Array storage system for returning an I/O complete signal to a virtual I/O daemon that is separated from software array driver and physical device driver

Claim 2

An array storage system, comprising: a plurality of drives for storing data; a physical device driver corresponding to each one of said plurality of drives; a software array driver module for receiving a system I/O request and translating said system I/O request into one or more virtual I/O requests, said virtual I/O request being provided to one or more of said physical device drivers; each one of said physical device drivers receiving a virtual I/O request operating to translate said received I/O request into a physical I/O request, said physical I/O request being provided to said drive corresponding to said one of said physical device drivers; a separate call-back module, different from said physical device drivers, for receiving physical I/O complete signals from said plurality of drives and translating said physical I/O complete signals into one or more virtual I/O complete signals corresponding to said one or more virtual I/O requests; and a separate virtual I/O daemon module, different from said software array driver module, for receiving said one or more virtual I/O complete signals from said call-back module and translating said received virtual I/O complete signals into a system I/O complete signal; wherein said one or more virtual I/O complete signals are communicated to said virtual I/O daemon module independently of said physical device drivers and said software array driver module.

Claim 3

The array storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said plurality of drives includes at least one drive for storing parity information; and virtual I/O requests directed to said parity drive are executed independently of virtual I/O requests directed to said data drives.

Claim 4

The array storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said plurality of drives includes at least one drive for storing parity information; and said virtual I/O daemon module generates said system I/O complete signal prior to receipt of virtual I/O complete signals corresponding to said virtual I/O requests directed to said parity drive.

Claim 5

The array storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said virtual I/O daemon module monitors the operational status of said drives and generates additional virtual I/O requests necessary to recreate data residing on a failed drive in response to a read I/O request, said additional virtual I/O requests being provided to said device driver.

Claim 6

The array system according to claim 4, wherein: said software array driver module and said virtual I/O daemon module include a hash table implementation to insure the integrity of data and parity during virtual I/O operations and array error recovery procedures.

Claim 7

The array system according to claim 5, wherein: each one of said virtual I/O requests accesses up to one cluster of data on one drive in said plurality of drives; and said hash table implementation determines a hash table entry for said cluster.

Claim 8

The array system according to claim 1, wherein: said array storage system is configured in accordance with RAID level 5; and said virtual I/O daemon module generates additional virtual I/O requests necessary to generate parity information in response to a write I/O request, said additional virtual I/O requests being provided to said device driver.

Claim 9

The array system according to claim 7, wherein: said virtual I/O daemon module generates said system I/O complete signal prior to receipt of virtual I/O complete signals corresponding to said additional virtual I/O requests necessary to generate parity information.

Claim 10

The array system according to claim 7, wherein: said software array driver module and said virtual I/O daemon module include a hash table implementation to insure the integrity of data and parity during virtual I/O operations.

Claim 11

The array system according to claim 9, wherein: each one of said virtual I/O requests accesses up to one cluster of data on one drive in said plurality of drives; and said hash table implementation determines a hash table entry for said cluster.

Claim 12

The array storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said array storage system includes a plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules capable of processing virtual jobs in parallel.

Claim 13

The array storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said array storage system is included within a multiprocessor computer system; and said array storage system includes a tunable number of virtual I/O daemon modules depending on the number of CPUs supported on the multiprocessor computer system, said virtual I/O daemon modules being capable of processing virtual jobs in parallel.

Claim 14

The data storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said plurality of data storage devices comprises a plurality of disk drives.

Claim 15

The data storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said plurality of data storage devices comprises a plurality of robotic media changer storage devices.

Claim 16

The data storage system according to claim 1, wherein: said plurality of data storage devices comprises a plurality of tape storage devices.

Claim 17

In a multiple processor data processing system that includes an I/O subsystem, a data storage system comprising: a plurality of disk drives; a physical device driver corresponding to each one of said plurality of disk drives; a software array driver module for receiving a system I/O request from the I/O subsystem and translating said system I/O request to one or more virtual I/O requests, said one or more virtual I/O requests being provided to one or more of said physical device drivers; each one of said physical device drivers receiving a virtual I/O request operating to translate said received virtual I/O request into a physical I/O request, said physical I/O request being provided to said disk drive corresponding to said one of said physical device drivers; and a plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules for communicating with said physical device drivers and said software array driver module wherein: said software array driver module and said plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules being operative with each of a selected one of a plurality of data storage configurations defined in a group that includes a number of RAID levels;. at least one or said virtual I/O daemon modules generating parity, associated with data storage, in parallel with a virtual I/O request from the I/O subsystem that is being processed using said software array driver module; at least one of said plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules operating in parallel to a first virtual I/O request being processed by said software array driver module to determine an occurrence of an error related to said first virtual I/O request and for processing an error recovery procedure based on the determined error.

