Patent ID: 6839817

Claim:
A method for managing requests in a disk array having a number of disks, the method comprising: associating priorities with respective disk access requests; working the disk access requests by the disks; determining a maximum priority for certain disk access requests received; comparing the priority of a new disk access request to the priority for the certain disk access requests; selecting between i) categorizing the new disk access request as a foreground disk access and ii) categorizing the new disk access request as a background disk access, responsive to the comparison; and selecting between i) working the new disk access request on at least one of the disks and ii) placing the new disk access request in a queue, responsive to the comparison, wherein such categorization of a new disk access request categorizes the new disk access request exclusively as a foreground disk access or exclusively as a background disk access so that such a disk access request is not categorized as both a foreground disk access and a background disk access.