Periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices to compensate for varying loads

• US 10,043,554 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2014
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cagno, Brian James, Green, Kenton Coleman, Jones, Carl Evan, O'Connell, Michael Desmond
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Kenneth M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wynne, David J
• Application Number:
  US14/185,884
• Publication Number:
  US 20140233365A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,629 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/0205 not using a model or a simulator of the controlled system
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

A periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices to compensate for varying loads is disclosed. A variable representing rotational vibration status is maintained in a rotational vibration log. The variable is processed to determine whether a storage device exhibits a rotational vibration issue. Workload analysis is performed to identify a change to the workloads run on physically separate hardware to resolve the rotational vibration issue and thus eliminate the need for more expensive hardware.

Claims

1. A method for providing a periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices, comprising:

accessing, by a service provider, a rotational vibration log associated with at least one storage device in a storage system and containing information regarding a rotational vibration status of the at least one storage device and information associated with problems created by a vibration source external to the at least one storage device;

analyzing the rotational vibration log; and

based upon the rotational vibration log analysis, reducing rotational vibration created by a vibration source external to the at least one storage device by reconfiguring the storage system to resolve a rotational vibration problem associated with at least one storage device indicated by the rotational vibration log wherein the reconfiguring comprises reassigning workloads within an array of storage devices; and

issuing a service request to a service vendor to indicate that a rotational vibration problem needs further analysis when reconfiguring the storage system fails to sufficiently reduce rotational vibration.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising applying analytics by the service provider to information in the rotational vibration log to identify corrective action to be taken to reduce rotational vibration of at least one storage device.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving at a service provider a service request indicating a rotational vibration problem associated with at least one storage device in a storage system, the accessing the rotational vibration log being based upon the receipt of the service request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing the rotational vibration log further comprises periodically accessing information in the rotational vibration log to anticipate problems with a plurality of storage devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing the rotational vibration log further comprises determining whether the rotational vibration log indicates a rotational vibration issue for the storage system associated with the rotational vibration log and contacting a customer of the storage system by the service provider to resolve the rotational vibration issue.

6. A method for providing a periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices, comprising:

maintaining rotational vibration data associated with at least one storage device of a storage system in a rotational vibration log including storing information regarding a rotational vibration status of at least one storage device and information associated with problems created by a vibration source external to the at least one storage device; and

reducing rotational vibration created by a vibration source external to the at least one storage device by reconfiguring the storage system using the rotational vibration data to correct a rotational vibration issue wherein the reconfiguring includes reassigning workloads within an array of storage devices; and

issuing a service request to a service vendor to indicate that a rotational vibration problem needs further analysis when reconfiguring the storage system fails to sufficiently reduce rotational vibration.

7. A method, comprising:

monitoring by a processor, rotational vibration in a storage system wherein the monitoring rotational vibration in a storage system further comprises maintaining a rotational vibration log, the rotational vibration log including information regarding a rotational vibration status of at least one storage device;

analyzing by a processor, system workloads; and

reducing by the processor, rotational vibration in the storage system in response to the analysis of the system workloads by reconfiguring the storage system based upon the analysis of the system workloads to reduce the rotational vibration wherein the reconfiguring comprises reassigning workloads within an array of storage devices; and

issuing a service request to a service vendor to indicate that a rotational vibration problem needs further analysis when reconfiguring the storage system fails to sufficiently reduce rotational vibration.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises providing information regarding a rotational vibration status of at least one storage device to the rotational vibration log when the at least one storage device compensates for rotational vibration.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises storing a variable passed from the at least one storage device representing rotational vibration associated with the at least one storage device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises storing information regarding any corrective action that has been taken to compensate for rotational vibration.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log further comprises storing information associated with problems created by vibration sources external to the at least one storage device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein storing information associated with problems created by vibration sources external to the at least one storage device further comprises storing information regarding at least one selected from the group consisting of host cooling system, devices external to the at least one storage device and building vibrations.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising granting by a processor, a service vendor rights to access the rotational vibration log to resolve rotational vibration problems associated with the at least one storage devices.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the reconfiguring comprises reassigning volumes and arrays to spread activity of the at least one storage device to reduce rotational vibration interaction.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the maintaining a rotational vibration log for the storage system further comprises checking the rotational vibration log to determine whether a storage device has been significantly degraded by rotational vibration and surfacing an error to initiate corrective action before data loss occurs when a drive has been significantly degraded by rotational vibration.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein the monitoring rotational vibration of at least one storage device in a storage system further comprises maintaining the rotational vibration log for the storage system, determining whether information in the rotational vibration log meets a predetermined criteria and surfacing an error in response thereto.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein the monitoring rotational vibration of at least one storage device in a storage system further comprises determining when the information in the rotational vibration log meets a predetermined criteria and wherein the reassigning workloads includes rearranging the configuration of the workloads of the storage system to compensate for the rotational vibration when the information in the rotational vibration log meets a predetermined criteria.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein the reconfiguring the storage system based upon the analysis of the system workloads to reduce the rotational vibration further comprises performing rotational vibration log analysis to identify rotational vibration caused by fan speed and changing fan speed to remove a frequency component causing the rotational vibration.