Methods and apparatus for structured partitioning of management information

A SAN management agent performs hierarchical based partitioning. Partitions expressed as a hierarchy of related manageable entities allow partitioning based on the relations in the hierarchy. Related manageable entities often trigger updates to database elements common to both of the related manageable entities. The related manageable entities often take the form of a hierarchy (tree) indicative of these relations. Grouping the updates affecting related manageable entities together in the same partition allows the database elements affected by the related updates to occur from a single retrieval of the common database element. By partitioning updates of related manageable entities together, the common database elements are more likely to be paged or cached in memory at the time the update processing updates the common database element. Accordingly, tree-based partitioning identifies relations between manageable entities, and designates related manageable entities by traversing the relations.

BACKGROUND

In a storage area network (SAN), a SAN management application monitors and manages manageable entities in the SAN. The manageable entities include storage arrays, connectivity devices, and hosts. Typically, software components known as agents execute on the hosts for gathering, reporting, and monitoring the manageable entities in the SAN. The manageable entities are responsive to the agents for reporting various status metrics back to the agents and receiving control information from the agents. A management server executes the SAN management application, and oversees the agents. The management server is responsive to a console having a graphical user interface (GUI) for receiving and displaying operator parameters with a SAN operator.

The SAN is therefore an interconnection of manageable entities operative to provide mass data storage and retrieval services to a user community. In the SAN, various data collection and reporting operations occur via the agents and the manageable entities the agents monitor. The data collection and reporting operations gather management information about the SAN. The management information is indicative of operating parameters, including but not limited to physical device usage, logical device allocation across physical devices, redundancy usage (mirroring, shadowing and RAID arrangements), available storage, used storage and archive/backup arrangements. Other types and usage of management information is employable by those skilled in the art of SAN management and control.

SUMMARY

In a storage area network, an interconnection of manageable entities, including storage arrays, connectivity devices (e.g. switches) and host computers (hosts), provide data storage and retrieval services to a user community. Conventional storage area networks accumulate management information corresponding to ongoing activity in the SAN, typically from processing associated with the storage and retrieval services. The storage area network (SAN) therefore includes a set of storage arrays for storing user data, and an interconnection of manageable entities for retrieving and updating the data in response to user requests. The management information typically includes performance and usage metrics indicative of utilization levels, available storage, and usage demands, for example, and may be employed for tracking usage, planning upgrades, forecasting usage trends and distributing demand loads. The SAN gathers the management information from the agents, which are typically implemented as software processes deployed on various hosts throughout the network.

The agents are therefore responsible for monitoring and managing the various manageable entities in the SAN, and are responsive to the SAN management application for reporting management information and receiving administrative commands. Among the manageable entities in the SAN, the storage arrays include a plurality of storage devices, such as disk drives, each of which is itself a manageable entity and operable to generate management information. In a particular storage array, therefore, there are a plurality of storage devices (or storage objects) that generate management information gatherable by the agents. A manageable entity such as a storage array may have other included manageable entities, such as storage devices. The manageable entities included in a so-called “top-level” manageable entity, such as a storage array, define a hierarchy of relations between manageable entities. Therefore, a single top level manageable entity may include many other manageable entities, each potentially causing management information concerning updates to be generated. In a large SAN, the management information gathered by the agents can be substantial, even in a single storage array.

Accordingly, configurations of the invention are based, in part, on the observation that substantial management information gathered by an agent may be cumbersome to process. Often the related data triggers updates to common database elements. However, the updates to the related data may be processed at a later time, triggering additional fetches of the affected database element. Therefore, it is beneficial to group updates pertaining to related manageable entities together, thereby minimizing fetches of common elements by updating common elements in the same fetch, or retrieval operation.

