Patent ID: 7721157

Claim:
A data storage system comprising: a plurality of metadata server machines each configured to store metadata for a plurality of files that are stored in the system; a plurality of slice server machines configured to store slices of said files at locations, in the slice server machines, indicated by the metadata; a packet switching interconnect configured to communicatively couple the metadata and slice servers; a distributed file system configured to execute in the metadata and slice server machines, the file system to hide complexity of the data storage system from clients; and a storage device storing sequences of instructions which when executed by a processor cause monitoring a wear level of a hardware component of the data storage system and sending a notification in response to determining that the wear level has reached a predetermined level; wherein the wear level is based, at least in part, on an amount of usage of the hardware component and wherein the wear level is independent of detected failure of the hardware component; wherein the predetermined level is based at least in part on a predicted end of life for the hardware component; wherein the wear level corresponds to a number of power up to power down cycles of the hardware component.