WO2019106736A1 - Storage drive and storage system - Google Patents

Abstract

In order to provide a storage drive and a storage system that achieve both a cost reduction and an increase in performance and functionality, this storage drive 2 has the same outer dimension as a standard storage drive 1 that has a canister 10 larger than a first substrate 11 on which first memory elements 110 are mounted, the storage drive 2 being provided with: a frame 20 that forms a usable space 25 corresponding to a space inside the canister; a second substrate 21 provided in the frame so as to use the entirety of the usable space; second memory elements 210 and predetermined circuits 211 and 212 that are mounted on the entire second substrate; and a guide part 23 provided in the frame in order to attach the frame to predetermined housings 3 and 4 that removably contain the storage drive.

Description

Storage drive and storage system

The present invention relates to storage drives and storage systems.

When a storage device having a standard form factor is mounted in a drive bay, the storage device is accommodated in a canister larger than the storage device, and the canister is attached to the drive bay (Patent Documents 1 and 2). Alternatively, it is also known to employ vendor-specific form factors different from standard form factors and to manufacture boxes containing proprietary storage drives and drives.

JP, 2009-053978, A JP, 2005-190052, A

When manufacturing proprietary storage drives and boxes, it is easy to differentiate from competitors in terms of functions and performance, but it takes time for development and increases manufacturing costs. On the other hand, when using a standard storage device and a standard drive box, it is difficult to differentiate from competitors in terms of storage capacity and functions.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a storage drive and a storage system in which cost reduction and increase in performance and functions can be compatible. A further object of the present invention is to provide a storage drive and storage system which has the same external dimensions as a standard storage drive, and can also utilize the space that was not used in the standard storage drive.

In order to solve the above problems, a storage drive according to the present invention is a storage drive having the same external dimensions as a standard storage drive having a canister larger than a first substrate on which a first storage element is mounted. A frame forming an available space corresponding to the space, a second substrate provided on the frame so as to use the entire available space, a second storage element mounted on the entire second substrate, and a predetermined A circuit, and a guide portion provided on the frame and for attaching the frame to a predetermined housing that detachably accommodates the storage drive.

According to the present invention, the second storage element mounted on the entire second board provided on the frame and having the same external dimensions as a standard storage drive and using the entire available space, and a predetermined storage element It is possible to obtain a storage drive provided with a circuit and a guide for attaching the frame to a predetermined housing.

Explanatory drawing which shows the outline | summary of embodiment. Front view of the rack that mounts the control box and the expansion box. Top view of control box. FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a high-performance storage drive and FIG. The perspective view and board | substrate schematic block diagram of a standard type storage drive. Explanatory drawing of a communication interface conversion board. The flowchart of the process which recognizes the kind and interface of a storage drive. The flowchart of the processing which inspects whether the kind of storage drive is unified in box unit.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. The present embodiment provides a storage drive having the same external dimensions as a standard storage drive so as to be attachable to and detachable from a predetermined housing, and having vendor-specific performance and functions.

Thus, according to the storage drive according to the present embodiment, the storage drive can be attached to and detached from a predetermined housing as well as a standard storage drive, and a large space can be obtained by effectively using the space not used in the standard storage drive. Capacitance and function improvement can be realized.

Hereinafter, an example of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an outline of a storage system according to an embodiment.

The main body 30 of the box 3 which is an example of the “predetermined housing” is provided with a plurality of drive bays 31 for removably attaching the storage drives 1 and 2. Although the control box 3 is exemplified as a box in FIG. 1, the “predetermined case” also includes the expansion box 4 as described later with reference to FIG. 2.

The box 3 is configured as a control box in charge of control of the storage system, and a plurality of (for example, two) controllers 32 are provided. Each controller 32 has a redundant configuration, and when one of the controllers 32 stops due to a failure or the like, the other controller 32 takes over the processing. Each controller 32 accesses the storage drives 1 and 2 corresponding to the logical volume to be accessed in accordance with access requests (read request and write request) from a computer (not shown), and reads / writes data.

The standard storage drive 1 as a “standard storage drive” comprises, for example, a canister 10 and a substrate 11 as a “first substrate” mounted in the canister 10. The substrate 11 is formed to occupy approximately half of the longitudinal direction of the space defined by the canister 10. That is, since the substrate 11 is smaller than the canister 10, the unused space 15 is formed in the canister 10. More specifically, the substrate 11 is attached near the back side of the canister 10, and an unused space 15 is formed between the front side of the canister 10 and the substrate 11.

