Adjustment of buffer credits and other parameters in a startup phase of communications between a plurality of channels and a control unit

• US 10,061,734 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2015
• Issued: 08/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hathorn, Roger G., Holley, Bret W., Kalos, Matthew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nimesh G
• Application Number:
  US14/717,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20160342548A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4027 using bus bridges G06F13/4022 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4221 being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0008 High speed serial bus, e.g. Fiber channel
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 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]

Abstract

A control unit provides a number of buffer credits, to one or more channels, in response to an initiation of a startup phase of communication between the one or more channels and the control unit, where the provided number of buffer credits when used for transferring data causes transfer ready operations but no retry operations. The control unit iteratively increases the number of buffer credits by an amount that is high enough to eliminate any transfer ready operations or cause retry operations to occur within a predetermined amount of time from the initiation of the startup phase.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing, by a control unit, a number of buffer credits, to one or more channels, in response to an initiation of a startup phase of communication between the one or more channels and the control unit, wherein the provided number of buffer credits when used for transferring data causes transfer ready operations but no retry operations, wherein the initiation of the startup phase occurs, in response to the one or more channels logging on to the control unit;

subsequent to providing the number of buffer credits, monitoring, by the control unit, communication for a period of time to determine a number of retry operations and a number of transfer ready operations, wherein a waiting time between each monitoring is adequate to allow input/output (I/O) operations in flight to complete; and

in response to the monitoring, iteratively increasing, by the control unit, the number of buffer credits by an amount that is high enough to cause within a predetermined amount of time from the initiation of the startup phase, an occurrence of at least one of;

an elimination of any transfer ready operations and retry operations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have occurred and retry operations have not occurred, increasing the number of buffer credits by a predetermined amount of buffer credits.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have been eliminated or retry operations have occurred, exiting the startup phase.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein in response to the exiting of the startup phase, increasing the period of time for monitoring to determine the number of retry operations and the number of transfer ready operations, to increase, decrease, or keep unchanged, the number of buffer credits in a post-startup phase.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if the period of time for monitoring is relatively high then a better reading on a workload is determined but a time to make adjustments to the number of buffer credits is increased, and wherein if the period of time for monitoring is below a predetermined time that is relatively low then a thrashing on frequent up and down of the number of buffer credits occurs and more frequent updates of the number of buffer credits have to be sent to the one or more channels.

6. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor performs operations, the operations comprising;

providing, by a control unit, a number of buffer credits, to one or more channels, in response to an initiation of a startup phase of communication between the one or more channels and the control unit, wherein the provided number of buffer credits when used for transferring data causes transfer ready operations but no retry operations, wherein the initiation of the startup phase occurs, in response to the one or more channels logging on to the control unit;

subsequent to providing the number of buffer credits, monitoring, by the control unit, communication for a period of time to determine a number of retry operations and a number of transfer ready operations, wherein a waiting time between each monitoring is adequate to allow input/output (I/O) operations in flight to complete; and

in response to the monitoring, iteratively increasing, by the control unit, the number of buffer credits by an amount that is high enough to cause within a predetermined amount of time from the initiation of the startup phase, an occurrence of at least one of;

an elimination of any transfer ready operations and retry operations.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have occurred and retry operations have not occurred, increasing the number of buffer credits by a predetermined amount of buffer credits.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have been eliminated or retry operations have occurred, exiting the startup phase.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein in response to the exiting of the startup phase, increasing the period of time for monitoring to determine the number of retry operations and the number of transfer ready operations, to increase, decrease, or keep unchanged, the number of buffer credits in a post-startup phase.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein if the period of time for monitoring is relatively high then a better reading on a workload is determined but a time to make adjustments to the number of buffer credits is increased, and wherein if the period of time for monitoring is below a predetermined time that is relatively low then a thrashing on frequent up and down of the number of buffer credits occurs and more frequent updates of the number of buffer credits have to be sent to the one or more channels.

11. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to perform operations on a device, the operations comprising:

providing, by a control unit, a number of buffer credits, to one or more channels, in response to an initiation of a startup phase of communication between the one or more channels and the control unit, wherein the provided number of buffer credits when used for transferring data causes transfer ready operations but no retry operations, wherein the initiation of the startup phase occurs, in response to the one or more channels logging on to the control unit;

subsequent to providing the number of buffer credits, monitoring, by the control unit, communication for a period of time to determine a number of retry operations and a number of transfer ready operations, wherein a waiting time between each monitoring is adequate to allow input/output (I/O) operations in flight to complete; and

in response to the monitoring, iteratively increasing, by the control unit, the number of buffer credits by an amount that is high enough to cause within a predetermined amount of time from the initiation of the startup phase, an occurrence of at least one of;

an elimination of any transfer ready operations and retry operations.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have occurred and retry operations have not occurred, increasing the number of buffer credits by a predetermined amount of buffer credits.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have been eliminated or retry operations have occurred, exiting the startup phase.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein in response to the exiting of the startup phase, increasing the period of time for monitoring to determine the number of retry operations and the number of transfer ready operations, to increase, decrease, or keep unchanged, the number of buffer credits in a post-startup phase.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein if the period of time for monitoring is relatively high then a better reading on a workload is determined but a time to make adjustments to the number of buffer credits is increased, and wherein if the period of time for monitoring is below a predetermined time that is relatively low then a thrashing on frequent up and down of the number of buffer credits occurs and more frequent updates of the number of buffer credits have to be sent to the one or more channels.

16. A storage controller in communication with one or more hosts, the storage controller comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor performs operations, the operations comprising;

providing, by a control unit of the storage controller, a number of buffer credits, to one or more channels, in response to an initiation of a startup phase of communication between the one or more channels and the control unit, wherein the provided number of buffer credits when used for transferring data causes transfer ready operations but no retry operations, wherein the initiation of the startup phase occurs, in response to the one or more channels logging on to the control unit;

subsequent to providing the number of buffer credits, monitoring, by the control unit of the storage controller, communication for a period of time to determine a number of retry operations and a number of transfer ready operations, wherein a waiting time between each monitoring is adequate to allow input/output (I/O) operations in flight to complete; and

in response to the monitoring, iteratively increasing, by the control unit of the storage controller, the number of buffer credits by an amount that is high enough to cause within a predetermined amount of time from the initiation of the startup phase, an occurrence of at least one of;

an elimination of any transfer ready operations and retry operations.

17. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have occurred and retry operations have not occurred, increasing the number of buffer credits by a predetermined amount of buffer credits.

18. The storage controller of claim 16, wherein subsequent to the monitoring performing:

in response to determining that transfer ready operations have been eliminated or retry operations have occurred, exiting the startup phase.

19. The storage controller of claim 18, wherein in response to the exiting of the startup phase, increasing the period of time for monitoring to determine the number of retry operations and the number of transfer ready operations, to increase, decrease, or keep unchanged, the number of buffer credits in a post-startup phase.

20. The storage controller of claim 19, wherein if the period of time for monitoring is relatively high then a better reading on a workload is determined but a time to make adjustments to the number of buffer credits is increased, and wherein if the period of time for monitoring is below a predetermined time that is relatively low then a thrashing on frequent up and down of the number of buffer credits occurs and more frequent updates of the number of buffer credits have to be sent to the one or more channels.