Storage apparatus and storage apparatus control method

• US 10,013,322 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2013
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Uehara, Go, Homma, Shigeo, Sonoda, Koji
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Loan L. T.
• Application Number:
  US14/767,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,856 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A storage controller stores, for each of a plurality of storage devices, a usable capacity, which is a capacity usable by the storage controller in a logical storage area, configures a first RAID group using a first storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, and allocates, on the basis of a request from a host computer, one of a plurality of pages of the logical storage area in the first RAID group to a virtual volume. The storage controller reduces, when receiving first failure information indicating a failure in a first storage device in the first storage device group from the first storage device, a usable capacity of the first storage device on the basis of the first failure information.

Claims

1. A storage apparatus comprising:

a plurality of storage devices; and

a storage controller coupled to the plurality of storage devices and a host computer and configured to provide the host computer with a virtual volume, wherein

each of the plurality of storage devices includes;

a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories; and

a device controller configured to manage a failure that occurs partially in the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories and provide the storage controller with a logical address space associated with some of the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories,

the storage controller is configured to store a logical address space for each of the plurality of storage devices, configure a first RAID group using a first storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, divide a logical storage area in the first RAID group into a plurality of pages, and allocate, on the basis of a write request from the host computer to the virtual volume, one of the plurality of pages in the first RAID group to the virtual volume,

the device controller is configured to detect a partial failure in the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories and transmit failure information indicating the detected failure to the storage controller, and

the storage controller is configured to determine, when receiving first failure information indicating a failure in a first storage device in the first storage device group from the first storage device, a first reduction area, which is a logical address range reduced from a logical address space in the first storage device on the basis of the first failure information, specify a first logical storage area corresponding to the first reduction area in the first RAID group, specify a specific virtual storage area in which the first logical storage area is allocated from the virtual volume, select a second logical storage area that is not allocated to the virtual volume from among a plurality of logical storage areas in which some of the plurality of storage devices are allocated, move data stored in the first logical storage area from the first logical storage area to the second logical storage area, allocate the second logical storage area to the specific virtual storage area, and reduce, from a logical address space of each storage device among the storage devices in the first storage device group used to configure the first RAID group, a logical address range corresponding to the first reduction area which is the logical address range reduced from the logical address space in the first storage device of the first storage device group on the basis of the first failure information.

2. A storage apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage controller is configured to specify failure data, which is data lost by the failure in the first storage device, on the basis of the first failure information, and recover the failure data on the basis of data stored in a storage device other than the first storage device in the first storage device group.

3. A storage apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the storage controller is configured to store alternate area information indicating an alternate area, which is a logical address range not used by a RAID group among each logical address space of the plurality of storage devices, make it a condition that a size of the alternate area is greater than or equal to a size of the first reduction area and the alternate area is provided from the storage device in the storage device group other than the first storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, determine whether the alternate area to meet the condition is shown in the alternate area information or not, and when determining that the alternate area to meet the condition is shown in the alternate area information, use the alternate area instead of the first reduction area.

4. A storage apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the device controller of the first storage device is configured to close a portion where the failure occurs in the first storage device.

5. A storage apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the device controller is configured to store a user capacities, which is a size of a logical address space to be provided from the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories to the storage controller and transmit the stored user capacities to the storage controller, and

the storage controller is configured to receive the transmitted user capacities and store the received user capacities.

6. A storage apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the storage controller is configured to transmit, to the first storage device, an instruction for reducing a size of the first reduction area from the user capacity of the first storage device when receiving the first failure information, and

a device controller of the first storage device is configured to reduce, according to the instruction, a size of the first reduction area from a user capacity of the first storage device.

7. A storage apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the storage controller is configured to detect a minimum usable capacity, which is a minimum value of user capacities of storage devices in the first storage device group, and create the first RAID group using minimum usable capacities of each storage device in the first storage device group.

8. A storage apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the storage controller is configured to create a second RAID group using a second storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, and

the storage controller is configured to determine, when receiving second failure information indicating a failure in a second storage device in the second storage device group from the second storage device, a second reduction area, which is a logical address range reduced from a logical address space of the second storage device, on the basis of the second failure information, specify a related area, which is a logical address range corresponding to the second reduction area in a logical address space of a storage device other than the second storage device in the second storage device group, and register the related area in the alternate area information as the alternate area.

