Disk array having redundant storage and methods for incrementall

Details Disk array having redundant storage and methods for incrementall Disk array having redundant storage and methods for incrementall

1995-02-10

1996-07-16

Beausoliel, Jr., Robert W.

395441, G06F 1100

Patent

active

055375340

ABSTRACT:
A data storage system has a disk array having multiple storage disks and a disk array controller coupled to the disk array to coordinate data transfer to and from the storage disks. The disk array is configured into multiple stripes where each stripe extends across multiple ones of the storage disks. Additionally, each stripe consists of multiple segments of storage space where each segment is a portion of the stripe that resides on a single storage disk in the disk array. A memory manager is provided to manage memory allocation for storing user data redundantly according to parity redundancy techniques. The memory manager maintains a partial stripe pointer to reference individual stripes in the disk array and a segment fill pointer to references individual segments in the referenced stripe. These pointers are used to select a non-filled stripe and individual segments in that stripe. The memory manager writes user data to a selected segment and incrementally determines a parity value for the stripe after each segment is written. The parity value is based upon the user data contained in those segments of the stripe that have been written. The empty segments in the stripe are not managed during the write process and thus are not included in the incremental parity generation.

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