Patent ID: 8924676

Claim:
A method of redistributing files stored on a set of storage devices, the method comprising: receiving, by controlling circuitry within a controller, a load balancing tolerance value which identifies a target difference between a load on a most-loaded storage device and a load on a least-loaded storage device of the set of storage devices, a load on a storage device representing an amount of consumed storage space on the storage device; generating, by the controlling circuitry, a file transfer plan based on (i) a file size of each file stored on the set of storage devices, (ii) a load on each storage device of the set of storage devices and (iii) the load balancing tolerance value; and transferring, by the controlling circuitry, files between storage devices according to the file transfer plan to redistribute the files stored on the set of storage devices; wherein the load balancing tolerance value is greater than zero; and wherein the target difference is a number specified by a user representing a maximum difference tolerable to the user.