Management method and apparatus for storage apparatus

• US 20030093619A1
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Published: 05/15/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Fujii, Kozue, Kishimoto, Toshimichi, Sugino, Shoji, Taninaka, Dai
• Granted Patent: US 7,512,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/323 Visualisation of programs or trace data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3457 Performance evaluation by simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

A method for performing a system reconfiguration of a storage system includes displaying a configuration window visually showing a configuration of a plurality of components in the storage system within an operation screen. An input area is displayed within the operation screen, the input area being provided for entering one or more components to be reconfigured. A performance window is displayed within the operation screen, the preference window providing bandwidth utilization information of one or more of the components in the storage system. The configuration window, performance window, and the input area are all viewable at the same time without activating another operation screen.

Claims

1. A management method for a storage system including a storage subsystem configured to store data, a host computer configured to communicate data with the storage subsystem, and a system management device configured to provide management functions to the storage system, the storage subsystem including a plurality of components, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration window on a display area of the system management device, the configuration window providing configuration information of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem; and

displaying a performance window on the display area of the system management device together with the configuration window, the performance window providing bandwidth utilization information relating to at least one of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information is provided in a hierarchical format.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of components are one of the following:

magnetic disk drives, optical disk drives, logical volumes, logical units, parity groups, and one or more communication connections linking the storage subsystem and the host computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage subsystem is a disk-array apparatus including a plurality of magnetic disk drives.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage system is a storage area network including a client and a server, wherein the host computer is the server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a real-time mode or a performance history mode for displaying bandwidth utilization information for a selected component, the real-time mode dynamically providing the bandwidth utilization information and the performance history mode providing the bandwidth utilization information for a given period in the past.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of components for which the bandwidth utilization information is displayed on the performance window is selected by selecting the at least one of the plurality of components from the configuration window using a drag-and-drop operation.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing bandwidth utilization information for the plurality of components of the storage subsystems;

selecting a component for which a system reconfiguration is to be performed;

calculating an effect of implementing the selected system reconfiguration on performance of the selected component using the stored bandwidth utilization information; and

displaying a result of the calculated effect of implementing the selected system reconfiguration.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying-a-result step includes providing a graphical view of the bandwidth utilization information before and after the system reconfiguration implementation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage subsystem is a disk-array apparatus having at least 1000 magnetic disk drives.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of components displayed are a plurality of logical volumes defined in the storage subsystem, the method further comprising:

selecting a first logical volume displayed in the configuration window, the first logical volume being associated with a first parity group experiencing a first utilization rate;

selecting a second logical volume displayed in the configuration window, the second logical volume being associated with a second parity group experiencing a second utilization rate that is lower than the first utilization rate; and

displaying simulated bandwidth utilization information of at least the first parity group if the first and second logical volumes are reconfigured to be associated with the second parity group and the first parity group, respectively,

wherein the storage subsystem includes location information that provides information about logical volumes associated with the first parity group and logical volumes associated with the second parity group, wherein the logical volume reconfiguration involves modifying the logical information.

12. A method for performing a system reconfiguration of a storage system, the method comprising:

displaying a configuration window visually showing a configuration of a plurality of components in the storage system within an operation screen;

displaying an input area within the operation screen, the input area being provided for entering one or more components to be reconfigured; and

displaying a performance window within the operation screen, the preference window providing bandwidth utilization information of one or more of the components in the storage system,

wherein the configuration window, performance window, and the input area are all viewable at the same time without activating another operation screen.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of components to be reconfigured from the configuration window; and

indicating, in the configuration window, one or more candidate components that are capable of cooperating with the selected component to implement the reconfiguration.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the operation screen is displayed in a display area of a service processor provided proximate to a storage subsystem of the storage system or a display area of a remote control terminal that is provided remote from the storage subsystem.

15. A computer readable medium including codes for managing a storage subsystem configured to store data and including a plurality of components, the medium comprising:

code for displaying a configuration window on a display area of a system management device, the configuration window providing configuration information of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem, the system management device being configured to perform management functions on the storage subsystem; and

code for displaying a performance window on the display area of the system management device together with the configuration window, the performance window providing bandwidth utilization information relating to at least one of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising:

code for storing bandwidth utilization information for the plurality of components in the storage subsystem;

code for selecting a system reconfiguration to be performed; and

code for calculating an effect of implementing the selected system reconfiguration on performance of the storage subsystem using the stored bandwidth utilization information.

16. The computer readable medium 15, further comprising:

code for selecting a display mode from a plurality of display modes, wherein one display mode relates to dynamically providing the bandwidth utilization information on the performance window and another display mode relates to providing the bandwidth utilization information for a given period in the past.

18. A storage system, comprising:

a storage subsystem including a plurality of components;

a host computer coupled to the storage subsystem to transmit a data request to the storage subsystem;

a system management device configured to provide management functions to the storage system; and

a computer readable medium including

code for displaying a configuration window on a display area of the system management device, the configuration window providing configuration information of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem, and

code for displaying a performance window on the display area of the system management together with the configuration window, the performance window providing bandwidth utilization information relating to at least one of the plurality of components in the storage subsystem.

19. The storage apparatus of claim 18, wherein the computer readable medium is provided in a storage area of the system management device.

20. The storage apparatus of claim 18, wherein the computer readable medium further comprises:

code for selecting a display mode from a plurality of display modes, wherein one display mode relates to dynamically providing the bandwidth utilization information on the performance window and another display mode relates to providing the bandwidth utilization information for a given period in the past.

21. The storage system of claim 18, wherein the computer readable medium is provided in a remote storage location from the system management device and is accessed by the system management device via a communication link, the communication link being the Internet, local area network, or a wide area network.