In the SAN, mechanisms for efficiently processing large data sets of management information include change sets and partitioning, discussed further in the following copending U.S. patent applications. Change sets and partitions are employed to handle sparse updates and avoid time and resource consuming full data sets, as discussed further in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/675,205, filed Sep. 30, 2003, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING AND PROCESSING CHANGES TO MANAGEMENT INFORMATION”, and copending patent application Ser. No. 11/393,110, filed concurrently, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PERSISTING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION CHANGES”, both incorporated herein by reference in entirety. Conventional partitioning is discussed further in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/095,421, filed Mar. 31, 2005, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION”, also incorporated herein by reference in entirety. However, it should be noted that change set processing and partitioning are independent and may be performed independently or in conjunction. Change set processing is an efficient mechanism to process sparse updates, and partitioning effectively handles large information sets. Conventional partitioning identifies a subset, or partition, of a larger data set, and labels the partition accordingly (e.g. 1 of 10, 2 of 10, etc.). The store process may then process incremental partitions, rather than an entire data set, at a particular time to avoid overburdening the store process. Such conventional partitions may be based, for example, on an exemplary or typical data set size, and subdivide the data set accordingly into a particular number of partitions.

Configurations herein substantially overcome configuration issues associated with fixed or static number of partitions by performing hierarchical, or tree-based, partitioning. Related manageable entities often trigger updates to database elements common to both of the related manageable entities. The related manageable entities often take the form of a hierarchy, such as a tree structure, indicative of these relations. Grouping the updates, or management information records, affecting related manageable entities together in the same partition allows the database elements affected by the related updates to occur from a single retrieval of the common database element. By partitioning updates of related manageable entities together, the common database elements are more likely to be paged or cached in memory at the time when the update processing updates the common database element. Accordingly, tree-based partitioning identifies relations between manageable entities, and designates related manageable entities by traversing the relations. A partitioner groups a set of related entities into a partition by selecting a hierarchical subset, or “branch,” of the tree, shown graphically inFIG. 4below. Various tree traversal mechanisms may be employed, with the intent of partitioning dependent, or “child” tree nodes with the parent, as per the relations. Partitioning in this manner makes it unlikely to split updates of related entities across different partitions, then requiring an additional fetch of a database element common to both updates.

In further detail, the method of organizing updates to management information in a storage area network as disclosed in exemplary configurations herein includes identifying update information including a set of updates to management information, in which the update information pertains to manageable entities in a storage area network, and in which each update in the set of updates corresponds to at least one manageable entity. The management information transmitted from an agent to the management application is typically in the form of update records for propagation to the managed object database (MODB134). The management application includes one or more store processes for processing the partitioned management information (i.e. updates) and writing the updates to the MODB134. A partitioner identifies groups of manageable entities corresponding to the set of updates, and groups the set of updates into partitions corresponding to the identified groups of manageable entities, such that each partition includes updates affecting database elements corresponding to the manageable entities in a respective identified group. The partitioner effectively performs segregation on the management information to partition the data.

In the exemplary configuration, the partitioner groups updates in the set of updates into a partition of related updates, in which related updates having changes (i.e. database writes to particular database elements) in common with other updates in the partition such that the related updates result in revisions to common database elements. Accordingly, the grouping identifies relations between manageable entities, such that the relations correspond to a likelihood of corresponding updates between the manageable entities included in the relations. Identifying the groups of manageable entities further includes determining relations between manageable entities, in which the related manageable entities have a common database element.

In the exemplary configuration, the relations define a hierarchy of related manageable entities, in which the hierarchy defines relations in a parent/child format. Grouping into partitions further involves identifying child manageable entities of a particular parent manageable entity for inclusion in a particular partition, and including each of the child manageable entities with the parent manageable entity in the particular partition. In particular arrangements, identifying groups of manageable entities includes identifying a top level manageable entity, such that the top level manageable entity is operable to include other manageable entities and is independent of others of top level entities (i.e. is not included in any higher level manageable entities), and traversing relations between the identified top level manageable entity and included manageable entities, such that the relations are indicative of managed objects likely to incur updates from updates to the top level managed object. The grouping may include a plurality of top level managed objects, in which the plurality of top level managed objects define a set of storage devices in a storage array. Therefore, identifying the partitions further includes a dependency (i.e. parent-child) traversal of the hierarchy defined by the relations.

