Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7380079?dq=6,199,048
Timestamp: 2016-07-31 05:48:05
Document Index: 172032805

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 810', 'art 850', 'art 810', 'art 850', 'art 850', 'art 820', 'art 830', 'art 810']

Patent US7380079 - Method of monitoring status information of remote storage and storage subsystem - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsA host computer acquires remote copy status information of storage subsystems that are not directly coupled to the host computer. Each storage subsystem includes: a unit which receives a status information acquisition command from the host computer; a unit which analyzes the received command to judge...http://www.google.com/patents/US7380079?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7380079 - Method of monitoring status information of remote storage and storage subsystemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7380079 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 11/207,774Publication dateMay 27, 2008Filing dateAug 22, 2005Priority dateNov 21, 2003Fee statusPaidAlso published asEP1548595A2, EP1548595A3, EP1548595B1, US7380078, US7769969, US20050114467, US20060026374, US20080235446Publication number11207774, 207774, US 7380079 B2, US 7380079B2, US-B2-7380079, US7380079 B2, US7380079B2InventorsNaoko Ikegaya, Sumio GotoOriginal AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (38), Non-Patent Citations (4), Classifications (21), Legal Events (2) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetMethod of monitoring status information of remote storage and storage subsystem
US 7380079 B2Abstract
Each storage subsystem includes: a unit which receives a status information acquisition command from the host computer; a unit which analyzes the received command to judge whether the storage subsystem in question is a target of the command; a unit which sends the command to a downstream storage subsystem connected to the storage subsystem in question when the storage subsystem in question is not the target; and a unit which sends status information to an upstream storage subsystem connected to the storage subsystem in question when the status information is received from the downstream storage subsystem.
a first storage device coupled to at least one information processing device and having a first controller and a plurality of first disk drives, at least one of said first disk drives being related to a first logical volume as a first primary logical volume;
said first controller receiving data targeted to said first logical volume and storing said data targeted to said first logical volume into said at least one of said first disk drives and transferring data related to said data targeted to said first logical volume to a second logical volume in a second storage device by a first remote copy process;
said second storage device coupled to said first storage device and having a second controller and a plurality of second disk drives, at least one of said second disk drives being related to said second logical volume as a secondary logical volume of said first logical volume;
said second controller receiving data transferred from said first storage device and storing said data transferred from said first storage device into said at least one of said second disk drives;
a third storage device coupled to said information processing device and having a third controller and a plurality of third disk drives, at least one of said third disk drives being related to a third logical volume as a second primary logical volume; and
said third controller receiving data targeted to said third logical volume and storing data into said at least one of said third disk drives and transferring data related to said data targeted to said third logical volume by a second remote copy process;
wherein said information processing device displays information of said first and second storage devices among said first, second and third storage devices if a parameter of said first remote copy process of said first and second storage devices satisfies a condition relative to a predetermined threshold.
said displayed information indicates a relationship between said first and second storage devices.
said information processing device has a pair status of between said first and second logical volumes, and
said pair status is whether it is under copying of data from said first logical volume to a second logical volume or not.
a fourth storage device coupled to said third storage device and having a fourth controller and a plurality of fourth disk drives, at least one of said fourth disk drives being related to a fourth logical volume as a secondary logical volume of said third logical volume; and
said fourth controller receiving data, which are transferred from said third storage device and targeted to said fourth logical volume, and storing said data transferred from said third storage device into said at least one of said fourth disk drives;
wherein said information processing device has a pair status of said third logical volume and said forth logical volume, and
wherein said pair status is a relationship between said third logical volume and said fourth logical volume.
said information processing device has a pair status of said third logical volume and a fourth logical volume in a fourth storage device coupled to said third storage device, and
said pair status is whether it is under copying of data from said third logical volume to said fourth storage device or not.
