Virtual Disk Drive System and Method

The European Patent Office has published a patent from Compellent Technologies entitled: "Virtual Disk Drive System and Method".             
    
Publication number: EP2085868 (A2)
Publication date: 2009-08-05
Inventors: Soran Philip E., Guider John P., Klemm Michael J., Aszmann Lawrence E.
Applicant: Compellent Technologies (US)
    
Abstract of the patent:
A disk drive system and method capable of dynamically allocating data is provided. The disk drive system may include a RAID subsystem having a pool of storage, for example a page pool of storage that maintains a free list of RAIDs, or a matrix of disk storage blocks that maintain a null list of RAIDs, and a disk manager having at least one disk storage system controller. The RAID subsystem and disk manager dynamically allocate data across the pool of storage and a plurality of disk drives based on RAID-to-disk mapping. The RAID subsystem and disk manager determine whether additional disk drives are required, and a notification is sent if the additional disk drives are required. Dynamic data allocation and data progression allow a user to acquire a disk drive later in time when it is needed.; Dynamic data allocation also allows efficient data storage of snapshots/point-in-time copies of virtual volume pool of storage, instant data replay and data instant fusion for data backup, recovery etc., remote data storage, and data progression, etc.