moore

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F11/10

Abstract: The application relates to writing arbitrarily sized data extents using in-line descriptors, such as headers or footers, into physical blocks to describe the data extents in those physical blocks. Some data extents may be smaller than the size of a physical block, and some data extents may be larger than the size of a physical block. A given physical block therefore includes an in-line descriptor for a data extent in that block, indicating that the data extent starts within that block and also an offset from the beginning of the block to where the data extent starts. The in-line descriptor is included within the block so that when the block is read both the data and the descriptor are read, thereby eliminating performance penalty for reading the descriptor information.

公开(公告)号：US20170315924A1

公开(公告)日：2017-11-02

申请号：US15143135

申请日：2016-04-29

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Joseph Blount ,  William P. Delaney ,  Charles Binford ,  Joseph Moore ,  Randolph Sterns

IPC: G06F12/10

CPC classification number: G06F12/10 ,  G06F11/3034 ,  G06F2212/1044 ,  G06F2212/154 ,  G06F2212/262 ,  G06F2212/263 ,  G06F2212/7201

Abstract: A method, a computing device, and a non-transitory machine-readable medium for allocating memory to data structures that map a first address space to a second is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes identifying, by a storage system, a pool of memory resources to allocate among a plurality of address maps. Each of the plurality of address maps includes at least one entry that maps an address in a first address space to an address in a second address space. An activity metric is determined for each of the plurality of address maps, and a portion of the pool of memory is allocated to each of the plurality of address maps based on the respective activity metric. The allocating of the portion of the memory pool to a first map may be performed in response to a merge operation being performed on the first map.

公开(公告)号：US11169707B2

公开(公告)日：2021-11-09

申请号：US15004318

申请日：2016-01-22

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Joseph Blount

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F12/02

Abstract: A system and method for improving storage system performance by reducing or avoiding load spike amplification when performing garbage collection is disclosed. A storage controller in a storage system tracks system load including write load and read load, as well as available free segments. The storage controller uses these tracked values as inputs and, with these inputs, generates a garbage collection rate. Where read load is included, a scaled portion of the read load is taken into consideration so that, as the number of free segments nears the minimum amount desired and to prevent garbage collecting too slowly, the read load is gradually excluded from the garbage collection rate determination. The garbage collection rate is therefore responsive to system load so that, in times of high system load, the rate reduces as much as is safe so that the write load takes priority with computing resources of the storage controller.

公开(公告)号：US20180107408A1

公开(公告)日：2018-04-19

申请号：US15496841

申请日：2017-04-25

Applicant: NETAPP, INC.

Inventor： Randolph Sterns ,  Charles Binford ,  Joseph Blount ,  Joseph Moore ,  William P. Delaney

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F12/128 ,  G06F12/0811 ,  G06F12/0808

CPC classification number: G06F3/0617 ,  G06F3/061 ,  G06F3/0665 ,  G06F3/0689 ,  G06F12/0868 ,  G06F2212/1024 ,  G06F2212/1032 ,  G06F2212/263 ,  G06F2212/282 ,  G06F2212/286 ,  G06F2212/312

Abstract: A system shares I/O load between controllers in a high availability system. For writes, a controller determines based on one or more factors which controller will flush batches of data from write-back cache to better distribute the I/O burden. The determination occurs after the local storage controller caches the data, mirrors it, and confirms write complete to the host. Once it is determined which storage controller will flush the cache, the flush occurs and the corresponding metadata at a second layer of indirection is updated by that determined storage controller (whether or not it is identified as the owner of the corresponding volume to the host, while the volume owner updates metadata at a first layer of indirection). For a host read, the controller that owns the volume accesses the metadata from whichever controller(s) flushed the data previously and reads the data, regardless of which controller had performed the flush.

公开(公告)号：US20170300250A1

公开(公告)日：2017-10-19

申请号：US15131658

申请日：2016-04-18

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Randolph Sterns ,  Charles Binford ,  William Delaney ,  Joseph Blount ,  Keith Moyer ,  Joseph Moore

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F11/14

CPC classification number: G06F3/0619 ,  G06F3/0605 ,  G06F3/0617 ,  G06F3/065 ,  G06F3/0683 ,  G06F11/1471 ,  G06F2201/805 ,  G06F2201/82 ,  G06F2201/84

Abstract: A system for tracking metadata changes and recovering from system interruptions is provided. With host I/O, corresponding metadata incremental changes are aggregated and stored in a write-ahead log before being performed to their in-memory buffers. As those buffers are flushed, checkpoints are created and stored in the log. As the log wraps to the start, older entries are overwritten after they are freed from any remaining dependencies by newer checkpoints. If metadata entities have not created new checkpoints, they are instructed to in order to free up space for new aggregated batches and checkpoints. After an interruption, the wrap point is located in the log. From the wrap point, the log is scanned backwards to provide checkpoints to metadata entities. The log is then scanned forwards to perform changes specified by aggregated batches. The metadata entities' volatile memory states are recovered to what they were before the interruption.