In a particular configuration, updating related manageable entities includes performing updates corresponding to a first manageable entity, such that the update affects a database element, and in which the first manageable entity has relations to a second manageable entity and a third manageable entity. The partitioner performs updates corresponding to the second manageable entity, and performs updates to the third manageable entity without refetching the database element (common database element) that also corresponds to the first manageable entity.

In this manner, updates resulting in a database write corresponding to a particular manageable entity result in an update to a related manageable entity, as defined by the relations, in which the update affects a common database element, such that the updates pertaining to the related manageable entity are operable to be effected in the same database update (i.e. fetch).

It should be noted that change set processing, as discussed in the copending application cited above, is independent from partitioning as discussed herein, is employable in conjunction with, or separate from, such change set processing.

Alternate configurations of the invention include a multiprogramming or multiprocessing computerized device such as a workstation, handheld or laptop computer or dedicated computing device or the like configured with software and/or circuitry (e.g., a processor as summarized above) to process any or all of the method operations disclosed herein as embodiments of the invention. Still other embodiments of the invention include software programs such as a Java Virtual Machine and/or an operating system that can operate alone or in conjunction with each other with a multiprocessing computerized device to perform the method embodiment steps and operations summarized above and disclosed in detail below. One such embodiment comprises a computer program product that has a computer-readable medium including computer program logic encoded thereon that, when performed in a multiprocessing computerized device having a coupling of a memory and a processor, programs the processor to perform the operations disclosed herein as embodiments of the invention to carry out data access requests. Such arrangements of the invention are typically provided as software, code and/or other data (e.g., data structures) arranged or encoded on a computer readable medium such as an optical medium (e.g., CD-ROM), floppy or hard disk or other medium such as firmware or microcode in one or more ROM or RAM or PROM chips, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). The software or firmware or other such configurations can be installed onto the computerized device (e.g., during operating system or execution environment installation) to cause the computerized device to perform the techniques explained herein as embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Configurations herein substantially overcome configuration issues associated with a fixed or static number of partitions by performing hierarchical, or tree-based partitioning that groups related updates together according to relations in the hierarchy to minimize multiple fetches of affected database elements. Related manageable entities often trigger updates to database elements common to both of the related manageable entities. The related manageable entities often take the form of a hierarchy, such as a tree structure indicative of these relations. Grouping the updates affecting related manageable entities together in the same partition allows the database elements affected by the related updates to occur during the same retrieval of the common database element. By partitioning updates, or management information records, of related manageable entities together, the common database elements are more likely to be paged or cached in memory at the time the update processing updates the common database element. Accordingly, tree-based partitioning identifies relations between manageable entities, and designates related manageable entities by traversing the relations. A partitioner groups a set of related entities into a partition by selecting a “branch,” of the tree. Partitioning in this manner makes it unlikely to split updates of related entities across different partitions, requiring an additional fetch of a database element common to both updates.

For example, in a typical storage array, the storage devices (i.e. disk drives) in the storage array connect to ports on front-end adaptors (FE adaptors). A front end (FE) mapping defines the relations between the ports on the FE adaptors and the storage devices to which they connect. Conventional grouping may, for example, include updates, or management information records, pertaining to FE adaptors in one partition, and updates pertaining to front end mappings to storage devices in another, since storage devices are at a different level of the tree. Such processing may result in the database element including the front end mapping to be retrieved first when the partition including FE adaptors is processed, and again when the partition including updates to storage devices is processed. In contrast, configurations herein partition updates pertaining to a FE mapping in the same partition as updates pertaining to the storage devices associated with that FE mapping, allowing the front end mapping to be updated during a single fetch of the corresponding database element. Viewed graphically, the processing techniques discussed further below result in processing according to a traversal following the dependencies of the relation tree of manageable entities, rather than processing following the siblings according to the type, size, or name of the manageable entity.

