Abstract: One or more aspects of the present disclosure relate to service level input/output scheduling to control central processing unit (CPU) utilization. Input/output (I/O) operations are processed with one or more of a first CPU pool and a second CPU pool of two or more CPU pools. The second CPU pool processes I/O operations that are determined to stall any of the CPU cores.

Abstract: Tiers of compression algorithms may be determined using compression information collected regarding compression ratios achieved for data sets using compression algorithms. Each tier may meet specified criteria regarding expected compression ratios achieved for a specified portion or number of data sets. Compression algorithms of each tier may be implemented by a different hardware device that may include hardware accelerators for the algorithms of the tier. Different tiers, and thus different hardware devices, achieve different levels of compression. A recommendation may be provided using compression information collected, such as from one of the hosts, regarding which hardware device to use for compression. The recommendation may be to purchase a license to use or whether to purchase a particular hardware device for compression. Compression information may be collected by a host that issues tagged I/Os providing a hint regarding what compression algorithm to use for the particular I/O operation data.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for adaptive look-ahead configuration for data prefetching. One method comprises, in response to a request for a data item in a storage system: obtaining a size of a look-ahead window for the request based on one of multiple available caching policies; and moving the requested data item and additional data items within the look-ahead window to the cache memory when the requested data item and/or the additional data items within the look-ahead window are not in the cache memory. The multiple available caching policies comprise a caching policy based on characteristics of an input/output workload of the storage system, or a portion thereof; and/or a caching policy based on an input/output workload of at least a portion of the storage system within a prior predefined time window. The look-ahead window size may be varied over time.

Abstract: A virtual memory mapping table includes snapshot instance identifiers of data volumes stored in memory regions of persistent memory. If a write operation occurs to an occupied memory region of persistent memory, a snapshot instance identifier of the write operation is compared with the snapshot instance identifier of the data stored at the memory region of persistent memory. If the snapshot instance identifiers are the same, the write operation overwrites the current version of the data at the memory region. If the snapshot instance identifiers are not the same, the write operation causes the current version of the data that is stored at the memory region of persistent memory to be written to a snapshot repository, and the new data is then written to the memory region of persistent memory. A new cache flush instruction is introduced that causes replication of existing data in persistent memory to the snapshot repository.

Abstract: Application discovery from access patterns is disclosed. Access histories from multiple servers are collected and stored at a warehouse, which may be part of a data protection system. A time series analysis is performed on the access history to identify consistency groups and applications from the perspective of devices and storage arrays. Data protection operations such as backup operations can then be performed on the basis of devices or storage in storage arrays or other arrangements that pertain to specific consistency groups or to specific applications.

Abstract: Recommending configuration changes may include: receiving a decision tree comprising levels of nodes, wherein the decision tree includes leaf nodes each representing a different one of a plurality of hardware configurations, wherein a first leaf represents a first hardware configuration and the first leaf node is associated with a set of I/O workload features denoting a I/O workload of a first system having the first hardware configuration, wherein the set of I/O workload features is associated with an action from the first leaf node to a second leaf node, wherein the second leaf node represents a second hardware configuration and the action represents a hardware configuration change made to transition from the first to the second hardware configuration; and performing processing that determines, using the decision tree, a recommendation for a hardware configuration change for a second system having the first hardware configuration represented by the first leaf node.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure measure a state of a storage group within a storage array. The embodiments also increase or decrease a compression ratio corresponding to input/output (I/O) operations on the storage group based on a target data reduction ratio (DRR) of the storage array, an expected performance envelope, and a compressibility factor of the storage group.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to load balancing application processing between storage platforms. Input/output (I/O) workloads can be anticipated during one or more time-windows. Each I/O workload can comprise one or more I/O operations corresponding to one or more applications. Processing I/O operations of each application can be dynamically migrated to one or more storage platforms of a plurality of storage platforms based on the anticipated workload.

Abstract: A host server in a server cluster has a memory allocator that creates a dedicated host application data cache in storage class memory. A background routine destages host application data from the dedicated cache in accordance with a destaging plan. For example, a newly written extent may be destaged based on aging. All extents may be flushed from the dedicated cache following host server reboot. All extents associated with a particular production volume may be flushed from the dedicated cache in response to a sync message from a storage array.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to one or more memory management techniques. In embodiments, one or more regions of storage class memory (SCM) of a storage array is provisioned as expanded global memory. The one or more regions can correspond to SCM persistent cache memory regions. The storage array's global memory and expanded global memory can be used to execute one or more storage-related services connected to servicing (e.g., executing) an input/output (IO) operation.