Claim 18

In a multiple processor data processing system that includes an I/O subsystem, a data storage system comprising: a plurality of disk drives; a physical device driver corresponding to each one of said plurality of disk drives; a software array driver module for receiving a system I/O request from the I/O subsystem and translating said system I/O request to one or more virtual I/O requests, said one or more virtual I/O requests being provided to one or more of said physical device drivers; each one of said physical device drivers receiving a virtual I/O request operating to translate said received virtual I/O request into a physical I/O request, said physical I/O request being provided to said disk drive corresponding to said one of said physical device drivers; and a plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules for communicating with said physical device drivers and said software array driver module wherein: said software array driver module and said plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules being operative with each of a selected one of a plurality of data storage configurations defined in a group that includes a number of RAID levels;. at least one or said virtual I/O daemon modules generating parity, associated with data storage, in parallel with a virtual I/O request from the I/O subsystem that is being processed using said software array driver module; at least one of said plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules operating in parallel to a first virtual I/O request being processed by said software array driver module to determine an occurrence of an error related to said first virtual I/O request and for processing an error recovery procedure based on the determined error.

Claim 19

The data storage system according to claim 16, wherein: said plurality of virtual I/O daemon modules comprises a tunable number of virtual I/O daemons depending on the number of CPUs supported on the multiple processor data processing system.

Claim 20

The data storage system according to claim 16, wherein: said multiple processor data processing system employs a UNIX operating system; and said software array driver receives said system I/O request from a UNIX kernal I/O subsystem.

Claim 21

A data storage system comprising: a plurality of data storage devices; a physical device driver corresponding to each one of said data storage devices; a software array driver module for receiving a system I/O request and translating said system I/O request into one or more virtual I/O requests, said virtual I/O request being provided to one or more of said physical device drivers; each one of said physical device drivers receiving a virtual I/O request operating to translate said received virtual I/O request into a physical I/O request, said physical I/O request being provided to said disk drive corresponding to said one of said physical device drivers; a separate call-back module, different from said physical device drivers, for receiving physical I/O complete signals from said plurality of disk drives and translating said physical I/O complete signals into one or more virtual I/O complete signals corresponding to said one or more virtual I/O requests; and a separate virtual I/O daemon module., different from said software array driver module, for receiving said one or more virtual I/O complete signals from said call-back module and translating said received virtual I/O complete signals into a system I/O complete signal; wherein said one or more virtual I/O complete signals are communicated to said virtual I/O daemon module independently of said physical device drivers and said software array driver module.

Claim 22

A data storage system comprising: a plurality of data storage devices; a physical device driver corresponding to each one of said data storage devices; a software array driver module for receiving a system I/O request and translating said system I/O request into one or more virtual I/O requests, said virtual I/O request being provided to one or more of said physical device drivers; each one of said physical device drivers receiving a virtual I/O request operating to translate said received virtual I/O request into a physical I/O request, said physical I/O request being provided to said disk drive corresponding to said one of said physical device drivers; a separate call-back module, different from said physical device drivers, for receiving physical I/O complete signals from said plurality of disk drives and translating said physical I/O complete signals into one or more virtual I/O complete signals corresponding to said one or more virtual I/O requests; and a separate virtual I/O daemon module., different from said software array driver module, for receiving said one or more virtual I/O complete signals from said call-back module and translating said received virtual I/O complete signals into a system I/O complete signal; wherein said one or more virtual I/O complete signals are communicated to said virtual I/O daemon module independently of said physical device drivers and said software array driver module.

Claim 23

The data storage system according to claim 19, wherein: said plurality of data storage devices comprises a plurality of disk drives.

Claim 24

The data storage system according to claim 19, wherein: said plurality of data storage devices comprises a plurality of robotic media changer storage devices.

Claim 25

The data storage system according to claim 19, wherein: said plurality of data storage devices comprises a plurality of tape storage devices.