Computer system for controlling routed data amount

• US 20060039351A1
• Filed: 10/29/2004
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kaneda, Yasunori, Taguchi, Yuichi, Furuhashi, Ryoji, Maruyama, Naoko
• Granted Patent: US 7,545,746 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/351
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2066 Optimisation of the communication load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• 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]

Abstract

A computer system having a work computer, first storage systems, and second storage systems also has a network, a network routing device, and a management computer. Upon receipt of the update data from the work computer, the first storage system stores the update data in a first storage volume and stores the update data in a second storage volume until the update data is transferred to the second storage system. The management computer obtains an used capacity of the second storage volume of each of the first storage systems and controls the routing of the data by the network routing device based on the obtained used capacity to prevent the cache of each of the storage systems from being overflown.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a work computer;

a plurality of first storage systems each of which stores therein data used by the work computer;

a plurality of second storage systems each of which stores therein a copy of the data stored in one of the first storage systems;

. a network used for data transfer from one of the first storage systems to one of the second storage systems;

a network routing device which routes data between the network and the first storage system and between the network and the second storage system; and

a management computer connected to the first storage systems and to the network routing device to control at least one of the network routing device and the first storage systems, wherein;

each of the first storage systems comprises;

first storage area which stores therein update data transmitted from the work computer;

a second storage area which stores therein the update data until the update data is transferred to the second storage system; and

a controller which controls inputting and outputting of the data to and from the first and second storage areas,

receives the update data from the work computer, stores the update data in the first storage area, and stores the update data in the second storage area until the update data is transferred to the second storage system; and

the management computer obtains an used capacity of the second storage area of each of the first storage systems and controls routing of the data by the network routing device based on the obtained used capacity.

2. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the management computer:

determines, based on the obtained used capacity, a time elapsed until the second storage area of each of the first storage systems becomes full; and

transmits, to the network routing device, an instruction to allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the second storage area becomes full is long and allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the second storage area becomes full is short.

3. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the management computer:

determines, based on the obtained used capacity, a time elapsed until the second storage area of each of the first storage systems becomes empty; and

transmits, to the network routing device, an instruction to allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the second storage area becomes empty is long and allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the second storage area becomes empty is short.

4. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the management computer:

determines an used ratio of the second storage area of each of the first storage systems; and

transmits, to the network routing device, an instruction to allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the used ratio is high and allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the activity ratio is low.

5. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein each of the first storage systems:

reads the update data from the second storage area at a predetermined timing, and

transmits the update data that has been read to one of the second storage systems.

6. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein:

one of the second storage systems requests, of one of the first storage systems, the update data stored in the second storage area thereof at a given timing; and

the first storage system reads the update data from the second storage area upon receiving of the request from the second storage system and transmits the update data that has been read from one of the second storage systems.

7. The computer system according to claim 6, wherein the management computer determines the given timing based on the obtained used capacity.

8. The computer system according to claim 6, wherein the management computer controls, based on the obtained used capacity, a quantity of the update data request to be transmitted which is routed by the network routing device.

9. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the management computer:

obtains a priority determined in association with each of the first storage systems, and

controls the routing of the data by the network routing device based on the used capacity and the priority.

10. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein:

the network includes a first network which is used normally for data transfer from one of the first storage systems to one of the second storage systems and a second network which is not used normally for the data transfer from the first storage system to the second storage system; and

the management computer determines, based on the obtained used capacity, whether the second network should be used for the data transfer from the first storage system to the second storage system.

11. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein:

each of the first storage systems has a plurality of the first storage areas, and a plurality of the second storage areas associated with the first storage areas; and

the management computer obtains an used capacity of each of the second storage areas and controls, based on the obtained used ratio of each of the second storage areas, the routing of data for each of the second storage areas by the network routing device.

12. A management computer connected to a computer system comprising:

a work computer;

a plurality of first storage systems each of which stores therein data used by the work computer;

a plurality of second storage systems each of which stores therein a copy of the data stored in one of the first storage systems;

a network used for data transfer from one of the first storage systems to one of the second storage systems; and

a network routing device which routes data between the network and the first storage system and between the network and the second storage system to control at least one of the network routing device and the first storage systems, the management computer;

obtaining an used capacity of a differential data area which stores therein update data transmitted from the work computer until it is transferred to one of the second storage systems; and

controlling the routing of the data by the network routing device based on the obtained used capacity.

13. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein the management computer:

determines, based on the obtained used capacity, a time elapsed until the differential data area of each of the first storage systems becomes full; and

transmits, to the network routing device, an instruction to allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes full is long and allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes full is short.

14. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein the management computer:

determines, based on the obtained used capacity, a time elapsed until the differential data area of each of the first storage systems becomes empty; and

transmits, to the network routing device, an instruction to allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes empty is long and allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes empty is short.

15. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein the management computer:

determines an used ratio of the differential data area of each of the first storage systems; and

transmits, to the network routing device, an instruction to allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the used ratio is high and allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the activity ratio is low.

16. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein:

one of the second storage systems requests, of one of the first storage systems, the update data stored in the differential data area at a predetermined timing;

the first storage system reads the update data from the differential data area upon receiving of the request from the second storage system and transmits the update data that has been read from the differential data area; and

the management computer determines, based on the obtained used capacity, the predetermined timing.

17. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein:

one of the second storage systems requests, of one of the first storage systems, the update data stored in the differential data area with a predetermined timing;

the first storage system reads the update data from the differential data area upon receiving of the request from the second storage system and transmits the update data that has been read from the differential data area; and

the management computer controls, based on the obtained used capacity, a quantity of the update data request to be transmitted which is routed by the network routing device.

18. The management computer according to claim 12, wherein:

the network includes a first network which is used normally for data transfer from one of the first storage systems to one of the second storage systems and a second network which is not used normally for the data transfer from the first storage system to the second storage system; and

the management computer determines, based on the obtained used capacity, whether the second network is to be used for the data transfer from the first storage system to the second storage system.

19. A remote copy method for an computer system comprising:

a work computer;

a plurality of first storage systems each of which stores therein data used by the work computer;

a plurality of second storage systems each of which stores therein a copy of the data stored in one of the first storage systems;

a network used for data transfer from one of the first storage systems to one of the second storage systems; and

a network routing device which routes data between the network and the first storage system and between the network and the second storage system, wherein;

each of the first storage systems receives update data from, the work computer and stores the update data in a differential data area until the update data is transferred to one of the second storage systems; and

the management computer obtains an used capacity of the differential data area of each of the first storage systems, determines a time elapsed until the differential data area becomes full based on the obtained used capacity, and transmits, to the network routing device an instruction to allocate a narrow bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes full is long and allocate a wide bandwidth of the network to the one of the first storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data areas becomes full is short.

20. A computer system comprising an application server, a primary storage system group, a backup storage system group, a broadband IP network, a router, and a management server, wherein

a primary storage system group comprises a plurality of primary storage systems each comprising a cache, a storage I/F, a remote copy I/F, a network I/F, and a volume to store therein data used by the application server in the volume,

a backup storage system group comprises a plurality of backup storage systems each comprising a storage I/F, a remote copy I/F, a network I/F, and a volume to store therein a copy of the data stored in the primary storage system group,

a broadband IP network is used for data transfer from the primary storage system group to the backup storage system group,

a router has ports to which the storage systems are connected and a management I/F to route the data between the broadband IP network and each of the primary storage systems and between the broad band IP network and each of the backup storage systems,

a management server is connected to each of the primary storage system group via the network I/F and to the router to control the router,

each of the primary storage systems provides the cache with a differential data area which stores therein update data transferred from the application server until it is transferred to one of the backup storage systems, receives the update data to be stored in the volume from the application server, stores the update data in the volume, and stores the update data in the differential data area until the update data is transferred to the backup storage system;

and

the management server obtains an used capacity of the differential data area of each of the primary storage systems, determines a time elapsed until the differential data area of the primary storage system becomes full based on the obtained used capacity, and transmits, to the router, an instruction to allocate a narrow bandwidth of the broadband IP network to the one of the primary storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes full is long and allocate a wide bandwidth of the broadband IP network to the one of the primary storage systems in which the time elapsed until the differential data area becomes full is short.