STORAGE SYSTEM AND STORAGE CONTROL DEVICE

• US 20080016303A1
• Filed: 07/03/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hisao Honma, Katsuhiro Okumoto, Keishi Tamura, Yoshihito Nakagawa
• Original Assignee: Hisao Honma, Katsuhiro Okumoto, Keishi Tamura, Yoshihito Nakagawa
• Inventors: Honma, Hisao, Nakagawa, Yoshihito, Tamura, Keishi, OKUMOTO, Katsuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,673,107 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1662 the resynchronized component or unit being a persistent storage device re-synchronization of failed mirror storage G06F11/2082; rebuild or reconstruction of parity RAID storage G06F11/1008
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2082 Data synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A virtualization system, including: at least one first port coupled to at least one host system; at least one second port coupled to a plurality of storage systems; wherein the virtualization system is capable to control to perform processes of splitting a relationship between the first virtual volume and the second virtual volume; storing first differential information identifying data of a first write request; write data of first write request to a storage area of the disk drives related to the first logical volume; storing second differential information identifying data of a second write request, the data of the second request being written after the splitting step, receiving a differential copying request; to copy differential data from the first virtual volume to the second virtual volume, or to copy differential data from the second virtual volume to the first virtual volume.

Claims

1. A virtualization system, comprising:

at least one first port coupled to at least one host system;

at least one second port coupled to a plurality of storage systems, each of the storage systems comprising at least one logical volume related to at least a portion of a plurality of disk drives; and

at least one controller forming a first virtual volume and a second virtual volume;

wherein the virtualization system is capable to control to perform processes of

splitting a relationship between the first virtual volume and the second virtual volume;

receiving a first write request, the first write request being sent from the host system for writing data to the first virtual volume;

storing first differential information identifying data of the first write request;

transferring the data of the first write request to a first logical volume of a first storage system of the storage systems, the first logical volume being related to the first virtual volume, so that the first storage system can write the data of the first write request to a storage area of the disk drives related to the first logical volume;

storing second differential information identifying data of a second write request, the data of the second request being written after the splitting step, the second differential information related to the second virtual volume, the second virtual volume being related to a second logical volume of a second storage system of the storage systems;

receiving a differential copying request;

if the differential copying request indicates to copy differential data from the first virtual volume to the second virtual volume, (1) controlling to copy the data of the first write request to the second virtual volume based on the first differential information, and (2) transferring the data of the first write request to the second logical volume of the second storage system of the storage systems, so that the second storage system can write the data of the first write request to a storage area of the disk drives related to the second logical volume; and

if the differential copying request indicates to copy differential data from the second virtual volume to the first virtual volume, (3) controlling to copy the data of the second write request to the first virtual volume based on the second differential information, and (4) transferring the data of the second write request to the first logical volume of the first storage system, so that the first storage system can write the data of the second write request to the storage area of the disk drives related to the first logical volume.