公开(公告)号：US20170212678A1

公开(公告)日：2017-07-27

申请号：US15004318

申请日：2016-01-22

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Joseph Blount

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F12/02

CPC classification number: G06F3/061 ,  G06F3/0659 ,  G06F3/067 ,  G06F12/0246 ,  G06F2212/7205

Abstract: A system and method for improving storage system performance by reducing or avoiding load spike amplification when performing garbage collection is disclosed. A storage controller in a storage system tracks system load including write load and read load, as well as available free segments. The storage controller uses these tracked values as inputs and, with these inputs, generates a garbage collection rate. Where read load is included, a scaled portion of the read load is taken into consideration so that, as the number of free segments nears the minimum amount desired and to prevent garbage collecting too slowly, the read load is gradually excluded from the garbage collection rate determination. The garbage collection rate is therefore responsive to system load so that, in times of high system load, the rate reduces as much as is safe so that the write load takes priority with computing resources of the storage controller.

公开(公告)号：US20230229328A1

公开(公告)日：2023-07-20

申请号：US18191985

申请日：2023-03-29

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Randolph Sterns ,  Charles Binford ,  William P. Delaney ,  Joseph Blount ,  Reid Kaufmann ,  Joseph Moore

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F11/10

CPC classification number: G06F3/064 ,  G06F3/067 ,  G06F3/0607 ,  G06F3/0689 ,  G06F11/1004

Abstract: A method includes: storing a first data extent on a physical medium, wherein the physical medium is divided into a plurality of storage blocks, wherein each of the storage blocks has a size that is different than a size of the first data extent, further wherein the first data extent is stored to a first block of the plurality of storage blocks; generating a descriptor for the first data extent, wherein the descriptor indicates that the first data extent starts within the first block of the plurality of blocks and indicates an offset from the beginning of the first block at which the first data extent starts; and storing the descriptor within the first block.

公开(公告)号：US11029862B2

公开(公告)日：2021-06-08

申请号：US15496206

申请日：2017-04-25

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Joseph Blount

IPC: G06F3/06

Abstract: A system and method for metadata storage includes use of a storage controller to receive a write operation from a host, create a metadata entry for storing metadata associated with data written by the write operation, and store the metadata entry into a metadata store. The metadata store includes a plurality of active partitions, a plurality of inactive partitions, and a queue identifying locations in the active partitions where the metadata entry may be stored. The metadata store is further used to access data written to one or more storage devices. Storing the metadata entry into the metadata store includes popping a first location from the queue, identifying a first active partition from the active partitions based on the first location, and storing the metadata entry in the first active partition. In some embodiments, each of the active partitions may be organized into two or more tiers.

公开(公告)号：US10802740B2

公开(公告)日：2020-10-13

申请号：US15135161

申请日：2016-04-21

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： Randolph Sterns ,  Charles Binford ,  William P. Delaney ,  Joseph Blount ,  Reid Kaufmann ,  Joseph Moore

IPC: G06F3/06 ,  G06F11/10

Abstract: A method includes: storing a first data extent on a physical medium, wherein the physical medium is divided into a plurality of storage blocks, wherein each of the storage blocks has a size that is different than a size of the first data extent, further wherein the first data extent is stored to a first block of the plurality of storage blocks; generating a descriptor for the first data extent, wherein the descriptor indicates that the first data extent starts within the first block of the plurality of blocks and indicates an offset from the beginning of the first block at which the first data extent starts; and storing the descriptor within the first block.

公开(公告)号：US10366065B2

公开(公告)日：2019-07-30

申请号：US15142828

申请日：2016-04-29

Applicant: NetApp, Inc.

Inventor： William P. Delaney ,  Joseph Blount ,  Charles Binford ,  Joseph Moore ,  Randolph Sterns ,  Jeff Stilger

IPC: G06F17/30 ,  G06F16/22 ,  G06F16/901

Abstract: A method for mapping a first address space to a second address space is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes creating a first array of lookup entries and one or more second arrays of metadata entries for maintaining an ordering among the lookup entries using a tree structure. Each of the metadata entries includes one or more data index values identifying a corresponding one of the lookup entries by its position in the first array and one or more metadata index values identifying a corresponding one of the metadata entries by its position in one of the one or more second arrays. The method further includes receiving a request including a lookup value, traversing the tree structure to locate a lookup entry corresponding to the lookup value, and when the lookup value is located among the lookup entries, using the located lookup entry to process the request.