Data storage unit failure condition responding method and system

• US 20060168472A1
• Filed: 01/25/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Inventec Corporation
• Original Assignee: Inventec Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Chih-Wei
• Application Number:
  US11/043,652
• Publication Number:
  US 20060168472A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

A data storage unit failure condition responding method and system is proposed, which is designed for use in conjunction with an access control interface that is coupled between a computer system and a data storage unit for responding to an event of a failure condition in the data storage unit; and which is characterized by the capability of storing all subsequently received access commands into a queuing buffer in the event of a failure condition in the data storage unit and putting the access control interface in a waiting state until the failed data storage unit resumes normal operating condition to process each queued access command, rather than still try to process the access commands and result in unsuccessful access operations as in the case of the prior art. This feature can help ensure the overall network data processing efficiency.

Claims

1. A data storage unit failure condition responding method for use on an access control interface that is coupled between at least one computer system and at least one data storage unit for responding to an event of a failure condition in the data storage unit;

the data storage unit failure condition responding method comprising;

monitoring whether a failure condition occurs in the data storage unit;

if YES, issuing a queue enabling message;

responding to the queue enabling message by storing every subsequently-received access command into a queuing buffer;

monitoring whether the failed data storage unit resumes normal operating condition;

if YES, issuing a normal operating condition notifying message; and

responding to the normal operating condition notifying message by retrieving each queued access command in the queuing buffer in a prespecified order and sending each retrieved access command to the access control interface for the access control interface to execute each access command for data access to the data storage unit.

2. The data storage unit failure condition responding method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is a server cluster.

3. The data storage unit failure condition responding method of claim 1, wherein the data storage unit is a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) unit.

4. The data storage unit failure condition responding method of claim 1, wherein the access control interface is an FC/iSCSI (Fibre Channel/Internet Small Computer System Interface) compliant interface.

5. A data storage unit failure condition responding system for use with an access control interface that is coupled between at least one computer system and at least one data storage unit for responding to an event of a failure condition in the data storage unit;

the data storage unit failure condition responding system comprising;

a failure condition monitoring module, which is capable of monitoring whether a failure condition occurs in the data storage unit;

if YES, capable of issuing a queue enabling message; and

further capable of issuing a normal operating condition notifying message when the failed data storage unit resumes normal operating condition;

an access command queuing module, which is equipped with a queuing buffer, and which is capable of responding to the queue enabling message from the failure condition monitoring module by storing every subsequently-received access command into the queuing buffer; and

an access command retrieval module, which is capable of responding to the normal operating condition notifying message from the failure condition monitoring module by retrieving each queued access command in the queuing buffer in a prespecified order and sending each retrieved access command to the access control interface for the access control interface to execute each access command for data access to the data storage unit.

6. The data storage unit failure condition responding system of claim 5, wherein the computer system is a server cluster.

7. The data storage unit failure condition responding system of claim 5, wherein the data storage unit is a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) unit.

8. The data storage unit failure condition responding system of claim 5, wherein the access control interface is an FC/iSCSI (Fibre Channel/Internet Small Computer System Interface) compliant interface.