Patent ID: 8458719

Claim:
A method for storage management in a data processing system having a plurality of storage devices with different performance attributes and a workload, said workload being associated with respective sets of data blocks to be stored in said plurality of storage devices, said method comprising the steps of: dynamically determining performance requirements of said workload, wherein the step of dynamically determining performance requirements of said workload includes converting an address space ID of a frame stored in a central storage to an importance and setting an advanced importance for the frame based on the importance, and wherein the frame stored in the central storage is to be stored in an auxiliary storage comprising one or more fast auxiliary storage devices and one or more slow auxiliary storage devices; dynamically determining performance attributes of said storage devices, wherein the step of dynamically determining performance attributes of said storage devices includes building an allowed usage table for the one or more fast auxiliary storage devices, and wherein the allowed usage table contains a plurality of allowed fast auxiliary storage usage entries, each associated with one of a plurality of levels of advanced importance; and allocating data blocks to said storage devices depending on the performance requirements of the associated workload and the performance attributes of the storage devices, wherein the step of allocating data blocks to said storage devices includes comparing a current fast auxiliary storage usage and an allowed fast auxiliary storage usage entry contained in the allowed usage table associated with a level of advanced importance corresponding to the advanced importance set for the frame and, if the current fast auxiliary storage usage is less than the allowed fast auxiliary storage usage entry, allocating the frame to the one or more fast auxiliary storage devices.