In a storage area network, management information is gathered by techniques such as those disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/393,110 entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PERSISTING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION CHANGES,” cited above. In the exemplary configuration, the storage arrays are Symmetrix storage arrays, marketed commercially by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass., assignee of the present application.FIG. 1is a context diagram of an exemplary managed information environment100suitable for use with such an exemplary configuration. Referring toFIG. 1, the environment includes a storage area network110interconnecting manageable entities111. The manageable entities111include storage arrays112-1. . .112-N (112, generally), for storing user data, and host computers114-1. . .114-2(114generally) for transporting user data via the SAN110and gathering management information140about the SAN. In particular, the host computers114(hosts) connect to particular storage arrays112and execute agents116-1. . .116-5(116generally) for gathering management information. The agents116are software processes operable to gather particular types of data from specific devices, such as the storage arrays112, to which they connect. In the exemplary configuration, as indicated above, the storage arrays112may be Symmetrix storage arrays, marketed commercially by EMC corporation. Alternate configurations may include other devices such as different type of storage arrays or manageable entities111.

The agents116gather management information140for transmission to a management application132executing on a server130, accessible via a network113. The management information140is typically in the form of update records (updates), and includes administrative data pertaining to the storage arrays112, such as usage metrics (available, allocated and free storage), access frequency and volume, user access trends, and other data pertinent to performance, availability and capacity of the respective storage arrays112. A managed object database134connects to the server130for storing the management information140, and a user console134also connects to the server130for invoking the management application132to provide reports and other output from the stored management information140. In this manner, a SAN110operator may employ the console136to gather reports concerning the health and performance of particular storage arrays12over time from the management information140stored in the managed object database134.

FIG. 2is a flowchart of database partitioning in the environment ofFIG. 1. Referring toFIGS. 1 and 2, the method of organizing updates to management information140in a storage area network as disclosed herein involves, at step200, identifying update information including a set of updates to management information140, in which the update information pertains to manageable entities111in a storage area network110, such that each update in the set of updates corresponds to at least one manageable entity. Thus, the updates to the management information140take the form of a set of updates, or database modifications (writes). Each update is attributable to a particular manageable entity111, such as a storage device (disk drive), port, or front end (FE) adaptor, as will become apparent in the discussion below. The agent116identifies groups of manageable entities111corresponding to the set of updates, as shown at step201, such that each manageable entity group includes updates that affect database elements pertaining to manageable entities111in that group. Therefore, the agent116groups the set of updates into partitions (144,FIG. 3below) corresponding to the identified groups of manageable entities111, such that each partition144includes updates affecting database elements corresponding to the manageable entities111in a respective identified group, as depicted at step202. As will now be discussed further below, the manageable entity groups (180,FIG. 4) include related manageable entities111, as determined by a hierarchy of relations between the manageable entities111.

FIG. 3illustrates an example configuration of an agent116and a store process138gathering management information140from a storage array112in accordance with a particular exemplary embodiment used illustratively herein for transmitting partitions144. Referring toFIGS. 1 and 3, the exemplary configuration includes a plurality of agents116-N on a plurality of hosts114-N gathering management information140for each of a plurality of storage arrays112. Generally, therefore, each storage array112is responsive to at least one agent116for gathering management information140. The management application132has one or more store processes138-1.138-N (138generally) for receiving gathered management information140from the agents116. As indicated in the copending applications cited above, it is beneficial to meter or throttle the management information140sent from the agents116to avoid burdening or queuing excessive amounts of management information140at the store process138. It is further beneficial to group, or partition, the updates in the management information140according to the database elements (i.e. records, fields, or pages) they update, thus minimizing the required fetches of the database elements by the store processes138.

