Computer system

• US 20020184463A1
• Filed: 07/17/2002
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Mogi, Kazuhiro, Arakawa, Hiroshi, Eguchi, Yoshiaki, Arai, Kouji
• Granted Patent: US 6,763,442 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1096 Parity calculation or recalculation after configuration or reconfiguration of the system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2087 with a common controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• 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 61/457 containing identifiers of data entities on a computer, e.g. file names
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

The present invention provides techniques, including a method and system, for relocating data between storage systems. In one embodiment of the present invention a host collects usage information from a plurality of storage systems, and determines the relocation destination LU for data stored in the LU to be relocated. The host alters an LU logical position name table that determines matching between the logical position names of data and LUs. It also carries out data relocation between storage subsystems by shifting data stored in an origin LU to be relocated to a destination LU. In another embodiment relocation of files is provided.

Claims

1. A system comprising a computer and a plurality of storage systems, said plurality of storage systems for providing a group of logical storage areas to the computer, said system comprising:

the plurality of storage systems coupled together via a network;

a storage system of said plurality of storage systems, comprising;

a logical storage area of said group of logical storage areas;

an acquisition module for acquiring usage of at least one storage system resource for the logical storage area; and

the computer coupled to said plurality of storage systems, comprising;

a gathering module for obtaining usage information on the usage of the storage system resource by said logical storage area.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said network is a Fibre channel network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer further comprises:

a control module for controlling physical relocation of data among the group of logical storage areas;

a matching table for defining mapping between a logical position name indicating a logical position of data perceived by an application operating on the computer and an origin logical storage area of the group of logical storage areas on an origin storage system of said plurality of storage systems storing the data; and

an updating module for updating the matching table so that a destination logical storage area of the group of logical storage areas on a destination storage system of said plurality of storage systems, after the control module relocates the data from the origin logical storage area to the destination logical storage area, matches the logical position name.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer further comprises:

a managing module for managing matching between a file and a corresponding logical storage area of the group of logical storage areas, in which the file is stored; and

an extracting module for extracting usage data on physical storage system resources used by the corresponding logical storage area in which the file is stored.

5. The computer system, as stated in claim 3, wherein the computer further comprises:

an access unit for allowing access to the data being relocated by the control module for a relocating purpose only.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the storage system is a disk array system for providing the computer with at least one logical unit (LU).

7. A system, comprising a computer and a plurality of distributed storage systems coupled together by a network, said system comprising:

an acquisition means for acquiring, for storage areas of at least two storage systems of the plurality of distributed storage systems, usage information of storage system resources used for the storage areas, and

a notifying means for notifying the computer, responsive to a request from the computer, of the usage information; and

the computer comprising;

a requesting means for requesting the storage systems to notify the computer of the usage information.

8. A system comprising a computer and at least one storage system, comprising:

a control means for controlling physical relocation of data among storage areas of the at least one storage system;

a matching table for defining matching between a logical position indicating the logical position of data perceived by an application operating on the computer and a storage area of a storage system of the at least one storage system storing the data; and

an updating means for updating the matching table so that the storage area of the storage system, which is the relocation destination of data relocated by the control means, matches the logical position of the data.

9. A method for managing an information item used by an application program and located in a plurality of storage systems, said plurality of storage systems coupled together via a network, said method comprising:

storing said information item in a first storage system of said plurality of storage systems;

accessing said information item by said application program using a logical position name; and

relocating said information item from said first storage system to a second storage system of said plurality of storage systems, wherein said application program accesses said information item in said second storage system by using said logical position name.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said network is a Fibre channel network.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said storage systems are disk arrays.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein said application program is executed on a host computer, said host computer coupled to said plurality of storage systems via said network.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said network is a Fibre channel network.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein a storage system of said plurality of storage systems comprises a Logical Unit (LU) Number (No.), and wherein relocation of said information item is from a first LU No. on said first storage system to said second LU No. on said second storage system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said relocating said information item, further includes altering a mapping for said logical position name in a LU logical position name table from said first LU No. to said second LU No.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said storage usage information further includes parity group usage information.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

storing a data item on said first logical volume; and

responsive to a relocation instruction, relocating said data item from said first logical volume to said second logical volume, wherein said relocation instruction is determined based on said user storage usage information.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein said user storage usage information comprises metadata.

16. A method for managing storage of a first storage system of a plurality of storage systems and a second storage system of said plurality of storage systems, wherein said plurality of storage systems are coupled together by a network, said method comprising:

a manager module receiving a first logical volume usage for a first logical volume of said first storage system;

said manager module receiving a second logical volume usage for a second logical volume of said second storage system; and

displaying to a user storage usage information, including said first logical volume usage and said second logical volume usage.

