Abstract: Proactive traffic shaping is used to generate and transmit proactive QFULL messages that are selectively sent to hosts that are generating large numbers of IO operations with lower service levels in instances where a compute node is experiencing high IO volume. By sending proactive QFULL messages only to hosts that are sending IO operations with lower service levels, it is possible to cause the lower priority IO operations to be directed by the hosts to other compute nodes within the storage system, to thereby balance IO operations between compute nodes and enable higher priority IO operations to be serviced with lower latency. When a low priority IO operation arrives, a determination is made as to the depth of the queue. If the number of IO operations in the queue is above a threshold, and IOS are trending upward, a QFULL message is sent to the low priority IO initiator.

Abstract: One or more aspects of the present disclosure relate to dynamically selecting a storage array and corresponding input/output (IO) paths between a host and the storage array. In embodiments, a virtual storage volume (VSV) can be established for a host entity using one or more storage device portions from a plurality of storage arrays. In addition, IO servicing metric parameters can be dynamically measured. The servicing metric parameters can define metrics corresponding to the VSV's assigned ports on each of the storage arrays or network latency between the host and each of the plurality of storage arrays. Further, a primary storage array from the plurality of storage arrays can be selected based on the IO servicing metrics.