Multi-partition RAID: A new method for improving performance of disk arrays under failure

Abstract

Disk arrays have been proposed as a way of improving I/O performance by using parallelism among multiple disks. This paper focuses, however, on improving the performance of disk array systems in the presence of disk failures, which are significant for applications where continuous operation is of concern. Although several approaches have been explored, the goals of achieving high performance and storage efficiency often conflict. In this paper, we propose a new variation of RAID organization, multi-partition RAID (mP-RAID), to improve storage efficiency and reduce performance degradation when disk failures occur. The idea is to recognize that frequently demanded data dominate the degree of the performance degradation when disk failures occur. mP-RAID subdivides a disk array into several partitions associated with different block organizations. Based upon data popularity, we assign data to appropriate partitions so that high performance and better storage efficiency can be achieved simultaneously.