Patent Document

TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present invention relates generally to data storage systems and, in particular, to increasing the efficiency with which storage controller resources are used. 
       BACKGROUND ART 
       [0002]    A data storage system typically includes one or more storage controllers (also referred to herein as controllers) coupled one or more data storage devices, such as hard disk drives (HDDs). The controller receives read and write requests from one or more hosts, processes the requests and, in response reads the requested data from or writes (records) data to the storage device. Larger storage systems enable one physical host to be divided into one or more logical partitions (LPARs) which operate as separate computers. The LPARs may also run under different operating systems and may execute different application programs. During the initial program load (IPL) of the LPAR, logical paths are established between the host and the storage controller. Worldwide network node numbers (WWNN) are used to enable links between the communicating devices. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    The present invention provides a method for managing a logical partition (LPAR) in a data processing system. An initial program load (IPL) is performed on the LPAR and an application begins executing. The application selects from a plurality of unsolicited events those of which the application is to receive notice. A command is transmitted to a storage controller indicating the identity of the selected unsolicited events and the storage controller stores the information in a data structure. In one embodiment, the data structure is a bit map in which each bit represents one of the possible unsolicited events. Upon the later occurrence of an unsolicited event, the storage controller will transmit to the LPAR only notices of the selected unsolicited events. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0004]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented; 
           [0005]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart of one aspect of a method of the present invention; 
           [0006]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of another aspect of a method of the present invention; and 
           [0007]      FIG. 4  illustrates an example of a data structure which may be used to hold sense event information. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0008]    During the normal operation of the storage controller, certain events, called unsolicited events, may occur. Unsolicited events include unsolicited status, such as a state change or an attention interrupt, and unsolicited sense, such as a redrive sense when a failover occurs or a service information message (SIM) sense when a hardware failure threshold is reached. When the storage controller generates an unsolicited sense, it uses internal resources, such as buffers, in which to store information related to the unsolicited sense. The buffers are subsequently freed up when the LPAR in the host sends a sense command to the storage controller to retrieve the unsolicited sense data. The application software being executed in the LPAR might handle the unsolicited status like unit check for sense data presentation properly, but may not take the steps necessary to close the unsolicited event, such as sending a sense command to the storage control unit to retrieve the sense data. The resources in the storage controller which were used to build the sense data would not be freed. Eventually, the storage controller may run out of resources if all of the buffers remain allocated, preventing new sense data from being built. 
         [0009]    After an LPAR has undergone its IPL, a running application may only need to be aware of certain unsolicited events which occur in the storage controller or attached devices but not all of them. For example, the application may only need to be aware of state change interrupts of devices in a peer-to-peer remote copy (PPRC) relationship. However, the storage controller currently transmits information about all unsolicited events to the LPAR. And if, as noted above, the application fails to direct that the sense data in the storage controller be freed, resources in the storage controller may become limited and prevent further sense data from being generated. 
         [0010]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a data processing system  100  in which the present invention may be implemented. The system  100  includes one or more hosts, collectively represented by a host  110 , one or more storage controllers, collectively represented by a storage controller  120 , and one or more storage devices, collectively represented by the storage device  140 . The storage device  140  may be any type of storage device, such as hard disk drives, or a combination of devices. The host  110  includes a memory  112  for storing computer-readable code containing program instructions and a processor  114  which executes the instructions stored in the memory  112 . The host  110  can create multiple logical partitions (LPARs), two of which are illustrated in  FIG. 1  as  116   a  and  116   b . Each LPAR  116   a ,  116   b  is capable of running one or more applications  118   a ,  118   b , respectively. 
         [0011]    The storage controller  120  includes a memory  122  for storing computer-readable code containing program instructions and a processor  124  which executes the instructions stored in the memory  122 . The storage controller also includes host adapters, represented by a host adapter  126 , through which communications with the host  110  pass, and device adapters, represented by a device adapter  128 , through which communications with the storage device  140  pass. The storage controller  120  further includes one or more buffers  130  for storing unsolicited events and a data structure  500  containing an indication of which unsolicited events an application, such as the application  118   a , is to be made aware. The buffers  130  or data structure  500 , or both, may be stored in the memory  122  or may be stored in other memory. 
