Method for exchanging data between volumes of storage system

• US 20070088929A1
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Hanai, Tomohiro, Sakaguchi, Akihiko
• Granted Patent: US 7,409,515 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices

Abstract

A method of data exchange between volumes without using any unnecessary resource in a storage system includes allocating cache areas for data exchange on a memory, determining the location of data to be exchanged, reading out data from the determined location in source and destination volumes and storing data in their respective caches, and writing data stored in the cache to thus determined location of the volume different from the one that the data was read out.

Claims

1. A method for mutually exchanging data between a first volume and a second volume configured in a computer disk drive, comprising the steps of:

allocating on a memory of said computer a temporary storage area for said data exchange;

determining location on said first volume of said data to be exchanged;

reading out data from said determined location on said first volume or second volume to store said temporary storage area;

writing data in said temporary storage area to said determined location on a volume different from said volume from which said data was read.

2. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

having positional information on the volumes that data was exchanged last time; and

in which;

said step of determining location of the data to be exchanged further comprising the substeps of;

setting said location of the data to be exchanged to the position which is the sum of said positional information and the size of said temporary storage area, when said positional information is present; and

setting said location of the data to be exchanged to the head of said first volume, when said positional information is absent.

3. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 1, further comprising:

first temporary storage area and second temporary storage area in said temporary storage area;

wherein;

said step of reading data of said volume to store into the temporary storage area further comprising the substeps of;

copying the data on said first volume to said first temporary storage area; and

copying the data on said second volume to said second temporary storage area;

wherein;

said writing to the volumes further comprising the substeps of;

copying the data in said second temporary storage area to said determined location on said first volume; and

copying the data in said first temporary storage area to said determined location on said second volume.

4. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 2, further comprising the step of:

receiving an access request to said first volume during data exchange between said volumes;

accessing said first volume if data position corresponding to said access request is posterior to said positional information;

accessing said second volume if data position corresponding to said access request is anterior to said positional information; and

accessing said first temporary storage area if data position corresponding to said access request is included in said positional information.

5. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 2 or claim 4, further comprising the step of:

receiving a suspending request or a resume request of said data exchange;

suspending data exchange upon said suspending request while maintaining the contents of said positional information; and

resuming data exchange upon said resume request while putting the contents of said positional information into the current data exchange position.

6. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 5, wherein:

said step of suspending data exchange further comprising the substeps of;

storing said positional information as suspended position; and

receiving a cancel request of data exchange after suspending said data exchange; and

wherein;

said step of determining the location of data to be exchanged further comprising the substeps of;

assigning, upon reception of said suspending request, if there is said positional information, a value of positional information subtracted by the size of the temporary storage area from said positional information into the location of data to be exchanged; and

assigning, upon reception of said suspending request, if there is not said positional information, a value of positional information subtracted by the size of the temporary storage area from said suspended position into the location of data to be exchanged.

7. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 1, further comprising:

a management table for dividing said first volume into plural fragments and for setting data exchange status of each fragment;

wherein;

said temporary storage area includes first temporary storage area and second temporary storage area;

wherein;

said step of reading data of said volume to store it into the temporary storage area further comprising the substeps of;

reading data form said data segment of said first volume to copy it into said first temporary storage area; and

for the identical fragment of said first volume, reading data from said second volume to copy it into said second temporary storage area;

wherein;

said step of writing into said volume further comprising the substeps of;

copying data copied to said first temporary storage area into said fragment of said second volume; and

copying data copied to said second temporary storage area into said fragment of said first volume;

said method further comprising the step of;

updating the data exchange status of said fragment of said management table.

8. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

receiving an access request to said first volume during data exchange between said volumes; and

upon reception of said access request, executing the access to said first volume-in correspondence with said access request;

and wherein;

said step of determining the location of data to be exchanged further comprising the substep of;

assigning said accessed location into the data exchange position by priority.

9. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 7, further comprising the step of:

receiving an access request to said first volume during data exchange between said volumes; and

upon reception of said access request, executing the access to said first volume in correspondence with said access request;

and wherein;

said step of determining the location of data to be exchanged further comprising the substep of;

assigning said accessed location into the data exchange position by priority.

10. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

dynamically modifying the size of said temporary storage area; and

determining said size of data to be read and written from and to said first volume and said second volume in correspondence with said size of the temporary storage area;

wherein;

said step of determining the location of data to be exchanged further comprising the substep of;

determining the location of next data to be exchanged in correspondence with thus determined size.

11. The method for exchanging data between volumes according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining whether or not said second volume is in use; and

copying data from said first volume to said second volume as long as said second volume is not in use.

12. A method for moving data stored in a first volume and a second volume configured in a disk drive of a computer, comprising the steps of:

allocating a temporary storage area served for data exchange on a memory of said computer;

determining the location of data to be exchanged;

reading data from said determined location of both said first volume and second volume to store it into said temporary storage area; and

writing the data originated from said first volume among data stored in said temporary storage area into said determined location of said second volume, and writing the data originated from said second volume among data stored in said temporary storage area into the determined location of a third volume.

13. The method for moving data between volumes, according to claim 12, wherein:

said step of allocating said temporary storage area on the memory further comprising the substep of;

allocating a first temporary storage area and a second temporary storage area for data movement;

said step of determining the location of said data to be exchanged further comprising the substeps of;

determining the data movement position in the first volume; and

determining the data movement position in the second volume;

said step of writing further comprising the substeps of;

copying data in said second temporary storage area into said data movement position of the third volume;

determining whether or not the data of said second volume is copied to said data movement position of the third volume;

determining again after waiting for a predetermined period of time if the data is not copied to said data movement position of said third volume;

copying the data at the data movement position of said first volume into said first temporary storage area if the data has been copied to said data movement position of said third volume;

copying the data in said first temporary storage area into said data movement position of the second volume.

14. The method of moving data between volumes, according to claim 12, further comprising the substeps of:

receiving an access request to the first volume during data movement between said volumes;

accessing said first volume if the location of data in correspondence with said access request is in posterior to the position of said data to be moved;

accessing said second volume if the location of data in correspondence with said access request is in anterior to the position of said data to be moved;

accessing first temporary storage area if the location of data in correspondence with said access request is included in the position of data to be moved;

receiving an access request to the second volume during data movement between said volumes;

accessing said second volume if the location of data in correspondence with said access request is in posterior to said position of data to be moved;

accessing said third volume if the location of data in correspondence with said access request is in anterior to said position of data to be moved; and

accessing the second temporary storage area if the location of data in correspondence with said access request is included in the position of data to be moved.

15. A storage system, including:

plural disk drives;

a disk controller unit for assigning volumes to said disk drives and for controlling the access to said volumes; and

a memory including a cache area for temporary storage of data of said volumes,

said disk controller unit comprising;

a migration controller unit for receiving data exchange request between said volumes from an administrating computer to determining the data exchange position on said volumes;

a data accessing unit for obtaining the data exchange position from said migration controller unit to access the volume during data exchange via said cache management unit based on said obtained data exchange position.

16. The storage system according to claim 15, wherein:

said migration controller unit further comprising;

data exchange position determining unit for determining the data exchange position within the volumes subject to data exchange; and

data exchange position information storage unit for storing said data exchange position;

said data exchange position determining unit further comprising;

setting the position of said positional information added to the temporary storage area to the data location if there is said positional information; and

setting the position of data subject of data exchange to the head of said volume if there is not said positional information.

17. A storage system according to claim 15, wherein:

said migration controller unit further comprising;

a data exchange management table for dividing the volume subject to said data exchange into plural fragments and for assigning data exchange status of each of said fragments;

data exchange position determining unit for updating the data exchange management table corresponding to said fragments having said data exchange completed, and for determining next data exchange position by locating said fragments that the data exchange is not yet completed.