International Business Machines Corporation
SELECTIVE USE OF GARBAGE COLLECTION DURING EXPANSION OF GEOMETRY ADDRESSABLE REGIONS OF A REDUNDANT ARRAY OF INDEPENDENT DRIVE (RAID) CONFIGURATION

Abstract:

A computer-implemented method for performing garbage collection in a data storage system having a RAID configuration according to one embodiment includes determining on which geometry addressable region of the RAID configuration extents of data are stored. The RAID configuration includes an old geometry addressable region and a new geometry addressable region. The method further includes determining an order for performing garbage collection on the extents of data. Extents of data determined to be stored on the old geometry addressable region are assigned a higher priority within the order than extents of data determined to be stored on the new geometry addressable region. Moreover, the method includes performing garbage collection on the data storage system according to the order for performing garbage collection.