Managed drives of a storage node with different size drives in a fixed arithmetic relationship are organized into clusters of same size drives. Every drive is configured to have M*G same-size partitions, where M is a positive integer variable defined by the arithmetic relationship and G is the RAID group size. The storage capacity of all drives can be viewed as matrices of G+1 rows and M*G columns, and each matrix is composed of submatrices of G+1 rows and G columns. Diagonal spare partitions are allocated and distributed in the same pattern over groups of G columns of all matrices, for increasing partition index values. Members of RAID groups are vertically distributed such that the members of a given RAID group reside in a single partition index of a single cluster. When a drive fails, protection group members of the failed drive are rebuilt in order on spare partitions characterized by lowest partition indices for increasing drive numbers across multiple clusters. Consequently, drive access for rebuild is parallelized and latency is reduced.

Embodiments for managing unequal workloads between Network Shared Disks (NSD) in a networked computing environment by a processor. Additional space may be carved out from at least one of a plurality of NSDs in a cluster file system, upon detecting an unbalanced load between the plurality of NSDs, while maintaining a predetermined level of usage according to a performance profile of the plurality of NSDs.

Managed drives of a storage node with different size drives in a fixed arithmetic relationship are organized into clusters of same size drives. Every drive is configured to have M*G same-size partitions, where M is a positive integer variable defined by the arithmetic relationship and G is the RAID group size. The storage capacity of all drives can be viewed as matrices of G+1 rows and M*G columns, and each matrix is composed of submatrices of G+1 rows and G columns. Diagonal spare partitions are allocated and distributed in the same pattern over groups of G columns of all matrices, for increasing partition index values. Members of RAID groups are vertically distributed such that the members of a given RAID group reside in a single partition index of a single cluster. When a drive fails, protection group members of the failed drive are rebuilt in order on spare partitions characterized by lowest partition indices for increasing drive numbers across multiple clusters. Consequently, drive access for rebuild is parallelized and latency is reduced.

Embodiments for managing unequal workloads between Network Shared Disks (NSD) in a networked computing environment by a processor. Additional space may be carved out from at least one of a plurality of NSDs in a cluster file system, upon detecting an unbalanced load between the plurality of NSDs, while maintaining a predetermined level of usage according to a performance profile of the plurality of NSDs.

An information processing apparatus can prevent performance deterioration, and maintain fault tolerance, in a storage system having storage nodes of different capacities. The apparatus includes a data writing unit to divide received data into divided data, generate a parity data usable when re-configuring the received data having an error, and write divided data and parity data in storage nodes. The apparatus includes a relocation unit to assign a relocation position of the data based on a predetermined condition and store the data in the assigned storage nodes. The apparatus includes a data reading unit to read the divided data so as not to read parity data stored in the storage nodes by identifying the parity data.

Physical storage devices are configured as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID). As such, storage space of the physical storage devices is allocated to the RAID, and each physical storage device is part of the RAID. Where a portion of the storage space of the physical storage devices is not allocated to the RAID, this portion of the storage space is configured so that it is usable and is not wasted.

A storage device may include a storage medium configured to store data of an external device; and a storage controller configured to control an operation of the storage medium. The storage controller is configured to receive a storage request for the data and an external trust level of the data from the external device, determine an internal trust level of the data as one of a plurality of internal trust levels based on the external trust level in consideration of a status of the storage medium, group the data into unit data having an arbitrary size corresponding to the determined internal trust level, generate parity information corresponding to the determined internal trust level based on the grouped data, and control an operation of storing the grouped data and the parity information in the storage medium.

A storage device may include a storage medium configured to store data of an external device; and a storage controller configured to control an operation of the storage medium. The storage controller is configured to receive a storage request for the data and an external trust level of the data from the external device, determine an internal trust level of the data as one of a plurality of internal trust levels based on the external trust level in consideration of a status of the storage medium, group the data into unit data having an arbitrary size corresponding to the determined internal trust level, generate parity information corresponding to the determined internal trust level based on the grouped data, and control an operation of storing the grouped data and the parity information in the storage medium.

A storage device may include a storage medium configured to store data of an external device; and a storage controller configured to control an operation of the storage medium. The storage controller is configured to receive a storage request for the data and an external trust level of the data from the external device, determine an internal trust level of the data as one of a plurality of internal trust levels based on the external trust level in consideration of a status of the storage medium, group the data into unit data having an arbitrary size corresponding to the determined internal trust level, generate parity information corresponding to the determined internal trust level based on the grouped data, and control an operation of storing the grouped data and the parity information in the storage medium.