a fifth storage device coupled to said second storage device and having a fifth controller and a plurality of fifth disk drives, at least one of said fifth disk drives being related to a fifth logical volume as a third secondary volume of said second logical volume; and
said fifth controller receiving data, which are transferred from said second storage device and targeted to said fifth logical volume by a third remote copy process, and storing said data transferred from said second storage device into said at least one of said fifth disk drives;
wherein said information processing device has a pair status of said fifth logical volume, and
wherein said pair status is whether it is under copying of data to said fifth logical volume or not.
said information processing device has a pair status of said first and second logical volumes, and
said pair status indicates a duplex status between said first logical volume and said second logical volume.
said pair status indicates a suspend status between said first logical volume and a second logical volume.
said information processing device has information, which is used to identify said first logical volume from said first, second and third logical volumes.
said information processing device has information of said first storage device, said second storage device and said third storage device.
a first storage device coupled to at least one information processing device and having a first controller and a plurality of first disk drives, at least one of said first disk drives being related to a first logical volume as a primary logical volume;
said second storage device coupled to said first storage device and having a second controller and a plurality of second disk drives, at least one of said second disk drives being related to said second logical volume as a first secondary logical volume of said first logical volume;
said second controller receiving data, which are transferred from said first storage device and targeted to said second logical volume, and storing said data transferred from said first storage device into said at least one of said second disk drives and transferring data related to said data transferred from said first storage device to a third logical volume in a third storage device by a second remote copy process;
said third storage device coupled to said second storage device and having a third controller and a plurality of third disk drives, at least one of said third disk drives being related to said third logical volume as a second secondary logical volume; and
said third controller receiving data, which are transferred from said second storage device and targeted to said third logical volume, and storing said data transferred from said second storage device into said at least one of said third disk drives;
a fourth storage device coupled to said information processing device and having a fourth controller and a plurality of fourth disk drives, at least one of said fourth disk drives being related to a fourth logical volume as a second primary volume; and
said fourth controller receiving data targeted to said fourth logical volume and storing data into said at least one of said fourth disk drives and transferring data related to said data targeted to said fourth logical volume by a third remote copy process;
wherein said information processing device displays information of said first, second and third storage devices among said first, second, third and fourth storage devices, if a parameter of said first and/or second remote copy processes of said first, second and third storage devices satisfy a condition of a remote copy process relative to a predetermined threshold.
a first storage device coupled to at least one information processing device and having a plurality of first disk drives, at least one of said first disk drives being related to a first logical volume;
a first controller, in said first storage device, receiving data targeted to said first logical volume and storing said data targeted to said first logical volume into said first logical volume and transferring data related to said data targeted to said first logical volume by a first remote copy process;
a second storage device coupled to said first storage device and having a plurality of second disk drives, at least one of said second disk drives being related to a second logical volume;
a second controller, in said second storage device, receiving data, which are transferred from said first storage device by said first remote copy process, and storing said data transferred from said first storage device to said second logical volume;
a third storage device coupled to said information processing device and having a plurality of third disk drives, at least one of said third disk drives being related to a third logical volume; and
a third controller, in said third storage device, receiving data targeted to said third logical volume and storing said data targeted to said third logical volume into said third logical volume and transferring data related to said data targeted to said third logical volume by a second remote copy process;
a fourth storage device coupled to said third storage device and having a plurality of fourth disk drives, at least one of said fourth disk drives being related to a fourth logical volume; and
a fourth controller, in said fourth storage device, receiving data, which are transferred from said third storage device by said second remote copy process, and storing said data transferred from said third storage device to said fourth logical volume;
wherein said information processing device displays information of said first and second storage devices among said first, second, third and fourth storage devices, if a parameter of said first remote copy process of said first and second storage devices satisfy a condition of a remote copy process relative to a predetermined threshold.