Accordingly, configurations herein format and transmit the management information in a series of partitions144-1. . .144-N according to a hierarchy of relations between the manageable entities111to which the management information140corresponds. In the exemplary arrangement, the management information140includes updates to a particular storage device150within a storage array112. Each partition144includes a subset of updates, or records, included in a set of management information140, typically representative of the entire storage array112. Therefore, agents116examine the quantity, or size, of the management information140, and determine whether to send a single data set142or a series of partitions144, each including updates representing a subset of the management information140.

Each of the storage arrays112from which agents116gather management information includes a plurality of storage devices150-1. . .150-N (150generally), which in the exemplary configuration are disk drives. Alternatively, other storage objects may be employed as storage devices, such as non-mechanical memory arrangements (e.g. flash memory, or other solid state devices). The management information140includes updates corresponding to a particular storage device150. Accordingly, the updates are organized according to the storage device150to which they correspond. A partitioner118in the agent116groups the updates according to a subset, or partition144, of storage devices150including the updates to that subset of storage devices150. The agents116transmit the updates corresponding to a particular subset of storage devices150as a partition144. The partitioner118subdivides the storage devices150in the storage array112into groups of manageable entities150, each including updates corresponding to the related manageable entities150(i.e. the manageable entities in the group).

The related manageable entities111are such that they will frequently trigger complementary updates concerning other related manageable entities111, and therefore related manageable entities will cause updates to the same, or common, database elements. Grouping updates of related manageable entities in the same partition144allows the common database element190(FIG. 4) to be fetched once and processed with that partition144. In an exemplary configuration, now discussed with respect toFIG. 4, a hierarchical tree102of manageable entities112,150and170denotes relations172between related manageable entities111. Sets of related manageable entities form manageable entity groups180upon which updates pertaining to manageable entities111in the manageable entity group are partitioned. The partitioner118may employ alternate grouping mechanisms to denote the storage devices included in a partition, such as an enumerated list of device IDs, for example.

FIG. 4. is a partition grouping according to a hierarchy102of relations172of the storage array ofFIG. 3. Referring toFIG. 4, the exemplary storage array112-1includes storage devices (150) A0, B0, C0and D0having front end (FE) mappings170to ports. In a storage array112, front end adaptors (not specifically shown) each have a number of ports. The storage devices150connect to the ports. The interconnections between the ports and the storage devices150, therefore, occur via front end mappings170, and define relations172between the respective manageable entities111, specifically front end (FE) mappings170and storage devices150, in the exemplary configuration shown. Only the first column A0. . . D0(FIG. 3) of storage devices150is shown for illustrative purposes, as the number of relations172may rapidly become substantial. The exemplary configuration shows the partitions144derived from groups180of manageable entities based on a manageable entity111at a higher hierarchy level (i.e. storage devices150) and related manageable entities111at a lower level (i.e. FE mappings170). The relations172from an storage device150to the respective FE mapping170define a managed entity grouping180-1. . .180-3(180generally), including related manageable entities111for inclusion in a partition144. In the example shown, A0has relations172to FE mappings FEA0-FEA3, forming a partition144defined by manageable entity grouping180-1. Similarly, storage devices B0and C0have relations172to FE mappings FEB0. . . FEB2and FEC0. . . FEC2(170), respectively, and define manageable entity grouping180-2, forming another partition142. Manageable entity grouping180-3includes D0and FE mappings FED0. . . FED3(170). It should be noted that the groups180may be derived from a range of manageable entities, such as group180-2, derived from storage arrays B0. . . C0. Such range based partitioning is discussed further in copending U.S. patent application entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PARTITIONING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION” (Ser. No. 11/393,641), filed concurrently, incorporated herein by reference.

