Patent ID: 8296544
Filing Date: 2012-10-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A capacity monitoring method used for a computer system, the computer system comprising: the storage system comprising: the physical disk including a storage area belonging to a storage pool, the capacity monitoring method comprising: providing, by the storage system, to the application computer at least one volume to which data is required to be written from the application computer; executing, by the application computer, at least one application program which requests to read/write data from/to the volume; allocating to the volume, by one of the management computer and the storage system, a part or entirety of the storage area belonging to the storage pool; monitoring, by the management computer, a used capacity of the storage pool corresponding to a capacity of a storage area which is allocated to the volume within the storage area belonging to the storage pool, and an unused capacity of the storage pool corresponding to a capacity of a storage area which is not allocated to the volume within the storage area belonging to the storage pool; judging, by the management computer, whether or not a storage capacity required for operating the application computer for a predetermined time period is present in the storage pool based upon a prediction value of a capacity consumption speed of the storage pool to be monitored, and the unused capacity of the storage pool to be monitored; executing, by the management computer, a predetermined process operation in the case where the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool, monitoring, by one of the management computer and the storage system, in the predetermined process operation, a used capacity of the application program corresponding to the capacity of the storage area allocated to the volume required to be written by the application program for each of the application programs; calculating, by one of the management computer and the storage system, a storage capacity which is required for operating the application program for a remaining operation time threshold value designated as a relative time, and comparing a total amount of each of the calculated storage capacities with an unused capacity of the storage pool; and if the total amount of each of the calculated storage capacities is more than the unused capacity of the storage pool, calculating, by one of the management and the storage system, a storage capacity which is required for operating the application program until an operation target expiration which shows as an absolute time and is calculated by adding the remaining operation time threshold value to a current time, changing to a below-threshold operation condition, and comparing a total amount of each of the calculated storage capacities with an unused capacity of the storage pool.