Storage subsystem and performance tuning method

• US 20050193167A1
• Filed: 05/28/2004
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Satoyama, Ai, Yamamoto, Yasutomo, Eguchi, Yoshiaki, Shimada, Akinobu
• Granted Patent: US 7,809,906 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1012 Load balancing
• 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 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

In a storage subsystem, performance tuning is performed with respect to whole logical devices including external storage subsystems that are not directly connected to host computers. Physical storage units presented by the external storage subsystems are defined as logical devices of the storage subsystem itself, and I/O processing requests from the host computers are relayed to those logical devices. At the time of relaying, I/O processing conditions are monitored. When there exists an external storage subsystem whose load is high, then, operating conditions of ports and processors are examined. In the case where the load can be reduced by changing the configuration of those ports and processors, the configuration is changed to reduce the load. In the case where the load can not be reduced, data is migrated from a logical device having a high load to a logical device having a sufficient performance.

Claims

1. A storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, wherein:

said storage subsystem comprises a memory and an arithmetic unit;

said arithmetic unit performs;

mapping processing in which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself and stored in said memory;

I/O processing in which I/O processing requests that are issued from said computers are relayed to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

operating information acquisition processing in which said I/O processing is monitored to acquire operating information of said external devices and to store the acquired operating information into said memory;

configuration change plan processing in which, based on said operating information stored in the memory, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself, and said optimum data allocation plan is stored into said memory; and

data reallocation processing in which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

3. A storage subsystem according to one of claims 1 and 2, wherein:

said storage subsystem further comprises a processor which controls said external storage subsystem;

said arithmetic unit further performs processing in which operating information of said processor is acquired and the acquired operating information is stored into said memory; and

before said configuration change plan processing, a plan to change the processor controlling said external storage subsystem is made, and said processor is changed according to said plan.

4. A storage subsystem according to one of claims 1, 2 and 3, wherein:

said operating information is a response time and/or a transmission speed at time of I/O processing from said storage subsystem to said external storage subsystem.

5. A storage subsystem according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:

said operating information further includes load information of said external devices;

said arithmetic unit makes a plan to migrate data in an external device whose load is more than or equal to a predetermined level to a logical device (of the storage subsystem itself) whose load is less than the predetermined level.

15. A storage subsystem according to claim 4, wherein:

said operating information acquisition means further comprises a port operating information acquisition means which acquires port operating information of ports as an interface with said external storage subsystem; and

said configuration change planning means makes a plan to change the ports used as the interface with said external storage subsystem based on the port operating information acquired by said port operating information acquisition means, before making the optimum data reallocation plan.

2. A storage subsystem according to claim 2, wherein:

said storage subsystem further comprises ports as an interface for I/O processing with said external storage subsystem;

said arithmetic unit further performs processing in which operating information of said ports is acquired and the acquired operating information is stored into said memory; and

before said configuration change plan processing, a plan to change the ports used as the interface for I/O processing with said external storage subsystem is made based on said operating information of said ports, and said ports are changed according to said plan.

6. A storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, wherein:

said storage subsystem comprises a memory and an arithmetic unit;

said arithmetic unit performs;

mapping processing in which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself and stored in said memory;

performance analysis data sending processing in which data for performance analysis is sent to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

configuration change plan processing in which, based on responses of said external storage subsystem to said data for performance analysis, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself, and said optimum data allocation plan is stored into said memory; and

data reallocation processing in which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

7. A storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, wherein:

said storage subsystem comprises a memory and an arithmetic unit;

said arithmetic unit performs;

mapping processing in which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself and stored in said memory;

I/O processing in which I/O processing requests from said computers are relayed to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

access frequency acquisition processing in which said I/O processing is monitored to acquire access frequencies to said external devices and to store the acquired access frequencies into said memory;

configuration change plan processing in which, based on said access frequencies stored in the memory, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself, and said optimum data allocation plan is stored into said memory; and

data reallocation processing in which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

8. A performance tuning method which tunes performance of a storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, comprising:

a mapping step in which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

an operating information acquisition step in which I/O processing requests that are issued from said computers and relayed to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself, are monitored to acquire operating information of said external devices;

a configuration change planning step in which, based on said operating information acquired, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself; and

a data reallocation step in which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

9. A performance tuning method which tunes performance of a storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, comprising:

a mapping step in which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

a step in which data which performs analysis is sent to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself, and responses to said data for performance analysis are received;

a configuration change planning step in which, based on said responses, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself; and

a data reallocation step in which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

10. A performance tuning method which tunes performance of a storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, comprising:

a mapping step in which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

an access frequency acquisition step in which I/O processing requests that are issued from said computers and relayed to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself, are monitored to acquire access frequencies to said external devices;

a configuration change planning step in which, based on said access frequencies acquired, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself; and

a data reallocation step in which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

11. A program which realizes following functions to a computer included in a storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, wherein said functions are:

a mapping function by which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

an I/O processing function by which I/O processing requests that are issued from said computers are relayed to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

an operating information acquisition function by which said relayed I/O processing requests are monitored to acquire operating information of said external devices;

a configuration change planning function by which, based on said operating information, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself; and

a data reallocation function by which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

12. A program which realizes following functions to a computer included in a storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, wherein said functions are:

a mapping function by which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

a performance analysis data sending function by which data for performance analysis is sent to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

a configuration change planning function by which, based on responses of said external storage subsystem to said data for performance analysis, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself; and

a data reallocation function by which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

13. A program which realizes following functions to a computer included in a storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, wherein said functions are:

a mapping function by which a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units are defined as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

an I/O processing function by which I/O processing requests from said computers are relayed to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

an access frequency acquisition function by which said relayed I/O processing requests are monitored to acquire access frequencies to said external devices;

a configuration change planning function by which, based on said access frequencies, an optimum data allocation plan is made in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself; and

a data reallocation function by which data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself is reallocated according to said plan.

14. A storage subsystem that is connected with one or more computers and presents a plurality of storage units as logical devices to said computers, comprising:

a mapping means which defines a plurality of storage units presented by an external storage subsystem having said plurality of storage units, as said logical devices of said storage subsystem itself;

an I/O processing means which relays I/O processing requests from said computers to logical devices (external devices) defined from the storage units presented by the external storage subsystem, among said logical devices of the storage subsystem itself;

an operating information acquisition means which monitors said I/O processing means, to acquire operating information of said external devices;

a configuration change planning means which makes an optimum data allocation plan in a range of said logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself, based on the operating information acquired by said operating information acquisition means; and

a data reallocation means which reallocates data in the logical devices (including said external devices) of the storage subsystem itself, according to the plan made by said configuration change planning means.

16. A storage subsystem according to one of claims 14 and 15, wherein:

said operating information acquisition means further comprises a processor operating information acquisition means which acquires processor operating information of a processor that controls I/O processing of I/O to said external storage subsystem; and

said configuration change planning means makes a plan to change the processor used for controlling I/O processing of I/O to said external storage subsystem based on the processor operating information acquired by said processor operating information acquisition means, before making the optimum data reallocation plan.

17. A storage subsystem according to one of claims 14, 15 and 16, wherein:

said operating information acquisition means further monitors loads on said external devices; and

said configuration change planning means makes a plan to extract an external device whose load is more than or equal to a predetermined level out of the external devices monitored by said operating information acquisition means, and to migrate data in said external device extracted to a logical device (of the storage subsystem itself) whose load is less than the predetermined level.