In the example shown, database element190includes management information140pertaining to both FEA1, shown by arrow194, and storage device A0, shown by arrow192. Accordingly, updates to the front end mapping relation172′ between FEA1and A0, for example, such as a port change (each FE Adaptor has a number of ports, thus allowing for multiple FE mappings170per storage array150) triggers updates related to both FEA1and A0. Arranging a partition144including manageable entity group180-1ensures that database element190is fetched once, and incurs processing with respect to FEA1and A0updates while stored in memory, rather then requiring multiple fetches of element190if updates pertaining to FEA1and A0fell into different partitions144. The relations172presented by front end mappings170is exemplary; other relations172between manageable entities111may be employed for identifying manageable entity groups180and partitioning accordingly.

FIGS. 5-8are a flowchart of partitioning144in the configuration ofFIG. 3. The flowchart depicts an exemplary operations flow of configurations discussed herein. Not all configurations need necessarily perform all steps and refinements to steps indicated in the flowchart. Further, these steps are intended to convey a logical, illustrative expression of the operations performed, and not necessarily an optimized detail of computing functions which a set of programmed logic instructions (i.e. source code) may implement. Referring toFIGS. 3-8, the partitioner118processes partitions144according to the hierarchy102of relations172shown inFIG. 4by identifying update information including a set of updates to management information, in which the update information pertains to manageable entities111in the storage area network110. Each update in the set of updates corresponds to at least one manageable entity111, as depicted at step300. This includes, in the exemplary configuration, employing a storage array112in a SAN110, identifying a set of updates indicative of update information in a storage array112, in which the storage array112includes a plurality of storage objects (i.e. disk drives), as depicted at step301. The partitioner118identifies groups180of manageable entities111corresponding to the identified set of updates, as disclosed at step302. The exemplary storage array112, which is itself a manageable entity111, includes storage devices150, front end (FE) adaptors160, and ports on the FE adaptors160(not specifically shown), each of which is also a manageable entity111. In the exemplary SAN110context, the manageable entities111are managed objects that are responsive to the management application132. The storage array112may also be considered a top level manageable entity, because it includes other manageable entities.

The partitioner118groups the manageable entities111, such that the grouping includes a plurality of top level managed objects (i.e. the storage array112), such that the plurality of top level managed objects define a set of storage devices150included in storage array112, as depicted at step303. The partitioner118identifies the groups180of manageable entities111by identifying a top level manageable entity (storage array112, in the exemplary arrangement), in which the top level manageable entity111is operable to include other manageable entities111and is independent of others of top level manageable entities, as depicted at step304. Since the top level is independent, it does not have direct relations to other storage arrays112, and therefore any number of top level manageable entities may be included in a manageable entity group180. For the top level manageable entities111, the partitioner118traverses relations172between the identified top level manageable entity112and included manageable entities (i.e. storage devices150), such that the relations172are indicative of manageable entities likely to incur updates from updates to the top level manageable entities, as shown at step305. Similarly, the forwarding engines160may be considered top level manageable entities with respect to the storage devices150they serve. The relations172define a hierarchy102of related manageable entities, as depicted at step306, such that the hierarchy defines relations in a parent/child format, as shown inFIG. 4. The partitioner118identifies child manageable entities111of a particular parent manageable entity111for inclusion in a particular partition144, as shown at step307, by including the children of one or more top level manageable entities111in a manageable entity group180.

