[Not Applicable]
[Not Applicable]
As a user adds additional applications onto his data processing or computing device, he may need to increase the amount of data storage capacity in order to efficiently execute these applications. The user may incorporate additional data storage capacity in the form of one or more additional hard disk drives in order to increase data storage capacity. In many instances, the user may spend time performing a data storage capacity upgrade himself. Furthermore, the time involved, by the user, to add, replace, and reconfigure one or more additional hard disk drives may result in inconvenience and frustration to the user. In other instances, the user may resort to hiring one or more service technicians to perform the upgrade. However, the labor cost for performing the upgrade may be undesirable.
The limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.
Aspects of the invention incorporate a method and system of automatically reconfiguring or resizing the data storage capacity of a data storage device when one or more hard disk drives are added to the data storage device, substantially shown and described in connection with at least one of the following figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.
These and other advantages, aspects, and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of illustrated embodiments, thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.
Aspects of the invention incorporate a method and system of automatically reconfiguring or resizing the data storage capacity of a data storage device when one or more data storage drives, such as hard disk drives, are added to the data storage device. Various aspects of the present invention facilitate expansion of existing capacity of a data storage device by way of easily configuring the additional storage space provided by the one or more hard disk drives. The storage capacity provided by the addition of the one or more hard disk drives may be used to create one or more data pools and may be represented using one or more data pool directories. The one or more data pools may be used to create one or more shares and the shares may be represented using one or more shared subdirectories. The shares may be allocated for use by one or more groups of authorized users. Various aspects of the present invention may be found as one or more hard disk drives that are collectively incorporated into a networked data storage device. The networked data storage device may be communicatively coupled to one or more data processing or computing devices by way of using one or more switching devices in the network. The one or more data processing devices may utilize the data storage device as a centralized data storage facility. The data storage device, hereinafter, may be referred to as a network attached storage device (NAS).
In a representative embodiment, the data storage device may comprise one or more data storage drives, such as hard disk drives, or any other type of media drive. The data storage device may comprise a combination of different types of data storage drives. A data storage drive may comprise any type of media capable of storing data. The media types may comprise magnetic, optical, flash memory, and the like.
Hereinafter, the term “hard disk drive” alternatively may refer to a data storage drive or any drive or component comprising a media used to store data. In a representative embodiment, one or more data storage drives or hard disk drives may be incorporated into a data storage device. The data storage device comprises the one or more data storage drives or hard disk drives. In a representative embodiment, the data storage device facilitates the incorporation of the one or more additional data storage drives or hard disk drives.
In a representative embodiment, a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) allows a user to effectuate a data storage expansion. The GUI facilitates pointing, clicking, and/or dragging one or more visual objects (or identifiers) that are displayed by the GUI. The pointing, clicking, and dragging, performed by a mouse, for example, may serve to increase or decrease one or more variables/parameters associated with the one or more visual objects displayed by the GUI. The one or more variables/parameters may comprise the amount of space allocated to a particular data pool, for example. For example, a data pool corresponds to a pooling of disk space using disk space provided by one or more hard disk drives. The pooling of data storage capacity results in the efficient utilization of hard drive space provided by the one or more hard disk drives. For example, one or more available portions of unallocated disk drive space may be concatenated to form a data pool. Hence, a pool may be considered a logical drive. The one or more variables/parameters may comprise hard disk drive space associated with one or more levels of RAID, unused hard disk drive space in a pool, JBOD space, and the like. In one embodiment, modification of the one or more visual objects displayed by the GUI adjusts or resizes one or more data pools of the one or more hard disk drives. When the data pools are resized, one or more portions of the one or more hard disk drives may be resized and subsequently grouped or concatenated, to form one or more data pools. Each of these data pools may be partitioned or organized into one or more shares in which an authorized user may only access the one or more shares. The one or more shares may comprise non-overlapping portions of data storage capacity in the one or more hard disk drives of the NAS. Authorization may occur when a user inputs one or more passwords using the GUI, for example. Aspects of the present invention allow the user to input quantities or values associated with the one or more variables/parameters into one or more fields of the GUI. Various aspects of the present invention provide one or more “pull-down” fields in the GUI, in which a user may select one of several different selections associated with the one or more variables. The GUI may allow a user to provide one or more selections by way of one or more selectable “radio buttons” so as to effectuate the creation of data pools, the deletion of data pools, and the renaming of existing data pools. Various aspects of the present invention allow a user to re-partition or resize one or more hard disk drives by way of using the GUI. The re-partitioning involves the adjustment of the one or more hard disk drive's used space, free space, or unallocated disk space, which may be performed when one or more additional drives are added to the NAS.
Referring to
In a representative embodiment, the processor 240 within the NASoC (204 or 300) executes software or firmware residing within the RAM 208 and/or flash memory 212 when the NAS 200 is booted up or powered up. Execution of the software may generate the graphical user interface (GUI) previously described. Execution of the software may cause the NAS 200 to acts as an http (hypertext transfer protocol) server to serve one or more pages to a user's workstation (e.g., client workstation), facilitating the display of the desired graphical user interface (GUI). As such, the http server serves files to the user's workstation. The software that is executed by the processor 240 may comprise a configuration file that is accessed and recognized by an operating system, such as a Microsoft Windows operating system, such that it may be viewed and run by the exemplary Windows Explorer application. The configuration file may be accessible before a user completes an initialization procedure on the NAS 200. The initialization process may involve creating one or more authentication passwords that are used in the future for accessing the configuration file. The Microsoft Windows operating system may comprise Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98, Pocket PC, or the like. When the configuration file is executed, by clicking on its filename as displayed by the Windows Explorer application, a user interface is displayed to a user's data processing device. The user interface may comprise one or more tabs that point to one or more pages that contain one or more fields, such that a user may input one or more parameters or values. Thereafter, a user may provide one or more inputs to initialize or configure the NAS 200. The inputs may comprise the following: a name for the NAS 200, an administration username, an administration password, one or more alternate security actuators, time, time zone, network time server internet protocol addresses, drive or data pool names, RAID type indicators, drive pool share names, share access passwords, and size of data pools. The data pool names, RAID type indicators, data pool share names, and share access passwords are exemplary parameters used in the management of the hard disk drives within the NAS 200. With respect to one or more aspects of the present invention, the previously mentioned parameters may be stored in the RAM 208 or flash memory 212 of the NAS 200, as previously referenced in
The graphical user interfaces illustrated in
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While the invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from its scope. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
This application makes reference to and claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/562,831, entitled “AUTOMATIC EXPANSION OF HARD DISK DRIVE CAPACITY IN A STORAGE DEVICE”, filed on Apr. 15, 2004, the complete subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application is related to and/or makes reference to: U.S. application Ser. No. 11/049,905, filed Feb. 3, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/087,136, filed Mar. 22, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/107,017, filed Apr. 15, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/107,224, filed Apr. 15, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/102,441, filed Apr. 8, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/101,734, filed Apr. 8, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/096,167, filed Mar. 30, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/049,772, filed Feb. 3, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/049,798, filed Feb. 3, 2005;U.S. application Ser. No. 11/086,189, filed Mar. 22, 2005; andU.S. application Ser. No. 11/049,768, filed Feb. 3, 2005. The above stated applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
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