A connector 12 for electrically connecting to the controller 32 is provided on the back of the canister 10. The bottom of the canister 10 is provided with a guide portion 13 for guiding the canister 10 into and out of the drive bay 31. At the front of the canister 10, a handle 14 is provided which is gripped by the user when the storage drive 1 is taken in and out of the drive bay 31.

The front of the canister 10 indicates the front when the storage drive 1 is attached to the drive bay 31 of the box 3. The back surface of the canister 10 indicates the surface facing the front surface of the canister 10. The bottom surface of the canister 10 indicates the lower surface when the storage drive 1 is attached to the box 3. The surface facing the bottom surface of the canister 10 is the top surface. The other side is the side. Although illustration is omitted, air flows from the front of the canister 10 into the canister 10 to cool the internal circuit. The cooling air flows from the rear surface of the canister 10 to the outside.

On the substrate 11, a plurality of flash memories 110, a control circuit 111, a cache memory 112, and a battery circuit 113 are provided. The flash memory 110 as the “first storage element” is configured as, for example, a NAND flash memory. The control circuit 111 controls data input / output to each flash memory 110 and the like. The cache memory 112 is configured as, for example, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

The highly functional storage drive 2 as a “storage drive” includes, for example, a drive carrier 20 and a substrate 21 attached to the drive carrier 20. The drive carrier 20 as a "frame" is formed in, for example, a rectangular shape whose one end side is open like a U-shape which is turned over sideways. The substrate 21 is an example of the “second substrate”.

The drive carrier 20 forms an available space 25 corresponding to the internal space of the canister 10. The substrate 21 is attached so as to fill substantially the entire available space 25. When the storage drives 1 and 2 are viewed from the side, the available space 25 of the high-performance storage drive 2 is about twice as large as the unused space 15 of the standard storage drive 1. The doubling is an example and is not limited to this value.

A connector 22 for electrically connecting to the controller 32 is provided on the back of the drive carrier 20. At the bottom of the drive carrier 20, a guide portion 23 for guiding the drive carrier 20 into and out of the drive bay 31 is provided. At the front of the drive carrier 20, a handle 24 is provided which is held by the user when the storage drive 2 is taken in and out of the drive bay 31.

Here, the external dimensions (width W1 × height H1 × depth D1) of the standard storage drive 1 and the external dimensions (width) of the high-performance storage drive 2 so that they can be detachably attached to each drive bay 31. W1 × height H1 × depth D1) is set to be the same.

That is, either the standard storage drive 1 or the high performance storage drive 2 can be mounted in each drive bay 31. Therefore, the standard type storage drive 1 or the high performance type storage drive 2 can be mixed and mounted in the box 3.

However, in a logical volume formed by virtualizing a physical storage area of a storage drive which is a physical storage device, it is not preferable in terms of performance that physical storage areas of different types of storage drives are mixed. Accordingly, logical volumes (including virtual volumes formed by virtualizing logical volumes) are configured using physical storage areas of storage drives of the same type.

When the types of storage drives are unified in box units of the control box 3 or the expansion box 4, the same type of storage drive is mounted in each box. However, since the standard type storage drive 1 and the high performance type storage drive 2 are formed with the same external dimensions so that they can be mounted in the drive bay 31, different types of storage drives in one box due to human error. There is also a possibility that 1 and 2 may be mixed. The configuration for suppressing the occurrence of the human error will be described later with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

The substrate 21 is configured by connecting a plurality of (two) sub substrates 21A and 21B by a flexible connection portion 21C, as described later with reference to FIG. The sub substrates 21A and 21B are configured as, for example, rigid substrates, and at least a part of the substrate side portions are electrically connected by the flexible connection portion 21C. The substrate 21 is attached to the drive carrier 20 by folding the two sub-substrates 21A and 21B in half at the connection portion 21C.

On the surface of the substrate 21, a plurality of flash memories 210, a control circuit 211 which is a flash memory controller, a cache memory 212, and a battery circuit 213 are provided. The flash memory 210 as a "second memory element" is configured as, for example, a NAND flash memory. The number of mounted flash memories 210 is larger than the number of flash memories 110 mounted in the standard storage drive 1. This is because the mounting area of the substrate 21 is larger than the mounting area of the substrate 11. Also, the size of the cache memory 212 configured as a DRAM is larger than the size of the cache memory 112 mounted on the standard storage drive 1.

