TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to a data storage system.

BACKGROUND

Data storage systems often include numerous data storage devices stored within a cabinet or rack. In some examples of online data storage devices, all of the data storage devices are continuously communicatively coupled to a host device, such that the host device may access data from any or all of the data storage devices at any given time. In such examples, the data storage devices may generate large amounts of heat and consume enormous amounts of power (e.g., powering and cooling the data storage devices). In some cold or offline data storage examples, data storage devices (e.g., tapes) are stored such that the data storage devices must be retrieved and loaded into another device to read and write data. In such examples, the time to data may take tens of seconds to multiple minutes. The computational storage landscape spans a vast range of archival space with incumbent options for storage ranging from so-called ‘glacial’ or ‘cold’ storage (e.g., microfiche, tape, or optical storage) to ‘hot’ storage (e.g., a continuously online hard drive or flash storage). Time to data (TTD) decreases as the migration from glacial to warm storage is made but there is a corresponding increase in cost with such a migration. For example, decreasing TTD typically increases power consumption.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure describes a data storage system configured to store a plurality of data storage devices and a movable carriage configured to selectively couple to various subsets of plurality of data storage devices. In one example, the data storage system includes a housing configured to store a plurality of data storage magazines in rows. Each data storage magazine is configured to hold or support a plurality of data storage devices. The housing also includes a movable carriage that selectively couples a host device to the data storage devices of a particular data storage magazine. In contrast to examples where all of the data storage devices are continuously coupled to a host device, selectively coupling various data storage devices to the host device may reduce the amount of power consumed by the data storage devices and may reduce the amount of heat generated by the data storage devices, which may reduce the energy and cost of cooling the data storage devices. Utilizing a movable carriage to selectively couple to the various data storage devices may decrease the time to data relative to some data storage techniques (e.g., cold storage systems, such as tape archival systems) while consuming less power than some other data storage techniques (e.g., always online data storage systems).

In one example, an archival data storage system housing includes a plurality of data storage magazines, each data storage magazine of the plurality of data storage magazines configured to hold a respective plurality of data storage devices. A movable carriage is disposed within the housing and is configured to selective couple a set of data storage devices held by a particular data storage magazine to a host device. A motor is disposed within the housing and is configured to move the movable carriage within the housing to enable the movable carriage to communicatively couple the set of data storage devices held by the particular data storage magazine to the host device.

These and other features and aspects of various examples may be understood in view of the following detailed discussion and accompanying drawings.