Once identifying the top level manageable entities111for inclusion in a manageable entity group180, therefore, identifying the partitions144includes a depth-first traversal of the hierarchy102defined by the relations172, as depicted at step308. The grouping identifies relations172between manageable entities (storage arrays112and storage devices150, in the exemplary configuration), such that the relations172correspond to a likelihood of corresponding updates between the manageable entities111included in the relations172, as depicted at step309. In other words, the partitions144need not be rigidly associated with particular database elements190; rather, placing related entities in the same partition144increases the likelihood that the common database element190will be in memory or in a cache at the time of a successive update. Accordingly, identifying the groups of manageable entities180further includes determining relations172between manageable entities, such that related manageable entities have a common database element190, as disclosed at step310. The partitioner118therefore determines related updates according to the SAN hierarchy102of manageable entities111, as depicted at step311. The SAN hierarchy102, in the exemplary arrangement, includes mappings of FE adaptors160to storage devices150(i.e. so called “front end mappings”) in which the number of storage devices150is substantially larger than the number of adaptors160, as depicted at step312. Since the number of storage devices150may be large, conventional grouping according to device type makes it more likely that upon processing updates pertaining to all of the storage arrays112, database elements190pertaining to front end mappings170are likely to have been purged from main memory and cache areas, and therefore require refetching. Thus, the partitioner118includes each of the child manageable entities with the parent manageable entity in the particular partition144, as shown at step313. A check is performed, at step314, to determine if there are additional manageable entity groups180for enumeration as a partition144, and control reverts to step303accordingly.

For each manageable entity group180, the partitioner118groups the set of updates into partitions144corresponding to the identified groups of manageable entities180, such that each partition144includes updates affecting database elements190corresponding to the manageable entities in the respective identified group190. The partitioner118then, for each update, determines if the updates are in a set of storage objects150defined by one of the identified groups180, as depicted at step316, and for each manageable entity group180, groups the updates in the set of updates into a partition144of related updates, in which related updates have changes, or DB writes, in common with other updates in the partition such that the related updates result in writes to common database elements190, as shown at step317. Partitions may be computed to be of a similar size, although the sizes of individual partitions need not be identical and may vary.

Therefore, building the transmittable partitions144from the manageable entity groups180defined above involves determining updates in the set of updates which pertain to storage objects150in the identified set of manageable entities180, as disclosed at step318. The partitioner118identifies a set of at least one storage object150to which at least one of the updates pertain, as shown at step319, and groups the updates together according to the relations172, such that related manageable entities are those causing updates to common database elements190, as shown at step320. Therefore, each update is placed in a corresponding partition144by identifying the manageable entity111to which it pertains and storing it in the partition144corresponding to that manageable entity group180. The partitioner118therefore groups the determined updates as a partition144of updates operable for transmission and update, as depicted at step321. In other words, the partitioner118builds a partition144for each manageable entity group180. A check is performed, at step322, to determine if there are additional updates to place into partitions144, and control reverts to step316accordingly.

The agent116transmits the resulting partitions144to the store process138. The resulting partitions144ensure that updates resulting in a database update corresponding to a particular manageable entity111result in an update to a related manageable entity111, as defined by the relations172, in which the update affects a common database element190, such that the updates to the related manageable entity111are operable to be effected in the same database update, as depicted at step323. The store process138processes the updates, in which updating related manageable entities, includes performing updates corresponding to a first manageable entity, the update affecting a database element190, the first manageable entity having relations to a second manageable entity and a third manageable entity, as shown at step324. The store process138then performs updates corresponding to the second manageable entity, as disclosed at step325, and performing updates to the third manageable entity without refetching the database element190corresponding to the first manageable entity, as depicted at step326. Upon receipt by the store process138, an identifier of the manageable entity concerned, such as a device ID, are employed to retrieve the management information records for update. In the exemplary configuration, a SQL (Structured Query Language) syntax is employed for accessing the managed object database (MODB)134. In other words, the store process retrieves records based on the storage device IDs in the range of the partition. Alternate storage and retrieval indices may be employed in other configurations. Upon receiving a partition144, the store process138queries the MODB134specifying the device IDs in the range called for by the partition ID. In contrast, conventional partitions format a SQL query targeting the partition ID, already stored with the desired records. Further details are provided in the copending application “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR PARTITIONING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION” cited above.

In the exemplary configuration, therefore, the database elements190are records pertaining to a particular manageable entity, such as an FE mapping170, as shown at step327. Alternate configurations, however, encompass updates pertaining to other types of manageable entities111in a hierarchical arrangement102.

While the system and method for hierarchical partitioning of management information updates has been particularly shown and described with references to embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.