Abstract: There is disclosed techniques for use managing data storage. In one embodiment, endurance values are generated in connection with a plurality of solid state drives (SSDs). Each endurance value for an SSD indicating an estimated number of write operations that may be performed on the SSD before the SSD wears out and requires replacement. Additionally, storage space is reserved on one or more of the SSDs such that an endurance level associated with the endurance value of the SSD will have an inverse relationship with the amount of storage space reserved on the SSD.

Abstract: There is disclosed herein techniques for use in managing data storage. In one embodiment, the techniques comprise defining, for each of a plurality of data storage drives, one or more areas on a data storage drive such that each area on the data storage drive corresponds to an area associated with similar I/O characteristics on the other data storage drives. The techniques also comprise selecting two or more drive extents from corresponding areas on different data storage drives of the plurality of data storage drives. The techniques further comprise forming a RAID extent based on the selected drive extents.

Abstract: A mechanism is provided for identifying data that can be removed from a cache memory by determining a memory region of the cache that is less recently accessed than other memory regions in the cache. A tree data structure is used to store a mapping of storage volume data locations to cache data locations. A counter reflecting recency of access to the cache data location is associated with each entry. The counter is incremented, along with counters associated with keys leading to a node including the entry, with each access to the associated cache memory location, while other counters in each affected node are decremented. Advantages of the tree data structure are used to efficiently locate a cache memory location associated with a counter reflecting a less recently accessed state in order to make that cache memory location available for storage of recently accessed data from the storage volume.