Patent ID: 8732396

Claim:
A direct-attached storage (DAS) system comprising: an array of magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs); an array of solid state disks (SSDs); and at least first and second DAS controllers connected to the array of HDDs and to the SSD array, each DAS controller having a central processing unit (CPU), a local memory device, and an input/output (I/O) interface device, wherein each of the DAS controllers is configured to perform a caching algorithm that causes data received in the respective DAS controller to be temporarily stored in a cache memory of the SSD array and subsequently stored in one or more of the HDDs of the array of HDDs, wherein the data has metadata associated therewith, and wherein the caching algorithms performed by the respective DAS controllers cause the data to be stored in blocks in the SSD array, each block including a data integrity field (DIF), and wherein the respective DAS controllers cause the metadata associated with the data received in the respective DAS controller to be stored in at least one of the DIFs associated with at least one of the blocks in which the associated data is stored in the SSD array.