The control circuit 211 controls the data input / output to each flash memory 210 and, for example, implements a function of eliminating duplicate data, a function of compressing data, and a function of encrypting data. The control circuit 211 having the duplicate data elimination function, the data compression function, and the data encryption function is an example of the “predetermined circuit”. The control circuit 211 does not have to realize all the functions described above. The control circuit 211 may also realize functions other than the above-described functions.

Thus, the high-performance type storage drive 2 exceeds both the number of mounted flash memories 210 and the memory size of the cache memory 212 as compared with the standard type storage drive 1, and the control circuit 211 is a standard type storage. It is more multifunctional than the control circuit 111 of the drive 1.

Please refer to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, in the rack 5, one control box 3 and a plurality of expansion boxes 4 are detachably accommodated. The control box 3 has main functions of the storage system such as a control function and a storage function in one case, and controls data input / output to each expansion box 4. On the other hand, the expansion box 4 has only the storage function and is controlled by the control box 3. The control box 3 can also be called a basic case, and the expansion box 4 can be called an additional case. In FIG. 2, the control box 3 is disposed at the lowermost stage of the rack 5, but the arrangement location of the control box 3 is not limited to the lowermost stage.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the control box 3 or the expansion box 4 as viewed from above. For example, drive bays 31 (not shown in FIG. 3) are provided at predetermined intervals on the front side of the boxes 3 and 4, and each drive bay 31 is either a standard storage drive 1 or a high performance storage drive 2. The kimono is attached.

The connector 12 of the standard storage drive 1 or the connector 22 of the advanced storage drive 2 is attached to the backboards 33 and 44 and electrically connected. The backboard 33 is a backboard of the control box 3, and the backboard 43 is a backboard of the expansion box 4. The backboards 33 and 43 are provided so as to separate the substantially central portions of the boxes 3 and 4.

The processing substrates 32 and 42 are provided on the back side of the boxes 3 and 4. The processing substrate 32 is a processing substrate of the control box 3, and the processing substrate 42 is a processing substrate of the expansion box 4. The processing substrate 32 is electrically connected to the storage drives 1 and 2 via the backboard 33. Similarly, the processing substrate 42 is electrically connected to the storage drives 1 and 2 via the backboard 43.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the high performance type storage drive 2. Although FIG. 4 shows how the substrate 21 is attached to the drive carrier 20 in an exposed state, in reality, both side surfaces of the drive carrier 20 are detachably covered with a metal plate or the like (not shown).

The first sub substrate 21A and the second sub substrate 21B have the flash memory 210 and the like mounted on both sides thereof. Only one side is shown in FIG.

In the first sub board 21A, for example, a battery circuit 213 located on the front side of the storage drive 1, a control circuit 211 and a cache memory 212 located on the back side of the storage drive 1, a battery circuit 213 and a control circuit 211 And a plurality of flash memories 210 located between them.

A plurality of flash memories 210 are mounted on the second sub substrate 21B. The first sub substrate 21A and the second sub substrate 21B are electrically connected via the flexible connection portion 21C. The substrate 21 is folded in half and attached to the drive carrier 20 by bending the flexible connection portion 21C at approximately 180 degrees.

Here, for example, the flexible connection portion 21C can be realized by attaching the flexible substrate to the connector for the flexible substrate mounted on each of the sub substrates 21A and 21B. The method of realizing the flexible connection portion 21C may be realized by a method other than the flexible substrate and the connector. There is no particular limitation in this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the standard storage drive 1. The canister 10 is indicated by a two-dot chain line, and the region in which the substrate 11 is disposed is indicated by a rectangular solid line.

The substrate 11 includes a first sub substrate 11A, a second sub substrate 11B, and a flexible connection portion 11C that electrically connects the sub substrates 11A and 11B.

A control circuit 111, a cache memory 112, a battery circuit 113, and a flash memory 110 are mounted on the first sub substrate 11A. The flash memory 110 is mounted on the second sub substrate 11B.

As can be seen by comparing FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, in the standard storage drive 1 shown in FIG. 5, substantially half of the space in the canister 10 is only used as the arrangement space of the substrate 11, A relatively large unused space 15 is left in the canister 10.

