Patent Document ID: 9727260
Application ID: 14809032
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for a storage system having a plurality of nodes, each node being an independent device for storing data, the data organized into a plurality of bins, and each bin assigned to one of the nodes, the method comprising: determining a candidate bin migration, the candidate bin migration specified by a candidate bin map which reassigns a first one of the bins from a first one of the nodes to a second one of the nodes; quantitatively evaluating the candidate bin map according to a potential improvement in capacity balancing and data striping of the storage system, wherein the potential improvement is determined by a single metric which is based on the capacity balancing and the data striping of the storage system, wherein quantitatively evaluating the candidate bin map comprises: (i) computing an optimal relative allotment based on respective capacities of the plurality of nodes; and (ii) for at least one subrange of the candidate bin map, determining a deviation between node representations in the subrange and node representations in the optimal relative allotment; and if the evaluation is satisfactory, performing the candidate bin migration by reassigning the first bin from the first node to the second node; otherwise, not performing the candidate bin migration.