a first storage device coupled to at least one information processing device and comprising a first controller and a plurality of first disk drives, at least one of said first disk drives being related to a first logical volume;
said first controller comprising a first communication interface coupled to said information processing device, a first disk interface coupled to said first disk drives and a first cache memory coupled to both said first communication interface and said first disk interface, said first controller receiving data targeted to said first logical volume via said first communication interface and temporarily storing said data received via said first communication interface into said first cache memory and transferring said data stored in said first cache memory to said at least one of said first disk drives via said first disk interface;
a second storage device coupled to said first storage device and comprising a second controller and a plurality of second disk drives, at least one of said second disk drives being related to a second logical volume;
said second controller comprising a second communication interface, a second disk interface coupled to said second disk drives and a second cache memory coupled to both said second communication interface and said second disk interface, said second controller receiving data targeted to said second logical volume via said second communication interface and temporarily storing said data received via said second communication interface into said second cache memory and transferring said data stored in said second cache memory to said at least one of said second disk drives via said second disk interface;
a third storage device coupled to said information processing device and comprising a third controller and a plurality of third disk drives, at least one of said third disk drives being related to a third logical volume;
said third controller comprising a third communication interface, a third disk interface coupled to said third disk drives and a third cache memory coupled to both said third communication interface and said third disk interface, said third controller receiving data targeted to said third logical volume via said third communication interface and temporarily storing said data received via said third communication interface into said third cache memory and transferring said data stored in said third cache memory to said at least one of said third disk drives via said third disk interface;
a fourth storage device coupled to third storage device and comprising a fourth controller and a plurality of fourth disk drives, at least one of said fourth disk drives being related to a fourth logical volume; and
said fourth controller comprising a fourth communication interface, a fourth disk interface coupled to said fourth disk drives and a fourth cache memory coupled to both said fourth communication interface and said fourth disk interface said fourth controller receiving data targeted to said fourth logical volume via said fourth communication interface and temporarily storing said data received via said fourth communication interface into said fourth cache memory and transferring said data stored in said fourth cache memory to said at least one of said fourth disk drives via said fourth disk interface;
wherein said first controller receives data and transfers data related to said received data to said second storage device,
wherein said third controller receives data and transfers data related to said received data to said fourth storage device;
wherein said information processing device displays information of said first and second storage devices among said first, second, third and fourth storage devices, if a data transfer rate between said first and second storage devices among said first, second, third and fourth storage devices satisfies a predetermined threshold.
said condition relates to performance of said first and second storage device for said first remote copy process.
said condition is whether a data transfer rate of said first remote copy process is over the predetermined a-threshold value or not.
said condition is whether a cache usage rate of said first remote copy process is over the predetermined threshold value or not.
17. A storage system according to claim 11, wherein:
said condition relates to performance of said first, second and/or third storage devices for said first and/or second remote copy processes.
18. A storage system according to claim 11, wherein:
said condition is whether a data transfer rate of said first and/or second remote copy processes are/is over the predetermined threshold value or not.
19. A storage system according to claim 11, wherein:
said condition is whether a cache usage rate of said first and/or second remote copy processes are/is over the predetermined threshold value or not.
20. A storage system according to claim 12, wherein:
21. A storage system according to claim 12, wherein:
said condition is whether a data transfer rate of said first remote copy process is over the predetermined threshold value or not.
22. A storage system according to claim 12, wherein:
said condition is whether a cache usage rate of said first remote copy process is over the predetermined threshold value or not. Description
The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 10/788,453, filed Mar. 1, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a storage subsystem and a technique of controlling a storage subsystem, and in particular, to a technique of collecting status information etc., of a storage subsystem that is placed, for example, in a remote place and not directly coupled to a host computer.
Further, to enhance integrity against disaster such as an earthquake, it is favorable that remote storages are located at remoter places as far away as possible. However, remote copy to a remote place takes time in data transfer. To solve this problem, there is a method in which, at the time of data update processing from a host computer, data transfer to remote storages is performed asynchronously with transfer (host transfer) from the host computer to a direct-coupled storage, to realize efficient remote copy between a plurality of storage subsystems, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-334049(Patent Document 2).
