Biased sampling methodology for wear leveling

1. A system comprising:

a memory device; and

a processing device, coupled to the memory device, the processing device to:

sample first data units from a set of data units of the memory device, wherein the first data units comprise a subset of the set of data units;

sort the first data units that were sampled from the set of data units into a first order based on a wear metric associated with the first data units, wherein the wear metric is indicative of a level of physical wear of the first data units;

responsive to sorting the first data units, determine an initial data unit from the first data units as a first candidate data unit based on the wear metric associated with the first data units; and

perform a wear leveling operation in view of the first candidate data unit.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first data units are sampled from the set of data units of the memory device using a biased sampling process that increases a probability that particular data units of the set of data units are sampled based on one or more characteristics associated with the particular data units.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more characteristics that increase the probability that the particular data units of the set of data units are sampled comprise a frequency at which a memory operation is performed on the particular data units.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more characteristics that increase the probability that the particular data units of the set of data units are sampled comprise data locality of the particular data units.

5. The system of claim 1 , the processing device further to:

select one or more subsequent data units from the first order of the first data units, wherein the one or more subsequent data units are selected to be part of a group of data units from which a second candidate data unit is selected.

6. The system of claim 5 , the processing device further to:

sample second data units from the set of data units of the memory device;

sort the group of data units in a second order based on the wear metric associated with the group of data units, wherein the group of data units comprise the second data units and the one or more subsequent data units from the first order of the first data units; and

responsive to sorting the group of data units in the second order, select an initial data unit from the second order of the group of the data units as a second candidate data unit on which to perform the wear leveling operation.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first candidate data unit has a highest wear metric of the first data units, and wherein to perform the wear leveling operation in view of the first candidate data unit, the processing device is further to:

rewrite data of the first candidate data unit having the highest wear metric to another data unit having a lower wear metric than the first candidate data unit.

8. The system of claim 1 , the processing device further to:

record the first candidate data unit as an entry of a plurality of entries in a record;

sort the plurality of entries of the record based on the wear metric; and

perform the wear leveling operation using a first entry and a last entry of the sorted entries of the record.

9. The system of claim 1 , the processing device further to:

determine the wear leveling operation is to be performed based on a number of memory operations performed on behalf of a host system.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the wear metric comprises a write count associated with the first data units.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first data units are sorted in a first order from highest write count to lowest write count, and wherein the initial data unit selected as the first candidate data unit has the highest write count.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the wear metric comprises a combination of the write count and a read count associated with the first data units.

13. A method, comprising:

sampling, by a processing device, first data units from a set of data units of a memory device, wherein the first data units comprise a subset of the set of data units;

sorting the first data units that were sampled from the set of data units into a first order based on a wear metric associated with the first data units, wherein the wear metric is indicative of a level of physical wear of the first data units;

responsive to sorting the first data units, determining an initial data unit from the first data units as a first candidate data unit based on the wear metric associated with the first data units, wherein the wear metric is indicative of a level of physical wear of the first data units; and

perform a wear leveling operation in view of the first candidate data unit.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the first data units are sampled from the set of data units of the memory device using a biased sampling process that increases a probability that particular data units of the set of data units are sampled based on one or more characteristics associated with the particular data units.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

selecting one or more subsequent data units from the first order of the first data units, wherein the one or more subsequent data units are selected to be part of a group of data units from which a second candidate data unit is selected.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

sampling second data units from the set of data units of the memory device;

sorting the group of data units in a second order based on a wear metric associated with the group of data units, wherein the group of data units comprise the second data units and the one or more subsequent data units from the first order of the first data units; and

responsive to sorting the group of data units in the second order, selecting an initial data unit from the second order of the group of the data units as a second candidate data unit on which to perform the wear leveling operation.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, responsive to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

sampling, by the processing device, first data units from a set of data units of a memory device using a biased sampling process that increases a probability of sampling particular data units of the set of data units with a higher wear metric, wherein a wear metric is indicative of a level of physical wear of the first data units;

sorting the first data units that were sampled from the set of data units in a first order based on the wear metric associated with the first data units; and

responsive to sorting the first data units in the first order, selecting an initial data unit from the first order of the first data units as a first candidate data unit on which to perform a wear leveling operation.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , the operations further comprising:

selecting one or more subsequent data units from the first order of the first data units, wherein the one or more subsequent data units are selected to be part of a group of data units from which a second candidate data unit is selected.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 , the operations further comprising:

sampling second data units from the set of data units of the memory device;

sorting the group of data units in a second order based on a wear metric associated with the group of data units, wherein the group of data units comprise the second data units and the one or more subsequent data units from the first order of the first data units; and

responsive to sorting the group of data units in the second order, selecting an initial data unit from the second order of the group of the data units as a second candidate data unit on which to perform the wear leveling operation.