System of controlling and managing disk storage in a disk enclosure

• US 20030093586A1
• Filed: 11/12/2002
• Published: 05/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sumiyoshi, Tohru, Fujie, Yoshihiro, Mukai, Makio
• Granted Patent: US 7,130,939 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0661 Format or protocol conversion arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A disk enclosure is provided with a plurality of HDDs, an enclosure manager that outputs control and management information of the disk enclosure, and S/P converters that are provided for the respective HDDs. Each S/P converter converts a control and management command outputted from the HDD in the form of a parallel signal into a serial signal and outputs it to the enclosure manager. Further, each S/P converter converts control and management information outputted from the enclosure manager into a parallel signal. With this configuration, merely providing a serial port in the enclosure manager and connecting the S/P converters to the enclosure manager by a serial bus can make the SES function of the ESI scheme effective for the HDDs.

Claims

1. A disk enclosure, comprising:

a disk storage for storing data;

an enclosure manager for outputting control and management information for the disk enclosure in response to a request of a host system; and

a converter for outputting control and management information outputted from the disk storage as a parallel signal to the enclosure manager after serial conversion, and outputting control and management information outputted from the enclosure manager as a serial signal to the disk storage after parallel conversion.

2. The disk enclosure of claim 1, wherein:

the disk storage outputs the control and management information to the converter through a parallel ESI bus; and

the converter outputs the serialized control and management information to the enclosure manager through a serial bus.

3. The disk enclosure of claim 1, wherein:

a plurality of disk storages are provided;

the converter is connected for each of the disk storages; and

each converter is connected to the enclosure manager through a serial bus.

4. The disk enclosure of claim 1, wherein the disk storages are hard disk drives.

5. The disk enclosure of claim 1, wherein the control and management information is exchanged between the host system and the enclosure manager through the disk storage in the form of a SCSI enclosure service command.

6. A disk enclosure, comprising:

a disk slot to which a hard disk drive can be attached;

an enclosure manager for sending and receiving control and management information for the disk enclosure to and from a host system in response to a request of the host system;

wherein

the disk slot has a connector which can be connected to a parallel ESI port provided on the hard disk drive; and

the connector is connected to the enclosure manager through a serial/parallel converter.

7. The disk enclosure of claim 6, wherein:

a plurality of disk slots are provided;

the serial/parallel converter is provided for each of the disk slots; and

each serial/parallel converter is connected to the enclosure manager through a serial bus.

8. A disk enclosure, comprising:

a hard disk drive for storing data;

an enclosure manager for sending and receiving control and management information for the disk enclosure to and from a host system through the hard disk drive;

means for connecting the hard disk drive with the enclosure manager;

wherein the enclosure manager sends and receives serialized signals of the control and management information in the ESI form to and from the hard disk drive through the connecting means.

9. The disk enclosure of claim 8, wherein the connecting means comprises:

a parallel ESI bus connected to the hard disk drive;

a serial/parallel converter connected to the hard disk drive through the parallel ESI bus; and

a serial bus connecting the serial/parallel converter and the enclosure manager.

10. The disk enclosure of claim 8, wherein:

the hard disk drive includes a serial/parallel converter for serializing ESI control and management information for the hard disk drive; and

the connecting means is a serial bus connecting the serial/parallel converter and the enclosure manager.

11. The disk enclosure of claim 8, wherein:

a controller for controlling the hard disk drive is provided with a serial port for inputting and outputting the serialized signal; and

the connecting means is a serial bus connecting the serial port and the enclosure manager.

12. A disk enclosure, comprising:

a disk storage constituting a data storage system;

an enclosure manager for sending and receiving control and management information for the disk enclosure to and from a host system through the disk storage;

wherein

the disk storage sends and receives the control and management information and ID information of the disk storage in a serial form to and from the enclosure manager.

13. The disk enclosure of claim 12, wherein:

the data storage system includes an FC-AL; and

the ID information is a loop ID in the FC-AL or an ID that is unique to the disk storage in the disk enclosure.

14. A disk storage accommodated in a disk enclosure provided with an enclosure manager for exchanging control and management information with a host system, comprising:

a disk storage unit for storing data;

a disk control unit for controlling operations of the disk storage unit;

a first port for connecting the disk control unit with the host system in a parallel form;

a second port for connecting the disk control unit with the enclosure manager in a serial form;

wherein

the control and management information is exchanged between the host system and the enclosure manager through the first port, the disk control unit and the second port.

15. The disk storage of claim 14, wherein the first port is an FC-AL port, and the second port is a serial/parallel converter connected to the disk control unit.

16. The disk storage of claim 15, wherein the serial/parallel converter serializes control and management information in parallel form received from the host system through the first port and sends it to the enclosure manager, and parallelizes control and management information in serial form received from the enclosure manager and sends it to the disk control unit.

17. The disk storage of claim 14, wherein the first port is an FC-AL port, and the second port is a serial port integrated in the disk control unit.

18. The disk storage of claim 15, wherein the disk control unit includes, as a third port, a parallel port for exchanging the control and management information with the enclosure manager in the parallel form.