Patent ID: 7698517

Claim:
A method for managing data in a disk pool, comprising: presenting a common static namespace, the common static namespace providing access to all files in the disk pool via a header corresponding to each file, the disk pool comprising one or more low activity storage disks and one or more high activity storage disks that are strategically distributed through the disk pool to reduce overall ambient temperature of the disk pool and reduce locations of elevated temperature, the one or more low activity storage disks being maintained in a default sleep state and the one or more high activity storage disks being maintained in a default active state, each header retaining a presented common static namespace even as the file to which the header corresponds is moved within the disk pool between two or more storage disks within the disk pool; continuously collecting access statistics on the files to which access is provided by the common static namespace, the statistics comprising a number of times each file is accessed and a time between each such access; migrating one or more files within the disk pool such that files with lower frequency access statistics are stored on the one or more low activity storage disks and files with higher frequency access statistics are stored on the one or more high activity storage disks, thereby minimizing access times for more active files within the disk pool and maximizing an amount of time that the one or more low activity disks can be left in the sleep state; identifying a set of files stored in the disk pool, each of the files in the set having similar access statistics, determining a data storage size needed to store the set, and designating a sub pool of disks within the disk pool having a combined storage capacity equal to or greater than the data storage size for the set and a high or low activity level corresponding to the access statistics for the set; analyzing one or more operational parameters of each disk in the sub pool dynamically calculating when each disk will fail, the operational parameters comprising a frequency with which each disk is awakened from a sleep state; and repeating the migrating as the data storage size needed by the set changes with time such that the set is moved to one or more newly created disk sub pools with a combined capacity equal to or greater than the data storage size of the set, as the access statistics for the files in the set change with time, or as the analyzing indicates that one or more disks in the sub pool is predicted to fail within less than an acceptable period of time.