APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING A STORAGE VOLUME AS A VIRTUAL VOLUME

• US 20070277015A1
• Filed: 05/23/2006
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kubo, Robert Akira, Ripberger, Richard Anthony, Kalos, Matthew Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 7,617,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for presenting a storage volume as a virtual volume. An attribute module determines a primary volume physical attribute of a primary volume. A presentation module presents the primary volume physical attribute to a host as a target volume virtual attribute of a target volume. A translation module translates communications between a host and the target volume. In one embodiment, a copy module creates a point-in-time copy of the primary volume on the target volume.

Claims

1. An apparatus to present a virtual volume, the apparatus comprising:

an attribute module configured to determine a primary volume physical attribute; and

a presentation module configured to present the primary volume physical attribute to a host as a target volume virtual attribute of a target volume.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a translation module configured to translate communications between the host and the target volume such that communications to and from the host are based on the target volume virtual attribute and communications to and from the target volume are based on a target volume physical attribute.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the translation module is further configured to present the target volume to the host as the primary volume.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a selection module configured to select the target volume in response to the primary volume physical attribute, wherein the target volume physical attribute of the selected target volume is compatible with the primary volume physical attribute.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an identification module configured to mark the target volume as virtual volume enabled in response to the target volume conforming to a specified physical attribute.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a copy module that is configured to create a point-in-time copy of the primary volume on the target volume.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the primary volume physical attribute is configured as a volume size.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the primary volume physical attribute is selected from a data block size, a number of tracks per cylinder, a number of sectors per track, and a logical attribute.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

determine a primary volume physical attribute;

present the primary volume physical attribute to a host as a target volume virtual attribute of a target volume; and

translate communications between the host and the target volume such that communications to and from the host are based on the target volume virtual attribute and communications to and from the target volume are based on a target volume physical attribute.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the target volume is marked as virtual volume enabled in response to the target volume conforming to a specified physical attribute.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer readable code is further configured to cause the computer to select the target volume in response to the primary volume physical attribute.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the target volume physical attribute of the selected target volume is compatible with the primary volume physical attribute.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable code is further configured to cause the computer to create a point-in-time copy of the primary volume on the target volume.

14. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the primary volume physical attribute is selected from a volume size, a data block size, a number of tracks per cylinder, a number of sectors per track, and a logical attribute.

15. A system to present a virtual volume, the system comprising:

a primary volume configured to store data and comprising a physical attribute;

a target volume configured to store data;

a storage controller configured to manage the primary volume and the target volume and comprising

an attribute module configured to determine the primary volume physical attribute;

a selection module configured to select the target volume from a plurality of available volumes in response to the primary volume attribute, wherein the target volume physical attribute of the selected target volume is compatible with the primary volume physical attribute;

a presentation module configured to present the primary volume physical attribute to a host as a target volume virtual attribute of the selected target volume; and

a translation module configured to translate communications between the host and the selected target volume such that communications to and from the host are based on the target volume virtual attribute and communications to and from the selected target volume are based on a target volume physical attribute.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the storage controller further comprises a copy module configured to create a point-in-time copy of the primary volume on the target volume.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the translation module is further configured to present the target volume to the host as the primary volume.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the storage controller further comprises an identification module configured to mark the target volume as virtual volume enabled in response to the target volume conforming to an attribute selected from a volume size, a data block size, a number of tracks per cylinder, a number of sectors per track, and a logical attribute.

19. A method for deploying computer infrastructure, comprising integrating computer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code in combination with the computing system is capable of performing the following:

determining a primary volume physical attribute selected from a volume size, a data block size, a number of tracks per cylinder, and a number of sectors per track;

selecting a target volume in response to the primary volume physical attribute;

presenting the primary volume physical attribute to a host as a target volume virtual attribute of the target volume;

translating communications between the host and the target volume such that communications to and from the host are based on the target volume virtual attribute and communications to and from the target volume are based on a target volume physical attribute; and

creating a point-in-time copy of the primary volume on the target volume.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the method comprises presenting the target volume to the host as the primary volume.