Updating data objects on a system

• US 10,425,240 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2017
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Crasta, Alol A., Patil, Harshal S., Pillai, Kishorekumar G., Raisch, Christoph, Ranjan, Nishant
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tu T
• Application Number:
  US15/413,884
• Publication Number:
  US 20170374146A1
• Time in Patent Office: 973 Days
• Field of Search: 709226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A computer system includes a first server including a first data management module and a second server including a second data management module, and a first and second storage controller. The first and second storage controllers are interconnected by a network configured for reliable data multicasting. The computer system further includes a cross system manager for controlling one or more core storage functions on each of the first and second storage controllers. The computer system further includes computer program instructions to, responsive to a core storage function triggered by the cross system manager: Create a multicast group for each of the first server and the second server in the network, wherein the multicast group is created by a reliable multicast mechanism, and Multicast data write operations of each of the first server and the second server to the first storage controller and the second storage controller of the multicast group.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for updating data objects, the computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying, by one or more processors, a request directed to a first server to perform a first core storage function for a first data object stored on a first storage device, the first core storage function being at least one of;

(i) real-time replication or (ii) real-time mirroring;

generating, by the one or more processors, in response to identifying the request to perform the first core storage function, a multicast group that includes at least;

(i) the first server, (ii) a first storage controller located on the first storage device, (iii) a second server and (iv) a second storage controller located on a second storage device;

multicasting, by the one or more processors, a first set of data write operations associated with the first core storage function to;

(i) the first storage controller, (ii) the second server and (iii) the second storage controller included in the multicast group; and

updating, by the one or more processors, based on the first set of write operations multicasted to the multicast group;

(i) the first data object stored on the first storage device and (ii) a second data object stored on the second storage device, wherein the second data object is a replica of the first data object.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating, by the one or more processors, data objects based on data write operations received by the multicast group via multicast in priority to data write operations received via a bulk copy mechanism.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the multicast group is identified by at least one of:

(i) a world-wide unique identifier and (ii) a unique identifier.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first server and the second server are at least one of:

(i) a physical server and (ii) a virtual server.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

(i) the first server and (ii) the second server include a solid state device cache.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first set of data write operations associated with the first core storage function are multicasted via a reliable multicast protocol.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

(i) the first server, (ii) the first storage controller located on the first storage device, (iii) the second server and (iv) the second storage controller located on the second storage device are interconnected over a storage area network.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the storage area network utilizes a fibre channel protocol.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the storage area network utilizes an Internet protocol.