9. A storage apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the storage controller is configured to register, in the alternate area information, a logical address range in an alternate storage device in the plurality of storage devices as the alternate area.

10. A storage apparatus control method comprising:

storing, using a storage controller, that provides a host computer with a virtual volume, a logical address space associated with some of the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories in each of a plurality of storage devices and provided to the storage controller, configuring, using the storage controller, a first RAID group using a first storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, dividing, using the storage controller, a logical storage area in the first RAID group into a plurality of pages, and allocating, using the storage controller, on the basis of a write request from the host computer to the virtual volume, one of the plurality of pages in the first RAID group to the virtual volume;

detecting, using a device controller in each of the plurality of storage devices, a partial failure in the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories and transmitting, using the device controller, failure information indicating the detected failure to the storage controller; and

when the storage controller receives first failure information indicating a failure in a first storage device in the first storage device group from the first storage device, determining, using the storage controller, a first reduction area, which is a logical address range reduced from the logical address space in the first storage device on the basis of the first failure information, specifying, using the storage controller, a first logical storage area corresponding to the first reduction area in the first RAID group, specifying, using the storage controller, a specific virtual storage area in which the first logical storage area is allocated from the virtual volume, selecting, using the storage controller, a second logical storage area that is not allocated to the virtual volume from among a plurality of logical storage areas in which some of the plurality of storage devices are allocated, moving, using the storage controller, data stored in the first logical storage area from the first logical storage area to the second logical storage area, allocating, using the storage controller, the second logical storage area to the specific virtual storage area, and reducing, using the storage controller, from a logical address space of each storage device among the storage devices in the first storage device group used to configure the first RAID group, a logical address range corresponding to the first reduction area which is the logical address range reduced from the logical address space in the first storage device of the first storage device group on the basis of the first failure information.

11. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 10, further comprising:

specifying, using the storage controller, failure data which is data lost by the failure in the first storage device, on the basis of the first failure information, and recovering the failure data on the basis of data stored in a storage device other than the first storage device in the first storage device group.

12. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 11, further comprising:

storing, using the storage controller, alternate area information indicating an alternate area, which is a logical address range not used by a RAID group among each logical address space of the plurality of storage devices, making it a condition that a size of the alternate area is greater than or equal to a size of the first reduction area and the alternate area is provided from the storage device in the storage device group other than the first storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, determining whether the alternate area to meet the condition is shown in the alternate area information or not, and when determining that the alternate area to meet the condition is shown in the alternate area information, using the alternate area instead of the first reduction area.

13. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 12, further comprising:

closing, using the device controller of the first storage device, a portion where the failure occurs in the first storage device.

14. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 13, further comprising:

storing, using the device controller, a user capacities, which is a size of a logical address space to be provided from the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memories to the storage controller and transmit the stored user capacities to the storage controller, and

receiving, using the storage controller, the transmitted user capacities and store the received user capacities.

15. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 14, further comprising:

transmitting, using the storage controller, to the first storage device, an instruction for reducing a size of the first reduction area from the user capacity of the first storage device when receiving the first failure information, and

reducing, using a device controller of the first storage device, according to the instruction, a size of the first reduction area from a user capacity of the first storage device.

16. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 15, further comprising:

detecting, using the storage controller, a minimum usable capacity, which is a minimum value of user capacities of storage devices in the first storage device group, and creating the first RAID group using minimum usable capacities of each storage device in the first storage device group.

17. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 12, further comprising:

creating, using the storage controller, a second RAID group using a second storage device group among the plurality of storage devices, and

determining, using the storage controller, when receiving second failure information indicating a failure in a second storage device in the second storage device group from the second storage device, a second reduction area, which is a logical address range reduced from a logical address space of the second storage device, on the basis of the second failure information, specifying a related area, which is a logical address range corresponding to the second reduction area in a logical address space of a storage device other than the second storage device in the second storage device group, and registering the related area in the alternate area information as the alternate area.

18. A storage apparatus control method according to claim 12, further comprising:

registering, using the storage controller, in the alternate area information, a logical address range in an alternate storage device in the plurality of storage devices as the alternate area.