an outgoing status information storage unit which stores said status information (hereinafter, referred to outgoing status information) to be sent to said upstream storage subsystem;
FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing processing performed in a storage subsystem when a status information acquisition command including Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command is received in an embodiment of the present invention; and
Namely, the five command types are: (1) Specific-Newest Command, which gives an instruction of acquiring newest status information on a specific storage subsystem 1300; (2) Specific-Existing Command, which gives an instruction of acquiring status information that relates to a specific storage subsystem 1300 and that has been already acquired and is held in a direct-coupled storage subsystem 1300A; (3) Sequence-Newest Command, which gives an instruction of acquiring newest status information on all the storage subsystems 1300 belonging to a specific sequence; (4) Sequence-Existing Command, which gives an instruction of acquiring status information that relates to all the storage subsystems 1300 belonging to a specific sequence and that has been already acquired and held in the direct-coupled storage subsystem 1300A of the sequence in question; and (5) Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command, which gives an instruction of accumulating the newest status information on all the storage subsystems 1300 belonging to a specific sequence at given time intervals into the direct-coupled storage subsystem 1300A. One of these types is stored in the remote copy status acquisition command type storage part 810.
The interval storage part 850 stores information relating to interval processing. Here, in the present embodiment, “interval processing” means processing of acquiring status information of all the storage subsystems 1300 of a sequence to update information of the below-mentioned sequence status information storage unit 700 held by the direct-coupled storage subsystem 1300A. Thus, the information relating to the interval processing is relevant only when the command type stored in the remote copy status acquisition command type storage part 810 is Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command. In the present embodiment, in the case where the interval processing is performed, the interval storage part 850 stores the time interval of the interval processing. In the case of sending an instruction of stopping interval processing, a predetermined data, for example “0” is stored into the interval storage part 850.
The interval processing unit 404 holds a timer for measuring time. When the information on the time interval for the interval processing is received from the interface control unit 401, the interval processing unit 404 starts to measure time anew. When time of the received time interval elapses, the interval processing unit. 404 instructs the interface control unit 401 to perform the processing. On the other hand, when, as the information on the interval processing, “0” is received from the interface control unit 401, then, the interval processing unit 404 stops the time measurement using the timer, to stop the interval processing.
Next, from the storage site information 500, the remote copy monitoring unit 101 acquires the concatenation information on the storage subsystem 1300 whose status information is to acquire according to the instruction received from the user, and stores the acquired information into the acquisition target identifier storage part 820. The remote copy monitoring unit 101 also stores the pair of volumes which acquire according to the instruction received from the user into the pair identifier storage part 830 (Step 1103)
Next, will be described processing performed when Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command is stored in the remote copy status acquisition command type storage part 810 of the received status information acquisition command 800.
FIG. 15 shows a processing flow in the case of receiving the status information acquisition command 800 that stores Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command.
Next, the interface control unit 401 makes the concatenation position self judgment unit 402 judge the concatenation position of its own storage subsystem 1300 (Step 5010). When it is judged that its own storage subsystem 1300 is a direct-coupled storage subsystem. 1300A, then, the interface control unit 401 holds the status information stored in the status information response 900 (Step 5011). On the other hand, when it is judged that its own storage subsystem 1300 is not a direct-coupled storage subsystem 1300A, then, the status information response 900 is sent to the upstream storage subsystem 1300 connected to its own storage subsystem 1300 (Step 5012).
Hereinabove, has been described the processing performed when Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command is stored in the received status information acquisition command 800.
In the case where there is a sequence that satisfies the condition in Step 6002, the remote copy adjustment unit 102 makes the display device 150 display the relevant sequence (Step 6003). Here, a storage subsystem 1300 having a lower transfer rate or a higher cache usage rate as described above is possibly a storage subsystem 1300 whose remote copy load is increasing or whose performance is decreasing. Thus, the user can cope with this by watching display on the display device 150 to frequently perform remote copy supervisory control of the storage subsystem in question, or by lengthening the time interval of a status information acquisition command 800 that includes Regular-lnterval-Sequence-Status Acquisition Command to reduce a load that the processing of collecting status information gives on the storage controller 1400, for example.
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