Enhancing performance-cost ratio of a primary storage adaptive data reduction system

Abstract

Data reduction in a storage system comprises determining attributes of data for storage in the storage system and determining expected data reduction effectiveness for the data based on said attributes. Said effectiveness indicates the benefit that data reduction is expected to provide for the data based on said attributes. The data reduction further comprises applying data reduction to the data based on the expected data reduction effectiveness and performance impact, to improve resource usage efficiency.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 determining attributes of data for storage in a storage system; and   determining a storage system configuration for the storage system based on the attributes of the data, wherein the storage system configuration reduces an amount of processing resources expended by the storage system while the storage system supports a usage function.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the usage function comprises data reduction. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein determining a storage system configuration based on the attributes of the data comprises determining expected effectiveness of data reduction for the data based on the attributes of the data. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein determining expected effectiveness of data reduction for the data based on the attributes of the data comprises:
 monitoring an internal state of the storage system, wherein the internal state is indicative of processor usage and data paths of the storage system; and   determining an amount of data reduction to perform based on the internal state of the storage system.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the processing resources expended include memory bandwidth. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the storage system configuration has increased storage attached to a controller subsystem of the storage system. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the attributes of the data comprise at least one of a size attribute of the data or a longevity attribute of the data. 
     
     
         8 . A system comprising a computer processor, a computer-readable hardware storage device, and program code embodied with the computer-readable hardware storage device for execution by the computer processor to implement a method comprising:
 determining attributes of data for storage in a storage system; and   determining a storage system configuration for the storage system based on the attributes of the data, wherein the storage system configuration reduces an amount of processing resources expended by the storage system while the storage system supports a usage function.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the usage function comprises data reduction. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein determining a storage system configuration based on the attributes of the data comprises determining expected effectiveness of data reduction for the data based on the attributes of the data. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein determining expected effectiveness of data reduction for the data based on the attributes of the data comprises:
 monitoring an internal state of the storage system, wherein the internal state is indicative of processor usage and data paths of the storage system; and   determining an amount of data reduction to perform based on the internal state of the storage system.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the processing resources expended include memory bandwidth. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the storage system configuration has increased storage attached to a controller subsystem of the storage system. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the attributes of the data comprise at least one of a size attribute of the data or a longevity attribute of the data. 
     
     
         15 . A computer program product comprising a computer-readable hardware storage device having program code embodied therewith, the program code being executable by a computer to implement a method comprising:
 determining attributes of data for storage in a storage system; and   determining a storage system configuration for the storage system based on the attributes of the data, wherein the storage system configuration reduces an amount of processing resources expended by the storage system while the storage system supports a usage function.   
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the usage function comprises data reduction. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 16 , wherein determining a storage system configuration based on the attributes of the data comprises determining expected effectiveness of data reduction for the data based on the attributes of the data. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , wherein determining expected effectiveness of data reduction for the data based on the attributes of the data comprises:
 monitoring an internal state of the storage system, wherein the internal state is indicative of processor usage and data paths of the storage system; and   determining an amount of data reduction to perform based on the internal state of the storage system.   
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the processing resources expended include memory bandwidth. 
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 19 , wherein the storage system configuration has increased storage attached to a controller subsystem of the storage system.