Method of controlling total disk usage amount in virtualized and unified network storage system

• US 20050044198A1
• Filed: 08/29/2003
• Published: 02/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Higuchi, Tatsuo, Okitsu, Jun, Kawamoto, Shinichi, Yasuda, Yoshiko, Ebata, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 7,143,116 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A system having at least a user and a file system connected to the user through a network is disclosed, in which an estimated write size of the user into the file system is managed as an accumulated value, the timing of judging the limit of the disk usage amount is specified from the accumulated value and a predetermined threshold value, and the limit of the disk usage amount is judged at the specified timing.

Claims

1. In a system having at least a user and a file system connected to said user through a network, a method of managing the usage amount of said file system of said user, comprising the steps of:

managing an estimated size of the write operation into said file system of said user as an accumulated value;

specifying the timing of judging the limit of the disk usage amount from said accumulated value and a predetermined threshold value; and

judging the limit of the disk usage amount at said specified timing.

2. A file system usage amount management method according to claim 1,

wherein said write size is calculated based on write requests for each user.

3. A file system usage amount management method according to claim 1,

wherein an upper limit value, a threshold value and a table having stored therein said accumulated value are used, and

wherein said upper limit value is held as an upper limit value of the disk usage amount set for each user, and

wherein said threshold value is held as a virtual upper limit value determined in accordance with said upper limit value and said disk usage amount for each user.

4. A method of controlling the disk usage amount according to claim 3, comprising:

a first step of comparing said accumulated value with a threshold value;

a second step of updating said accumulated value;

a third step of determining the disk usage amount for each user in the case where the result of executing said first step shows that said accumulated value exceeds said threshold value; and

a fourth step of clearing said accumulated value.

5. A method of controlling the disk usage amount according to claim 4, further comprising:

a fifth step of comparing the total disk usage amount for each user with the upper limit value set in said table in the case where the result of execution of said first step shows that said accumulated value exceeds said threshold value.

6. A method of controlling the disk usage amount according to claim 5, further comprising:

a sixth step of changing the threshold value based on said total disk usage amount and the upper limit value for each user.

7. A disk usage amount control method according to claim 1,

wherein said accumulated value in said table is a value of the write size calculated in accordance with the attribute information of the write request for each user in a network storage, and

wherein said accumulated value is larger than the accumulated value of write size accurately measured.

8. A disk usage amount control method according to claim 6, further comprising:

a seventh step for accessing, in the case where the result of executing said first step shows that said accumulated value exceeds the threshold value, the remote quota server of said network storage and changing the setting of the upper limit value for said user in such a manner that the residual available disk usage amount of said user in the network storage is synchronized with the total residual available disk usage amount of said user in an environment having a plurality of network storage.

9. A disk usage amount control method according to claim 8, further comprising:

an eighth step of checking whether said user is writable or not,

said eighth step including a ninth step of changing the threshold value based on an accurate total disk usage amount of said user and the upper limit value.

10. A disk usage amount control method according to claim 9,

wherein the accumulated value in said table is obtained by accumulating the write size calculated in accordance with the attribute information of the write request for each user into a network storage, and

wherein said accumulated value is larger than the value obtained by accumulating the write size accurately measured.

11. A system having a user terminal and a file system connected to said user terminal through a network,

wherein said file system includes:

a management unit for managing the virtual write size into said file system of said user as an accumulated value;

a control unit for specifying the timing of judging the limit of the disk usage amount from said accumulated value and a predetermined threshold value; and

a judgment unit for judging the limit of the disk usage amount at said specified timing.