Abstract: Different storage platforms and different applications generate different types of traffic. Separate learning processes are trained using live IO operations from different types of reference workloads. The reference workloads are based on multiple types of applications executing in multiple types of environments. Example applications may include Oracle, SAP, SQL, etc. Example environments may include finance/banking, retail, on-line transaction processing, healthcare, etc. Once the learning processes have been trained, trained model checkpoints describing the trained learning processes are stored in a reference workload repository. The trained model checkpoints are used in a testing environment to enable a test server to create a test model configured to generate simulated test IO operations to be applied to a storage system. The generated test IO operations simulate the workload from an intended application and environment where the storage system will be used.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to traffic class management of NVMe (non-volatile memory express) traffic. One or more input/output (I/O) operations are received at a device interface coupled to one or more storage devices of a storage array. A service level (SL) corresponding to each of the one or more I/O operations is determined. Each of the one or more I/O operations is transmitted to the one or storage devices over a virtual channel of a set of virtual channels based on the determined SL corresponding to each of the one or more I/O operations.

Abstract: A host server in a server cluster has a memory allocator that creates a dedicated host application data cache in storage class memory. A background routine destages host application data from the dedicated cache in accordance with a destaging plan. For example, a newly written extent may be destaged based on aging. All extents may be flushed from the dedicated cache following host server reboot. All extents associated with a particular production volume may be flushed from the dedicated cache in response to a sync message from a storage array.

Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure relate to controlling storage array resource consumption. In embodiments, a storage array performance metric can be measured at a host device side of one or more storage area networks (SANs). Further, a resource consumption of at least one component of the storage array can be controlled based on the performance metric.

Abstract: Providing automated targetless snapshots for storage volumes includes estimating storage space needed for a new set of the snapshots based on an amount of expected change of data on the storage volumes, deleting current snapshots to free up an amount of space corresponding to estimated storage space for the new set of the snapshots, and creating the new set of the snapshots. The current snapshots may be selected for deletion based on creation date of the snapshots. Snapshots with an oldest creation data may be deleted. The storage volumes may be provided on a storage system. The storage system may show storage space used by the snapshots as unallocated. Storage space used by the snapshots may be managed by a storage resource pool. The storage resource pool may convert storage space shown as unallocated into allocated storage space in response to snapshots provided therein being converted into accessible snapshots.

Abstract: Non-volatile Random Access Memory (NVR) on a storage system may be dynamically converted between use as temporary memory in a memory context and use as persistent memory in a storage context. NVR (e.g., embodied as DIMM) may be utilized in a hybrid capacity, where some of the NVR is used as memory and some of the NVR is used as storage, and where NVR memory is converted to memory as needed, dynamically as I/O is being processed using the NVR. A host system may be directly connected to an internal switching fabric of the data storage system without an intervening component of the storage system (e.g., a director) controlling access of the host system to the internal fabric or to the memory. The host system may provision and use the NVR as storage by directly communicating with the NVR over the internal fabric, for example, using RDMA.

Abstract: Recommending configuration changes may include: receiving a decision tree comprising levels of nodes, wherein the decision tree includes leaf nodes each representing a different one of a plurality of hardware configurations, wherein a first leaf represents a first hardware configuration and the first leaf node is associated with a set of I/O workload features denoting a I/O workload of a first system having the first hardware configuration, wherein the set of I/O workload features is associated with an action from the first leaf node to a second leaf node, wherein the second leaf node represents a second hardware configuration and the action represents a hardware configuration change made to transition from the first to the second hardware configuration; and performing processing that determines, using the decision tree, a recommendation for a hardware configuration change for a second system having the first hardware configuration represented by the first leaf node.

Abstract: The over-provisioning (OP) of a physical storage device (PSD) may be increased, and the useful life of the PSD increased, by converting uncompressed data stored on the PSD to compressed data. It may be determined that increasing the useful life of the PSD, and the data reduction resulting from the compression, outweigh the benefit of faster I/O response times if the data remains uncompressed. A first portion of the PSD may be initially reserved for compression. A second portion of the PSD may store compressed data. It may be determined whether it is desirable to increase the OP of the PSD to thereby reduce the effective write rate on the PSD. If compression is determined to be desirable, the dynamic portion may be compressed, thereby reducing the amount of storage space consumed by the data, and freeing up storage space that can be used by the PSD for OP.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to autonomous data protection. One or more input/output (I/O) streams can be received by one or more storage devices. One or more snapshots of each storage device can be obtained. One or more anomalies can be identified based on a change rate corresponding to each storage device's memory allocated to store user data included in the I/O streams.

Abstract: Bandwidth on a front-end port of a storage system may be managed. A plurality of logical storage units may be divided into a plurality of priority groups according to a predefined priority. For a first priority group of the plurality of priority groups having a highest priority, a first forecasted average amount of bandwidth of the first port to be consumed by the logical storage units of the first priority group during a first temporal interval may be determined. Based on the first forecasted average amount, a first reserve amount of bandwidth on the first port to be reserved for use by the logical storage units of the first priority group during the first temporal interval may be determined. The first reserve amount of bandwidth on the first port for use by the logical storage units of the first priority group during the first temporal interval may be reserved.