On the other hand, in the high performance type storage drive 2 shown in FIG. 4, the substrate 21 is disposed using almost all the space 25 in the drive carrier 20 having the same external dimensions as the canister 10.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing an example of the communication interface conversion board 16. The canister 10 of the standard storage drive 1 may be provided with a communication interface conversion substrate 16 in addition to the substrate 11. The communication interface conversion board 16 is disposed in the unused space 15.

At the upper left of FIG. 6, a connector 161 for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and a connector 162 for Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface (NVMe) are shown. In the upper right of FIG. 6, a plan view of the communication interface conversion board 16 for converting SAS and NVMe is shown. That is, the communication interface conversion board 16 connects the “SAS Port A” pin and the “SAS Port B” pin shown in FIG. 6 to “PCIe LANE 2”. By placing the communication interface conversion board 16 between the host and the device, the host can access the SAS device in the same manner as the NVMe device.

In the high-performance type storage drive 2, a communication interface circuit that implements the same function as the communication interface conversion substrate 16 is mounted on the substrate 21. The communication interface circuit 21 may be provided in the control circuit 211.

Since the position and role of each signal pin are known to the processing board 32 of the control box 3, the type of communication interface can be specified based on the output state of the signal pin.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of processing for recognizing the type of storage drive and the type of communication interface. This process is executed by, for example, the processing substrate 32 of the control box 3. Hereinafter, the subject of the operation will be described as the control box 3.

The control box 3 confirms the output state of the signal pin (S10), and determines whether the device interface standard is SAS or PCIe (NVMe) S11 (S11).

When determining that the communication standard to be used is PCIe, the control box 3 reads out management information from the storage drive according to PCIe (S12). On the other hand, when the control box 3 determines that the communication standard to be used is SAS, the control box 3 reads out management information from the storage drive according to the SAS (S13). Among the storage areas of the storage drives 1 and 2, management information such as drive type, storage capacity, and vendor name are stored in the management area.

Therefore, the control box 3 can determine the type of the storage drive by reading out the management information from the storage drive (S14). By previously determining the communication standard (type of communication interface) based on the output state of the signal pin, the management information can be read using the determined communication interface.

In the present embodiment, the storage drive is a high performance type storage drive 2 using PCIe as a communication standard (S15), and the standard storage drive 1 using PCIe as a communication standard (S16), high performance It can be classified into four types: the type storage drive 2 that uses SAS as a communication standard (S17), and the standard type storage drive 1 that uses SAS as a communication standard (S18).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of processing to check whether the type of storage drive is unified in box units.

The control box 3 acquires the determination result of the storage drive attached to each drive bay 31 of each box 3 and 4 (S20), and determines whether different types of storage drives are mixed in the same box (S21) .

If the control box 3 determines that different types of storage drives are mixed in the same box (S21: YES), for example, "The drive type is not unified. For the storage system administrator. Drive bay A warning message such as “No. # 001 Drive type: Standard type (SAS)” is notified (S22).

Furthermore, the control box 3 is replaced by blinking or lighting LED lamps (not shown) provided in the vicinity of the drive bay 31 in which different types of storage drives are mounted among the drive bays 31 of the box 3 The user is notified of the mounting position of the storage drive to be used (S23).

According to the embodiment configured as described above, since the high-performance type storage drive 2 having the same external dimensions as the standard type storage drive 1 can be provided, it can be mounted on the standard boxes 3 and 4 . As a result, according to the present embodiment, the manufacturing cost of the boxes 3 and 4 and the storage system can be reduced.

In the present embodiment, the external dimensions of the high performance type storage drive 2 are made common to the external dimensions of the standard type storage drive 1, and the handle portion 14 and the guide portion 13 are provided. Almost all the space 15 is also used. For this reason, in the present embodiment, it is possible to increase the mounting number of the flash memory 210 on the substrate 21 and mount the cache memory 212 having a larger memory size on the substrate 21. Furthermore, since the mounting area of the substrate 21 can be increased, the control circuit 211 can be made larger than the control circuit 111 of the standard storage drive 1 and various functions can be mounted. As described above, the high performance type storage drive 2 of the present embodiment can provide large storage capacity and high performance processing while having the same external dimensions as the standard type storage drive 1.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the external dimensions of the standard storage drive 1 and the high-performance storage drive 2 are made common so that they can be attached to the boxes 3 and 4, so that different types of storage drives may be mixed in the box. is there. However, when providing physical storage areas to logical volumes (or virtual volumes) in box units, it is not possible to obtain the performance as expected when different types of storage drives are mixed.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the type of storage drive and the type of communication interface mounted in each drive bay 31 are determined, and only the storage drive of the same type (a storage drive having the same communication interface) is identical in the same box. It is monitored to be attached and notified of the monitoring result. As a result, in the present embodiment, the types of storage drives (including the type of communication interface) can be made uniform in box units, so that performance degradation of the storage system can be suppressed in advance, and reliability can be improved.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. Those skilled in the art can make various additions and modifications within the scope of the present invention. Further, the features recited in the claims can be subordinated to other than that indicated in the claims.