         [0012]    A method of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flowcharts of  FIGS. 2 and 3 . The method may be executed by the processors  114 ,  124  from program instructions stored in the memory devices  112 ,  122 , may performed by hardware, such as ASICs in the host  110  and storage controller  120 , or by any combination. An IPL is performed on the LPAR  116   a  (step  200 ) and the application  118   a  commences on the LPAR  116   a  (step  202 ). The application  118   a  then specifies the unsolicited events of which it is to be notified (step  204 ). Unsolicited events from which the application  118   a  may select may include, but are not limited to, PPRC-related state change interrupts, device state change interrupts, attention interrupts, multipath lock facility attention interrupts, service information message sense, PPRC-related sense, warmstart-related sense, failover-related sense and failback-related state changes. The application  118   a  may select any, all or none of the possible unsolicited events, depending on the needs of the application  118   a . After the unsolicited events are selected, the LPAR  116   a  transmits a command to the storage controller  120  containing an indication of which unsolicited events have been selected (step  206 ). 
         [0013]    The storage controller  120  receives the command (step  300 ,  FIG. 3 ) and stores the information in the data structure  400  (step  302 ). The data structure  400  may be a bit map, as illustrated in  FIG. 4 , in which each bit represents one of the possible unsolicited events. A bit in a first state, such as logical 1, indicates that the unsolicited event represented by the bit is among those selected by the application  118   a . Conversely, a bit in a second state, such as logical 0, indicates that the unsolicited event represented by the bit is not among those selected by the application  118   a . It will be appreciated that a logical 0 may be used to indicate that an unsolicited event is one which has been selected by the application  118   a . Instead of specifying individual unsolicited events, the command may include suborders which indicate which of several categories of unsolicited status events are to be allowed or to be disallowed. Categories may include (but are not limited to), for example, all unsolicited events related to PPRC, multi-path lock facility (MPLF), sense changes related to device status, and state changes related to device status. It will also be appreciated that other types of data structures, such as a lookup table, parameter flags or any other structure to indicate the identity of which unsolicited events are allowed or disallowed, may be used instead of the bitmap. Moreover, the data structure may have a default state to be used if the LPAR does not transmit a selection command. The default state may indicate that all of the possible unsolicited events or categories have been selected; alternatively, the default state may indicate that none of the possible unsolicited events or categories have been selected. It will be appreciated that the default state may indicate any other combination of selected and unselected unsolicited events and categories. 
         [0014]    Upon the occurrence of an unsolicited event in the storage controller  120  (step  304 ), a determination is made as to whether the unsolicited event (or the group of which the unsolicited event is a member) is one which is indicated in the data structure  400  as having been selected by the application  118   a  (step  306 ). If so, information about the unsolicited event is transmitted to the LPAR  116   a  (step  310 ); otherwise, the information prevented from being transmitted (step  312 ). In this manner, the application  118   a  only receives information about those specific unsolicited events which it has requested and resources are not wasted on other unsolicited events. 
         [0015]    Additionally, if, while the application  118   a  is running on the LPAR  116   a , the needs of the application  118   a  change, the LPAR  116   a  may send a new command to the storage controller  120  with an updated request to reselect unsolicited events. The data structure will then be updated and the modification can take immediate effect without performing a new IPL. Thus, individual LPAR applications are able to fine tune event presentations. 
         [0016]    It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media such as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a RAM, and CD-ROMs and transmission-type media. 
         [0017]    The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Moreover, although described above with respect to methods and systems, the need in the art may also be met with a method for deploying computing infrastructure comprising integrating computer readable code into a computing system for managing a logical partition.

Technology Category: g