Patent ID: 7457925
Filing Date: 2008-11-25
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A storage control method comprising the steps of: referring to resource information relating to the usage condition of at least one hardware resource from among one or more storage control devices connected communicably to at least one of a plurality of storage devices; specifying an unused part of said hardware resource from said resource information; allocating a storage virtual computer, which serves as a virtual computer to which all or a part of said specified unused part is allocated, to at least one of said one or more storage control devices; referring to host information, which is information expressing a performance level of each host device of a plurality of host devices, and referring to storage device information, which is information expressing a performance level of each storage device of said plurality of storage devices; specifying a plurality of combinations of said host device and said storage device based on said performance level of each host device and said performance level of each storage device, specified from said host information and said storage device information; attaching an order of precedence to each of said plurality of combinations based on said performance level of each host device and said performance level of each storage device; selecting a combination from one or more combinations comprising a certain host device based on said order of precedence of each of said one or more combinations, and allocating said selected combination to said certain host device; receiving, by a storage virtual computer capable of accessing the storage device included in said allocated combination, an access request from said certain host device, and accessing said storage device included in said allocated combination in accordance with said received access request; referring to communication path information expressing the length of a communication path between each of said plurality of host devices and each of said plurality of storage devices; specifying, from said communication path information, a communication path length which corresponds to each of said plurality of combinations; attaching an order of precedence to each of said plurality of combinations based on said performance level of each host device, said performance level of each storage device, and said specified communication path length of each combination; attaching a priority value to each of said plurality of combinations based on said order of precedence of each of said plurality of combinations and a weighting value corresponding to said performance level; and selecting a combination from said one or more combinations comprising said certain host device based on said priority value of each of said one or more combinations, and allocating said selected combination to said certain host device, wherein said one or more storage control devices comprise a first storage control device and a second storage control device, wherein said plurality of storage devices comprises a first storage connected communicably to said first storage control device, and a second storage connected communicably to said second storage control device, wherein when a first storage virtual computer set in said first storage control device is capable of accessing a first logical volume set in said first storage, said first storage virtual computer is moved or copied into said second storage control device, and said first logical volume is moved or copied into said second storage, wherein, when a predetermined event occurs, said first storage virtual computer is moved or copied into said second storage control device, and said first logical volume is moved or copied into said second storage, in accordance with predetermined policy information, for each application of said first storage virtual computer, wherein said predetermined policy information expresses a policy relating to whether said first storage virtual computer is moved or copied into said second storage control device and whether said first logical volume is moved or copied into said second storage, and wherein said predetermined policy information comprises an indication of whether a disaster recovery service is to be applied, an indication of whether a copying service is to be applied, an indication of whether a clustering service is to be applied, and an indication of whether a storage service is to be applied.