20. A method for relocating information from an origin logical unit (LU) of a plurality of logical units on a origin storage system to a destination LU of said plurality of logical units on a destination storage system, said origin storage system coupled to said destination storage system by a Fibre channel network, said method comprising:

receiving said relocation instruction by said destination storage system;

preparing a copy area management table comprising one or more origin LU No. of said origin LU, one or more destination LU No. of said destination LU, and a bit map of blocks of information to be relocated; and

relocating of each block of information from said origin LU to said destination LU using said copy area management table.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein a LU No. of a LU of said plurality of logical units, is selected from a group consisting of a World Wide Name, a N_PORT ID, or a disk array No., a ID, and a LUN.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein during relocating, reading from or writing to said destination LU occurs in parallel with said relocating in accordance with said copy management table.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising determining a LU No. and intra-LU area for said destination area.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein said file position has an intra-area address in an integrated file system, said integrated file system including files on said plurality of distributed storage systems.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein said reserving in said metadata table is based on usage information, including logical volume usage by said file.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein said storage systems are disk arrays.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein said file location has an associated intra-area address, said intra-area address for addressing storage areas in an integrated area including said plurality of storage systems.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein said file location is determined by said file system using metadata and a LU area range table.

32. The system of claim 28 wherein after said file is relocated, said client references said file using a local address.

23. A relocation system for relocating information from an origin logical unit to a destination logical unit while said destination logical unit is being read to or written from by a host system, said relocation system comprising:

a first disk array of a plurality of disk arrays, comprising said origin logical unit for storing an information item;

a second disk array of a plurality of disk arrays, comprising said destination logical unit, said second disk array couple with said first disk array via a Fibre channel switch; and

the host system for controlling relocating said information item from said origin logical unit to said destination logical unit, while concurrently reading to or writing from said destination logical unit.

24. A method for relocating a file from a first storage system of a plurality of distributed storage systems to a second storage system of said plurality of distributed storage systems, wherein said plurality of distributed storage systems are part of a Storage Area Network (SAN), said method comprising:

storing said file in an origin area on said first storage system, wherein a file position of said file in a metadata table refers to said origin area;

reserving in said metadata table a destination area in said second storage system;

copying said file from said origin area to said destination area; and

modifying said metadata table such that said file position is modified to refer to said destination area.

28. A system for a client relocating a file from a Fibre channel storage area network comprising a plurality of storage systems coupled with a host system to said client, said system, comprising:

said client for requesting from a file system of said host system, access to said file; and

said file system for determining a file location of said file in a storage system of said plurality of storage systems and returning said file location to said client; and

wherein said client after receiving said file location, relocates said file directly from said storage system using said file location.

33. A network storage system for providing a plurality of distributed storage systems viewed by a client as one virtual storage system, said network storage system comprising:

said client for sending a request to a server system for a file;

said server system, responsive to said request, and coupled to said plurality of distributed storage systems, for retrieving said file from said plurality of distributed storage systems, and sending said file to said client; and

said plurality of distributed storage systems coupled together via Fibre channels and organized into an integrated area for access by said server system.

34. The network storage system of claim 33 wherein said mapping between a logical position name of said file and an intra-area address of said file in said integrated area is designated by metadata.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein said LU information comprises disk performance and disk configuration.

37. The system of claim 35 wherein said LU information comprises size and state.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein said type of use includes a selection from a group consisting of said standard network or said Fibre channel.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein said type of use includes a selection from a group consisting of file sharing or LU sharing.

41. The method of claim 38 wherein said standard network uses a TCP/IP network protocol.

35. A system for managing relocation of data between a plurality of logical units, comprising:

a LU management table, comprising a unique LU No. for each logical unit (LU) of said plurality of logical units and LU information associated with each unique LU No.;

a manager for receiving from a user a relocation origin LU No. and user requirements for a relocation destination LU; and

a LU pool manager for determining a relocation destination LU using said LU management table and said user requirements.

38. A method for sharing files between a client, a host, and a plurality of disk arrays, all coupled together by both a standard network and Fibre channels, said method comprising:

receiving a request by said host from said client for access to a shared file, wherein said request includes a type of use and an intra-area address;

determining by said host of a location of said shared file, said location including a disk array of said plurality of disk arrays; and

said host allowing said client access to said shared file as determined by said type of use.

42. A computer program product stored on a computer readable medium for managing an information item used by an application program and located in a plurality of storage systems, said plurality of storage systems coupled together via a network, said computer program product comprising:

code for storing said information item in a first storage system of said plurality of storage systems;

code for accessing said information item by said application program using a logical position name; and

code for relocating said information item from said first storage system to a second storage system of said plurality of storage systems, wherein said application program accesses said information item in said second storage system by using said logical position name.

43. A computer program product stored on a computer readable medium for managing storage of a first storage system of a plurality of storage systems and a second storage system of said plurality of storage systems, wherein said plurality of storage systems are coupled together by a network, said computer program product comprising:

code for a manager module receiving a first logical volume usage for a first logical volume of said first storage system;

code for said manager module receiving a second logical volume usage for a second logical volume of said second storage system; and

code for displaying to a user storage usage information, including said first logical volume usage and said second logical volume usage.