1: Standard storage drive 2: High performance storage drive 3: Control box 4: Expansion box 5: Rack 10: Canister 11: board 20: drive carrier 21: board 31: drive bay , 110: flash memory, 111: control circuit, 112: cache memory, 210: flash memory, 211: control circuit, 212: cache memory

Claims (14)

A storage drive having the same external dimensions as a standard storage drive having a canister larger than a first substrate on which a first storage element is mounted,
A frame forming an available space corresponding to the space in the canister;
A second substrate provided on the frame to use the entire available space;
A second memory element and a predetermined circuit mounted on the entire second substrate;
A guide portion provided on the frame and for attaching the frame to a predetermined housing which detachably accommodates a storage drive;
Storage drive comprising: The predetermined circuit includes a communication function for communicating with another device, an overlapping data exclusion function for excluding overlapping data from the second storage element, a compression function for compressing data and storing the data in the second storage element, and data Among the encryption functions to be encrypted and stored in the second storage element, a circuit that implements at least one of the functions is included.
A storage drive according to claim 1. When the control box provided with a controller for controlling a storage drive is the predetermined housing, the predetermined circuit has a communication interface circuit for realizing at least the communication function,
The controller identifies the communication interface of the storage drive based on a signal output state of the communication interface circuit.
A storage drive according to claim 2. The communication interface of the storage drive is specified by detecting, as the signal output state, an output terminal to which a signal is output among a plurality of output terminals of the communication interface circuit by the controller.
A storage drive according to claim 3. The type of storage drive is specified by the controller reading predetermined management information from the storage element using the specified communication interface.
A storage drive according to claim 3. The predetermined housing is a drive box that accommodates a storage drive.
A storage drive according to claim 1. Can coexist with the standard storage drive in the predetermined housing
A storage drive according to claim 1. The second substrate is formed by connecting two sub substrates in a foldable manner,
The second storage element is mounted on a first sub substrate of the two sub substrates,
The other second storage element and the predetermined circuit are mounted on a second sub substrate of the two sub substrates.
A storage drive according to claim 1. A storage system comprising a plurality of storage drives,
It has a control box with a controller that controls each storage drive,
Each of the storage drives includes a standard storage drive having a canister larger than the first substrate on which the first storage element is mounted, and a predetermined storage drive having the same external dimensions as the standard storage drive. Yes,
In the control box, the standard storage drive and the predetermined storage drive can be mixedly provided.
The predetermined storage drive is
A frame having the same external dimensions as the canister;
A second substrate provided on the frame so as to use the entire available space corresponding to the space in the canister, which is an available space formed by the frame;
A second memory element mounted on the second substrate and a predetermined circuit;
A guide portion provided on the frame for detachably attaching to the control box;
Equipped with
Storage system. The predetermined circuit includes a communication function for communicating with another device, an overlapping data exclusion function for excluding overlapping data from the second storage element, a compression function for compressing data and storing the data in the second storage element, and data Among the encryption functions to be encrypted and stored in the second storage element, a circuit that implements at least one of the functions is included.
The storage system according to claim 9. In the standard storage drive provided in the control box, a first communication interface conversion circuit is provided in a space between the first substrate and the canister.
In the predetermined storage drive provided in the control box, a second communication interface conversion circuit is provided on the second substrate,
The storage system according to claim 9. The controller specifies the communication interface of the standard storage drive or the communication interface of the predetermined storage drive based on the signal output state of the first communication interface conversion circuit or the signal output state of the second communication interface conversion circuit. Do,
A storage system according to claim 11. A drive box in which the standard storage drive and the predetermined storage drive can be provided in combination, further comprising a drive box connected to the control box,
The control box controls both the storage drive in the control box and the storage drive in the drive box,
The guide unit detachably attaches the frame to the drive box.
The storage system according to claim 9. The controller outputs a message when the storage drive in the control box or the type of storage drive in the drive box is not unified for each box.
The storage system according to claim 13.

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