Granted Patent B2

US 12,737,112 · App. 18/938,502 · Granted Sep 15, 2026

Inventors: Asimuddin Kazi (Naperville, IL); Patrick Aaron Tamborski (Chicago, IL); Shikha Shree (Chicago, IL); Stephen Garward (Grayslake, IL)

Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation

G06F3/0607H04L61/3005

Abstract

Claims (44)

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying an upgrade to be made to a storage system, wherein the upgrade involves replacing a failed or failing drive of the storage system;

receiving, at a management device from a plurality of storage devices of the storage system, namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices, the namespace information being shared among the plurality of storage devices;

determining, by the management device, whether a namespace gap exists based at least in part on the namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices;

determining, by the management device, whether a namespace gap conflict exists with respect to the upgrade, wherein a namespace gap conflict is determined to exist when it is determined that the namespace gap interferes with replacing the failed or failing drive of the storage system; and

responsive to determining that the namespace gap conflicts with the upgrade, implementing the upgrade while reducing the namespace gap conflict.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, by the management device, the namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the namespace information is stored in a database communicatively coupled to the management device.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the namespace gap exists comprises looping over each stripe of the plurality of storage devices to identify a gap that results in a vault operating in one of read only, alert, or write only mode.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the namespace gap is determined to exist responsive to determining that a threshold number of memory devices of one of the plurality of storage devices are unavailable.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the threshold number of memory devices is a read threshold.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the threshold number of memory devices is a write threshold.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether implementing the upgrade results in unavailability of the storage system; and

responsive to determining that implementing the upgrade results in unavailability of the storage system, preventing additional upgrades to the storage system.

9 . A computer system comprising:

a processor set;

one or more computer-readable storage media; and

program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media to cause the processor set to perform operations comprising:

identifying an upgrade to be made to a storage system, wherein the upgrade involves replacing a failed or failing drive of the storage system;

receiving, at a management device from a plurality of storage devices of the storage system, namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices, the namespace information being shared among the plurality of storage devices;

determining, by the management device, whether a namespace gap exists based at least in part on the namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices;

determining, by the management device, whether a namespace gap conflict exists with respect to the upgrade, wherein a namespace gap conflict is determined to exist when it is determined that the namespace gap interferes with replacing the failed or failing drive of the storage system; and

responsive to determining that the namespace gap conflicts with the upgrade, implementing the upgrade while reducing the namespace gap conflict.

10 . The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise storing, by the management device, the namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices.

11 . The computer system of claim 10 , wherein the namespace information is stored in a database communicatively coupled to the management device.

12 . The computer system of claim 9 , wherein determining whether the namespace gap exists comprises looping over each stripe of the plurality of storage devices to identify a gap that results in a vault operating in one of read only, alert, or write only mode.

13 . The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the namespace gap is determined to exist responsive to determining that a threshold number of memory devices of one of the plurality of storage devices are unavailable.

14 . The computer system of claim 13 , wherein the threshold number of memory devices is a read threshold.

15 . The computer system of claim 13 , wherein the threshold number of memory devices is a write threshold.

16 . The computer system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether implementing the upgrade results in unavailability of the storage system; and

responsive to determining that implementing the upgrade results in unavailability of the storage system, preventing additional upgrades to the storage system.

17 . A computer program product comprising:

one or more computer-readable storage media; and

program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media to perform operations comprising:

identifying an upgrade to be made to a storage system, wherein the upgrade involves replacing a failed or failing drive of the storage system;

receiving, at a management device from a plurality of storage devices of the storage system, namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices, the namespace information being shared among the plurality of storage devices;

determining, by the management device, whether a namespace gap exists based at least in part on the namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices;

determining, by the management device, whether a namespace gap conflict exists with respect to the upgrade, wherein a namespace gap conflict is determined to exist when it is determined that the namespace gap interferes with replacing the failed or failing drive of the storage system; and

responsive to determining that the namespace gap conflicts with the upgrade, implementing the upgrade while reducing the namespace gap conflict.

18 . The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise storing, by the management device, the namespace information for each of the plurality of storage devices.

19 . The computer program product of claim 18 , wherein the namespace information is stored in a database communicatively coupled to the management device.

20 . The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein determining whether the namespace gap exists comprises looping over each stripe of the plurality of storage devices to identify a gap that results in a vault operating in one of read only, alert, or write only mode.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (93)