METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DATA STORAGE USING SOLID STATE DRIVES

1 . A method for managing compliance by one or more applications with drive writes-per-day limits of solid-state drives, comprising:

determining a collective writes-per-day requirement of the one or more applications for execution on at least one processor having an interface through which two or more solid-state drives are configured to the at least one processor as a logical storage device;

determining a drive writes-per-day limit for each of the two or more solid-state drives; and

constructing a virtual cluster of the two or more solid-state drives as the logical storage device, wherein the virtual cluster has a cluster writes-per-day limit based, at least in part, on the determined drive writes-per-day limits and satisfies the collective writes-per-day requirement.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the collective writes-per-day requirement of the one or more applications comprises:

determining a writes-per-day requirement for each application of the one or more applications; and

summing the determined writes-per-day requirements.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the collective writes-per-day requirement of the one or more applications is based, at least in part, on a preconfigured level of over-capacity writes-per-day value.

4 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:

managing access by the at least one processor to the virtual cluster so that the drive writes-per-day limit of any one of the two or more solid-state drives is satisfied.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein managing access by the at least one processor comprises:

allocating a first application of the one or more applications to a first solid-state drive of the virtual cluster with a drive writes-per-day limit that is equal to or greater than a writes-per-day requirement of the first application.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein managing access by the at least one processor comprises:

distributing writes by the one or more applications across the two or more solid-state drives of the virtual cluster.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein managing access by the at least one processor comprises:

tracking writes-per-day activity of the one or more applications; and

adjusting the virtual cluster based, at least in part, on the tracked writes-per-day activity.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein adjusting the virtual cluster comprises:

adding a solid-state drive to the virtual cluster when the tracked writes-per-day activity exceeds the cluster writes-per-day limit.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein adjusting the virtual cluster comprises:

removing a solid-state drive from the virtual cluster when the tracked writes-per-day activity is less than the cluster writes-per-day limit.

10 . The method of claim 4 , wherein managing access by the at least one processor comprises:

allocating writes from at least one application of the one or more applications to at least two solid-state drives in the virtual cluster.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the at least two solid-state drives in the virtual cluster have different drive writes-per-day limits.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the cluster writes-per-day limit is at least equal to the collective writes-per-day requirement.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more solid-state drives comprise:

at least one physically attached solid-state drive and at least one network-distributed solid-state drive.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one network-distributed solid-state drive is accessed by the at least one processor through a first converged network and storage controller that is local to the at least one processor and communicates with a second converged network and storage controller to which the at least one network-distributed solid-state drive is locally attached.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein constructing the virtual cluster comprises:

reformatting at least one solid-state drive of the two or more solid-state drives to have a drive writes-per-day limit that is based, at least in part, on a drive writes-per-day limit of at least one other solid-state drive of the two or more solid-state drives.

16 . A system, comprising:

two or more solid-state drives;

at least one processor; and

an interface through which two or more solid-state drives are configured to the at least one processor as a logical storage device;

wherein the at least one processor is operative to:

determine a collective writes-per-day requirement of one or more applications for execution on the at least one processor;

determine a drive writes-per-day limit for each of the two or more solid-state drives; and

construct a virtual cluster of the two or more solid-state drives as the logical storage device, wherein the virtual cluster has a cluster writes-per-day limit based, at least in part, on the determined drive writes-per-day limits and satisfies the collective writes-per-day requirement.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein:

the at least one processor is further operative to determine a writes-per-day requirement for each application of the one or more applications; and

the collective writes-per-day requirement is based, at least in part, on a sum of the determined writes-per-day requirements.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the at least one processor is further operative to:

track writes-per-day activity of the one or more applications; and

adjust the virtual cluster based, at least in part, on the tracked writes-per-day activity.

19 . A method comprising:

determining a writes-per-day limit of a logical storage device accessible by at least one processor, the writes-per-day limit of the logical storage device based, at least in part, on drive write-per-day limits for each of two or more solid-state drives of the logical storage device;

determining a collective writes-per-day requirement for one or more applications for execution on the at least one processor; and

allocating a portion of the logical storage device to at least one of the one or more applications based, at least in part, on the collective writes-per-day requirement and a writes-per-day limit of the allocated portion of the logical storage device.

20 . The method of claim 19 further comprising:

managing access by the at least one processor to the logical storage device so that the drive writes-per-day limit of any solid-state drive in the allocated portion is satisfied.

21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein managing access by the at least one processor to the logical storage device comprises:

reconfiguring the logical storage device to satisfy the collective write-per-day requirement.

22 . The method of claim 21 , wherein reconfiguring the logical storage device includes at least one procedure selected from a list of procedures consisting of:

adding a solid-state drive to the logical storage device; or removing a solid-state drive from the logical storage device.

23 . The method of claim 20 , wherein managing access by the at least one processor to the logical storage device comprises:

redirecting a write load of an application of the one or more applications from a first solid-state drive of the two or more solid state drives to a second solid-state drive of the two or more solid state drives.

24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein redirecting a write load of an application of the one or more applications is based, at least in part, on a writes-per-day requirement of the application.

25 . The method of claim 24 , wherein redirecting a write load of an application of the one or more applications is further based, at least in part, on a write-per-day requirement of the one or more applications to which the second solid-state drive is allocated and on the drive write-per-day limit of the second solid-state drive.