Patent ID: 7130961
Filing Date: 2006-10-31
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A storage system comprising: a plurality of clusters; and a communication path which connects each of the clusters, wherein each cluster comprises: a disk controller, and a plurality of disk drives, wherein the disk controller of each cluster comprises: a disk interface which connects to the disk drives of the cluster, a cache memory, and a control memory which has stored therein a cache management table, wherein said cache management table indicates relationships between identifications of disk controllers, addresses of said disk drives connected to the disk controllers, and addresses in the cache memories at which data of said disk drives are stored, wherein a first disk controller stores information indicating relationships between identifications of disk controllers, addresses of disk drives connected to the first disk controller, and addresses in cache memories at which data of said disk drives are stored of a first duster in said cache management table before receiving a write request from a host computer, wherein, when the first disk controller receives from a host computer a write request which requests writing of updated data for updating data stored in disk drives of a second disk controller of a second cluster, the first disk controller checks whether data to be updated by the updated data is stored in the cache memory of the second disk controller by referring to the cache management table without sending a request to the second disk controller to obtain information regarding the status of the cache memory of the second disk controller, and if the data to be updated is not stored in the cache memory of the second disk controller, the first disk controller sends the write request to the second disk controller via the communication path, and wherein, in response to the write request from the first disk controller and when the data to be updated is not stored in the cache memory of the second disk controller, the second disk controller updates the data to be updated which is stored in the disk drives of the second disk controller by writing the updated data in the disk drives of the second disk controller via the disk interface based on the write request.