Method and apparatus for storage on demand service
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A storage management service system, comprising:
- a storage on demand (SoD) center system computer;
a storage subsystem; and
a host computer, said host computer, said storage subsystem, and said SoD center system computer interconnected by a communications network;
said host computer comprising a software agent, said software agent providing an interface between said SoD center system computer and an operating system resident on said host computer; and
wherein said SoD center system computer receives input of an SoD demand, sends said demand to an SoD resource manager, which manages storage resources of said storage subsystem; and
wherein said SoD resource manager receives said demand from said SoD center system computer, and thereupon updates a device management table and an I/O port management table, in which a current status of at least one of a plurality of resources is recorded, and to which said SoD resource manager refers when managing said at least one of a plurality of resources, and sends a management result to the SoD center system computer; and
wherein said SoD center system computer receives said management result from said SoD resource manager, and thereupon stores said management result.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides improved techniques for managing storage resources, such as disk drives, I/O ports, and the like according to user demand for these storage resources. In a specific embodiment, a centralized SoD system that remotely activates installed storage resources in a storage subsystem on demand obviates the need to visit a particular site. Specific embodiments provide users the capability to bring new resources on line, define pathways between resources, and the like, for example. Embodiments can obviate the need for system programmers to manually configure storage resources on a user'"'"'s site.
73 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A storage management service system, comprising:
-
a storage on demand (SoD) center system computer;
a storage subsystem; and
a host computer, said host computer, said storage subsystem, and said SoD center system computer interconnected by a communications network;
said host computer comprising a software agent, said software agent providing an interface between said SoD center system computer and an operating system resident on said host computer; and
whereinsaid SoD center system computer receives input of an SoD demand, sends said demand to an SoD resource manager, which manages storage resources of said storage subsystem; and
wherein said SoD resource manager receives said demand from said SoD center system computer, and thereupon updates a device management table and an I/O port management table, in which a current status of at least one of a plurality of resources is recorded, and to which said SoD resource manager refers when managing said at least one of a plurality of resources, and sends a management result to the SoD center system computer; and
whereinsaid SoD center system computer receives said management result from said SoD resource manager, and thereupon stores said management result. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A storage apparatus comprising:
-
a memory;
at least one of a plurality of devices that store information;
at least one of a plurality of I/O ports providing an interface to said at least one of a plurality of devices that store information;
a device management table, in which a status of said at least one of a plurality of devices that store information is stored, and an I/O port management table, in which a status of said at least one of a plurality of I/O ports is stored, said device management table and said I/O port management table being disposed in said memory; and
a storage resource management processor;
whereinsaid storage management processor receives a demand for storage resources, and thereupon updates said device management table and said I/O port management table, and sends a management result responsive to said demand for storage resources; and
wherein updates to at least one of a plurality of paths connecting to storage resources allocated from said at least one of a plurality of devices that store information are automatically defined to an operating system of a user machine by a remotable software agent. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method for configuring a host computer to access resources in a remotable storage subsystem, said host computer, said remotable storage subsystem, and a center system computer interconnected by a communication network, said method comprising:
-
receiving at said host computer an I/O path setting request from said center system computer, said I/O path setting request comprising information about resources in said remotable storage subsystem allocated for use by said host computer;
requesting an operating system resident in said host computer to update an I/O path setting table based upon said I/O path setting request;
receiving an update result from said operating system; and
sending a setting result to said center system computer based upon said update result. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20)
-
-
19. A computer program product for configuring a host computer to access resources in a remotable storage subsystem, said host computer, said remotable storage subsystem, and a center system computer interconnected by a communication network, said computer program product comprising:
-
code that receives at said host computer an I/O path setting request from said center system computer, said I/O path setting request comprising information about resources in said remotable storage subsystem allocated for use by said host computer;
code that requests an operating system resident in said host computer to update an I/O path setting table based upon said I/O path setting request;
code that receives an update result from said operating system;
code that sends a setting result to said center system computer based upon said update result; and
a computer readable storage medium for holding the codes.
-
Specification